Surely he can’t be the body?

By Helen Daly

Published: Thursday, 14 December 2023 at 21:01 PM

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It’s certain to be a very messy Christmas for Stacey Slater (played by Lacey Turner) on EastEnders, as she starts up another Branning affair.

Fans have seen her growing closer to Jack Branning (Scott Maslen) over the past few weeks as he’s acted as an emotional support for her.

But the pair of them have finally given in to temptation – right before Christmas, when a certain Walford male is due to end up dead on the Queen Vic floor.

Speaking to press including RadioTimes.com at a recent EastEnders event, Turner spoke about Stacey’s growing attraction…

“He always seems to be there when something goes wrong, you know, like with Theo… whatever it is, he just appears through the backdoor,” Turner explained.

“He’s always there and the thing is she needs a bit of a protecting and he happens to be that. And just happens to be married… Whoops!”

While she’s certainly been lusting for him, does she actually have feelings for him?

Turner thinks so, saying: “I think she does have some sort of feelings for him… I don’t think she quite knows what they are, but there’s something.”

One problem it might cause is with Denise (Diane Parish), Jack’s wife.

Parish said of the plot development: “I’ve never had any problems with her [Stacey], and she was very supportive about the whole thing with the baby, so it’s like the rug being pulled completely from under her.

“Because of what happened with Ravi, she’d been wracked with guilt over that and felt like the trust was broken so she’s been working hard to get that back.

“If he’d said, ‘Look, I’ve picked up some girl, it was one night, I was p***ed, then she would’ve been OK. But no.”

Will Jack and Stacey’s fling end up in tragedy?

Read more:

• EastEnders cast: Who is joining, leaving and returning to the soap?
• EastEnders’ Chris Clenshaw: ‘Jay will get unexpected Christmas present’
• EastEnders boss Chris Clenshaw previews Christmas 2023 and The Six aftermath