EastEnders star Michelle Collins has teased what viewers can expect from the soap’s much anticipated Christmas Day drama, when her character’s affair with ex-husband George Knight’s son, Junior, will be exposed.
Cindy has gone to great lengths to keep her affair with Junior under wraps from fiancé Ian and feared the truth would come out when Junior’s autistic uncle Kojo recently spotted them together.
But it’s a candid conversation with ex-lover David Wicks in Beale’s Eels, back in October, that is set to be her undoing.
Cindy confessed to David how she had become intimate with Junior after being rejected by George - the love of her life - and that she thinks of George when they are in bed together.
Unbeknown to Cindy, their chat was recorded on Freddie's birdwatching microphone. Oblivious Freddie has since been selling CDs of his birdwatching sounds as a relaxation aid and has promised the locals that “volumes two and three” will soon be available.
In the run-up to Christmas Day, Cindy is blackmailed by a resident, who has their hands on the incriminating recording. She resorts to desperate measures to cover her back, but the situation escalates until the truth is revealed in spectacular fashion in The Vic, where George has invited the Beale family to join the Knights for dinner.
Says Michelle, “You’ll certainly be on the edge of your seats. I would say it’s dramatic, powerful and moving. A classic EastEnders.”
Asked about her initial reaction to finding out about Cindy’s betrayal, Michelle adds, “When I first came back, people kept on saying, ‘When is Cindy going to be bad again?’ and it’s almost like people’s expectations of Cindy are that she is always going to be up to no good; that she’ll be up to her old antics and a leopard never changes its spots.
“I must admit, it’s every actor’s dream, I think, to play a character like Cindy, where even I never know what she is going to be doing from one moment to the next.
“I read the scripts and sometimes I go, ‘Oh gosh, what is she up to now?!’ So, it didn’t surprise me when I found out about the affair.”
The big exposé is just one of many sizzling plots that EastEnders has got lined up for the festive season.
Across the Square, Denise Fox will find herself torn between ex-husband Jack Branning and bad boy Ravi Gulati, while Stacey Slater will realise she has feelings for ex-husband Martin Fowler…as he grows closer to Ruby Allen, mother of his young son Roman, who has recently undergone a life-saving liver transplant.
Meanwhile, Suki and Eve push ahead with their plans for a New Year’s Day wedding, but with Suki’s evil ex-husband Nish Panesar on the loose after escaping from prison, it remains to be seen whether the star-crossed lovers will get their happy ending.
EastEnders airs Monday - Thursday at 7.30pm on BBC One.
