A fresh take on the soap ‘whodunnit’.

By Laura Denby

Published: Tuesday, 21 February 2023 at 12:00 am

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Just when it seemed that the soap world had already given us every available version of a twist, EastEnders delivered that Christmas flash-forward – and now here we are questioning literally everything.

A ladies’ lock-in at The Queen Vic gave way to a futuristic scene which saw a bridal Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean) confirming the death of a lifeless corpse. It’s making detectives of us all, which is nothing original; but the way in which we’ll watch from now on has changed, even as EastEnders’ classic roots are revisited.

The show has been on top form recently, following the arrival of new executive producer Chris Clenshaw. The new era has been a resounding success, and now this brand new ‘whodunnit’ may have officially restored the long-running serial drama to its former glory.

We’re all familiar with a soap murder mystery; and EastEnders is particularly famous for this tradition. So you’d be forgiven for wondering if the team could outdo previous shockers, like ‘Who Killed Lucy?’ and the saga of Archie Mitchell (Larry Lamb). But they’ve achieved that goal.

In fact, while much of the same elements remain this time around – like guessing who the killer is and spotting all the clues – there’s much more to this story than the usual features. While the murder of Lucy Beale (Hetti Bywater) also kept us in suspense for almost a year, now we seemingly have to wait the same length of time to find out just who has met their untimely demise.

It’s an inventive and refreshing decision, because although there might seem to be obvious choices for this death (looking at you, Nish), we’ve still got 10 months left to find out, meaning there’s every chance an entirely different Walford fella will head on the path that ultimately cuts their journey short.

We’ve also got the surprise of Sharon’s festive wedding, the mystery of the groom and the added question of whether said groom might also be the dead man! So, a lot to consider and plenty to look out for.

And yet, despite the fact that this twist has genuinely ‘never been done before’, this is not the first time the BBC soap has gone down such an ambitious route and had it pay off.

Let’s go back to that Archie Mitchell murder – also airing at Christmas. Back at the end of 2009, evil Archie had burned all bridges. He’d controlled, conned and abused his way around Albert Square, before being fatally bludgeoned by the Queen Vic bust. The list of suspects was so long that EastEnders chose to film a series of alternative reveals ahead of the live 25th anniversary episode the following February.

At the time, Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner) – also seen in the flash-forward with blood on her hands – made a secret confession that she had been the one to end Archie’s life after being raped by him; with only father-in-law Max Branning (Jake Wood) knowing the truth for several months afterwards.

The live episode meant that the cast had to film the aftermath scenes before they shot that big bombshell –  before any of them even knew who Archie’s killer was.