Jack, Nish, Dean, Phil, Keanu, Ravi, and Rocky are in the firing line.

By Lewis Knight

Published: Thursday, 07 December 2023 at 00:00 AM


Seven male characters have been unveiled as the potential dead body on the floor of the Queen Vic this Christmas in EastEnders.

The BBC One soap is building towards the unveiling of who will die on Christmas Day and who will be the one to be responsible for their death.

Back in February, a flash-forward showed six matriarchs – Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean), Linda Carter (Kellie Bright), Suki Panesar (Balvinder Sopal), Denise Fox (Diane Parish), Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner), and Kathy Cotton (Gillian Taylforth) – standing over a dead man’s body in the Queen Vic on Christmas Day.

Now the soap has promoted seven potential deaths for the big day – Jack Branning (Scott Maslen), Nish Panesar (Navin Chowdhry), Dean Wicks (Matt Di Angelo), Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden), Keanu Taylor (Danny Walters), Ravi Gulati (Aaron Thiara), and Tom “Rocky” Cotton (Brian Conley).

All of these men have connections to the leading ladies of Christmas Day and each has given at least one of the ladies a motive to kill.

From left to right, Scott Maslen as Jack Branning, Lacey Turner as Stacey Slater, Navin Chowdhry as Nish Panesar, Balvinder Sopal as Suki Kaur Panesar, Matt Di Angelo as Dean Wicks, Kellie Bright as Linda Carter, Steve McFadden as Phil Mitchell, Letitia Dean as Sharon Watts, Danny Walters as Keanu Taylor, Diane Parish as Denise Fox, Aaron Thiara as Ravi Gulati, Gillian Taylforth as Kathy Cotton, and Brian Conley as Tom
From left to right, Scott Maslen as Jack Branning, Lacey Turner as Stacey Slater, Navin Chowdhry as Nish Panesar, Balvinder Sopal as Suki Kaur Panesar, Matt Di Angelo as Dean Wicks, Kellie Bright as Linda Carter, Steve McFadden as Phil Mitchell, Letitia Dean as Sharon Watts, Danny Walters as Keanu Taylor, Diane Parish as Denise Fox, Aaron Thiara as Ravi Gulati, Gillian Taylforth as Kathy Cotton, and Brian Conley as Tom “Rocky” Cotton all pose for EastEnders.
BBC/Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron

Jack has been having a troubled marriage with wife Denise of late but has grown closer to Stacey recently, could this spell further disaster for him? Also, Jack has made enemies of the Panesars too.

Meanwhile, Nish has made enemies of all the women at one point or another but the person with the biggest grudge is his unhappy and abused wife Suki.

Elsewhere, Dean returned to Walford on Halloween and has been tormenting his former sister-in-law Linda ever since, having previously raped her in 2014.

Phil Mitchell has connections to most of the women in The Six but, this Christmas, his ex-wife Sharon is hiding a huge truth from him and her fiancé KeanuAlbie Watts is Phil’s biological son and not Keanu’s.

All posing in suits from left to right in the Queen Vic, Matt Di Angelo stands as Dean Wicks, Steve McFadden sits as Phil Mitchell, Danny Walters stands as Keanu Taylor, Navin Chowdhry sits as Nish Panesar, Scott Maslen stands as Jack Branning, Brian Conley sits as Tom
Which of the men will make it out of Christmas Day alive?
BBC/Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron

How will Phil react if he learns the truth? And how will Keanu react?

Additionally, Keanu is hiding that he was behind the faked kidnapping of Albie in recent weeks. If discovered, could this drive Sharon to kill?

Similar to his evil father Nish, Ravi has given multiple women reasons to hate him this year, most of all being former love interest Denise and his stepmother Suki who he led to believe had killed his adopted father Ranveer Gulati and then let her son Kheerat Panesar take the fall.

Finally, former conman Tom “Rocky” Cotton (Brian Conley) set fire to Kathy’s Cafe in an insurance scam and unintentionally left her grandsons fighting for their lives in the latest of a long line of lies. Will Kathy finally reach her limit?

Could there be a curveball of a seventh woman or a body none of us expected? We will have to wait and see.

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