<div><main data-testid="main-content" id="main-content"><article><header></header><div data-component="image-block"><figure><p><span><picture><source srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/1638C/production/_132102019_421748.jpg.webp 240w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/1638C/production/_132102019_421748.jpg.webp 320w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/1638C/production/_132102019_421748.jpg.webp 480w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/1638C/production/_132102019_421748.jpg.webp 624w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/1638C/production/_132102019_421748.jpg.webp 800w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/1638C/production/_132102019_421748.jpg.webp 976w" type="image/webp"></source><img alt="The Six women involved in EastEnders storyline. From left to right it's Stacey wearing a red dress, Suki wearing a blue dress, Linda wearing a pink dress, Sharon wearing a white wedding dress with hands on hips, Denise wearing a green outfit and Kathy wearing a purple dress. All the women have a stern expression. There is coloured smoke surrounding them in the background." height="549" loading="eager" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/1638C/production/_132102019_421748.jpg" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/1638C/production/_132102019_421748.jpg 240w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/1638C/production/_132102019_421748.jpg 320w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/1638C/production/_132102019_421748.jpg 480w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/1638C/production/_132102019_421748.jpg 624w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/1638C/production/_132102019_421748.jpg 800w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/1638C/production/_132102019_421748.jpg 976w" width="976"></img></picture></span><span role="text"><span>Image source, </span>BBC/Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron</span></p><figcaption><span>Image caption, </span><p>One body, one wedding, six suspects. But which Walford woman will be the one whodunnit?</p></figcaption></figure></div><div data-component="byline-block"><div><div><div><p>By Manish Pandey</p><p>BBC Newsbeat</p></div></div></div></div><div data-component="text-block"><p><b>It's the most wonderful time of the year... unless you live on Albert Square, where the Christmas traditions are heartbreak, lies and the occasional dead body.</b></p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>Fans have been buzzing for this year's EastEnders special since the show's February flashforward scene teased a big mystery.</p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>But 10 months is a long time. </p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>If you haven't kept up with the thousands of doof doofs since, and are settling down in front of BBC One later, here's what you need to know.</p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>And don't worry, this article doesn't contain spoilers for the Christmas Day special (like they'd tell us, anyway).</p></div><p data-component="subheadline-block"><h2 id="Whodunnit" tabindex="-1"><span role="text">Whodunnit?</span></h2></p><div data-component="text-block"><p>The February flashforward offered a glimpse into the storyline known as The Six, and it involves - you guessed it - a murder.</p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>A selection of Walford's favourite females are involved - Sharon, Kathy, Stacey, Suki, Denise and Linda - but we won't know who has done what until later.</p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>Linda scrubbing blood from the floor, blood on Stacey's hands and Denise holding a broken bottle.</p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>Suki and Kathy's faces filling with shock as Sharon checks the body and whispers "he's dead", before the camera pans to the mystery dead man's cufflinks.</p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>So we know a male character is going to be killed off and found on the floor of The Queen Vic pub.</p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>We don't know who it is, or their killer's identity.</p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>But we can narrow it down.</p></div><p data-component="subheadline-block"><h2 id="Who-is-it-" tabindex="-1"><span role="text">Who is it? </span></h2></p><div data-component="image-block"><figure><p><span><span></span></span><span role="text"><span>Image source, </span>BBC/Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron</span></p><figcaption><span>Image caption, </span><p>Six potential victims... one EastEnders fella will be wearing his cufflinks for the last time on 25 December</p></figcaption></figure></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>The problem is, in true EastEnders fashion, the under-threat fellas have been a right bunch of rotters towards the women of the Square.</p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>If you're looking for a motive, there's plenty to choose from.</p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>First there's Keanu - due to wed Sharon on Christmas Day. She doesn't know that he recently faked their son's kidnapping. </p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>But Phil Mitchell (who is the real dad, by the way) does.</p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>Then there's Rocky, whose marriage with Kathy is on the, er, rocks after he admitted he'd burned down her iconic café. </p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>You've also got Ravi, who made an enemy of former lover Denise when he ended their affair and started seeing her daughter.</p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>And Denise's husband, Jack, recently hooked up with Stacey.</p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>Meanwhile Nish, Suki's husband, rumbled her relationship with disgraced solicitor Eve, who he tried to have killed (by Ravi, obviously).</p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>And completing the list of potential victims is Dean, a rapist who's returned to the Square to torment his victim and sister-in-law, Queen Vic landlady Linda.</p></div><p data-component="subheadline-block"><h2 id="Piecing-it-all-together" tabindex="-1"><span role="text">Piecing it all together</span></h2></p><div data-component="image-block"><figure><p><span><span></span></span><span role="text"><span>Image source, </span>Sooz Kempner</span></p><figcaption><span>Image caption, </span><p>Comedian Sooz has some top tips on how to be ready for the Christmas special</p></figcaption></figure></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>One of the things you might've seen over the past five years is an annual EastEnders catch-up thread on Twitter/X.</p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>Comedian and superfan Sooz Kempner's round-up, neatly drafted on the Notes app, pulls together the year in Walford into one handy list.</p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>And she'd be the first to tell you this year is a big one.</p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>But Sooz tells BBC Newsbeat the key to understanding EastEnders at Christmas is realising that "not everything that happened in the year is that important".</p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>"You don't actually have to include the whole year," she says.</p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>And familiar faces - Kat, Ian Beale and back-from-the-dead Cindy (who was actually hiding in witness protection the whole time) - will help you to keep track. </p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>"Anyone who leaps into EastEnders having not watched it for a long time will recognise half the characters, because they're all still there," says Sooz.</p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>"But they're not the main meat of things. They're not the turkey, they're more like the trimmings."</p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>Instead, Sooz says, people should focus on The Six and what they've been up to.</p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>Her thread looks at what the main suspects and likely victims are getting up to in Christmas week and which storylines are "heating up".</p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>And, to be honest, even focusing only on them will give you plenty to chew on - Sooz says this year's megathread is three times longer than 2022's.</p></div><p data-component="subheadline-block"><h2 id="Keep-yer-blower-on-you" tabindex="-1"><span role="text">Keep yer blower on you</span></h2></p><div data-component="image-block"><figure><p><span><span></span></span><span role="text"><span>Image source, </span>BBC/Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron</span></p><figcaption><span>Image caption, </span><p>It'll be last orders for someone at the Queen Vic</p></figcaption></figure></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>But EastEnders fan Hayley Minns says you don't need to stress too much about picking things up last-minute.</p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>"The writers probably know that there are a lot of people watching who probably don't watch it usually," Hayley, a features writer at the Sun newspaper, tells Newsbeat.</p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>"There's going to be a murder, there's going to be action."</p></div><div data-component="text-block"><div><p>If you really want to go the extra mile, BBC Three recently released <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001tc48/eastenders-the-six-revealed">a 30-minute special all about The Six</a> to help you prepare.</p></div></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>But if you're planning on going in cold turkey because family tradition demands it, Sooz has some tips.</p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>"You just have to put your phone by your side, open up [my] thread, and just glance at it," she says.</p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>"Otherwise it would be like tuning into the season finale of Breaking Bad having never seen an episode of it and hoping to keep up.</p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p>"Because it's going to be as big as that."</p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p><i>The EastEnders Christmas Day episode will be on BBC One at 21:45 GMT and </i><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/group/b006m86d">on iPlayer afterwards</a><i>.</i></p></div><div data-component="text-block"><p><i>Listen to Newsbeat </i><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_one">live</a><i> at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back </i><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006wkry/episodes/player">here</a>.</p></div><section data-component="around-the-bbc"><p><h2>Around the BBC</h2></p><ul role="list" spacing="responsive"><li></li></ul></section></article></main></div>