The four acts of Christmas

There are only eight sleeps until Christmas Day, and it’s almost time for us to let you unwrap the biggest present of the day – The EastEnders Christmas episode.

“This is a Christmas of secrets and a Christmas of surprises,” revealed Executive Producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins. “It’s a Christmas that the audience are going to want to watch live. Because nothing is as you expect. We decided to treat this a bit like Live Week. It’s epic. There are secrets. There are twists. There are a hell of a lot of stories going on – and a lot of surprises.”

“Sharon (Batten, Series Producer) and Alex (Lamb (Story Producer) sat down and said, ‘Okay, let’s take the scale of Live Week and spread that over the season,’” he added. “’Let’s go from Christmas Eve to the middle of January.’” And it keeps going. So many new stories start over that period as well. It’s a competitive time and you want to put all your best wares in the window and show everyone and get everyone going “Oh God, I’ve got to keep going, damn you EastEnders!”

So EastEnders isn’t just for Christmas Day; there’s a whole stocking full of epic episodes heading your way on Santa’s sleigh – with the festivities will be split into four ‘Acts’.

“This year we’ve looked at Christmas in four different stages, “Dominic explained. “The first act is the lead-up to Christmas Day, and that’s a big story for Ronnie and Vincent. You’ve got The Mitchells versus The Hubbards. You’ve got Sharon’s building concern about Bobby, and Bobby’s building bad behaviour - which Jane’s oblivious to. And Stacey giving birth on Christmas Eve!”

“Then we move to Act 2, which is Christmas Day itself - a massive Mitchells and Beales Christmas, with Ronnie and Vincent’s story running underneath. There’s Stacey’s strange, quiet behaviour going through it as well and some mad Carters Christmas fun.”

Then, in Act 3, things will take a dark turn as Dean and Roxy’s relationship twists and Dean will show his true colours to Roxy. This will build to Mick and Linda’s wedding day, on New Year’s Day.”

“This then carries us into Act 4 at the beginning of January, which is Stacey’s postpartum psychosis storyline, and a discovery for Kat. There’s also another big story for Denise starting. We’re going to find out a lot about Claudette’s true colours.”

Sounds like a lot of treats that you won’t want to miss! Could this be the best Christmas Walford’s ever had? Dominic stresses that doom and gloom are very important ingredients in the mix of this particular Christmas pudding.

“We have a tradition, from way back when Den handed Angie those divorce papers. They tried to have a happy Christmas once – Pam St. Clement told us that they did a ‘happy’ Christmas one year, where everyone hugged – and it had the lowest ratings ever! So people actually expect EastEnders to be a bit gruesome. Because you’re going, ‘Oh God, at least I’m not a Beale!’”