Shane Richie promises a 'huge Christmas Day shock' for 'EastEnders' viewers

Albert Square is always a veritable haven of Christmas cheer over the festive period.

But Shane Richie has promised even more thumping misery than usual this year, with a storyline twist that even he’s finding hard to reconcile.

The infidelity – and secret love child – of his veteran show character Alfie Moon is set to be discovered, with events then taking their usual dramatic course.

“There is such a big shock on Christmas Day,” he told Metro.

“Obviously I can’t tell you, but even when I read it I went ‘Oh, you can’t do that, you can’t do that, we’ve tipped it over the edge now.’

“It’s just a real, massive cliffhanger on Christmas Day. I will be so intrigued to see the reaction on social media with shock and how everything plays out after that.

“Only on Christmas Day could this happen. Why anyone would want to live in Walford I have no idea. But yeah, Christmas Day is massive and I’ve been privileged enough to see some of it.”

As for whether it could involve a fatality, he added: “Without giving too much away, this is a tough one to come back from, after you see what happens. Someone’s got blood on their hands is all I’m saying.”

The Christmas and New Years Day episodes of the long-running soap have provided a litany of horror over the years, including, most famously, Den Watts serving wife Angie divorce papers in 1986, the death of Martine McCutcheon’s Tiffany in 1998 and the Archie Mitchell murder in 2009.

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