EastEnders boss Ben Wadey has confirmed that there will be some big twists in Walford airing over the festive period, as the soap gears up for a dramatic Christmas and New Year with some very special episodes airing across the fortnight.

After taking over from Chris Clenshaw in June, this is Ben’s first Christmas as executive producer, and at a recent festive screening, he explained how important this time of year is for Albert Square.

 

 

“For me, growing up and as a fan, Christmas is EastEnders, and I always have that countdown to the Christmas episode,” he said. “My Christmas Day is normally structured around the watching of EastEnders.

 

 

“So coming in, I really wanted to not just make Christmas Day amazing and talk to the writers and the team about how big we could go, but actually give a series of treats over the Christmas period.”

 

 

With this festive season centred around the theme of past, present and future, Ben gave some more details about the three major story threads in the final weeks of 2025 – including the special episode on Tuesday, 23 December about Nigel’s dementia.

 

 

He said: “[For] the past, we step back – and the Nigel episode that Richard Davidson did a beautiful job of writing. It’s a really lovely episode, I’m really proud of it.

“It’s a bold choice to go so emotional that close to Christmas. But I think Christmas is a tough time for people, as well as a really happy time, and we’ve got the real range of emotions over December. So we wanted to celebrate that.”

Plus, as Zoe’s stalker ordeal continues to ramp up, the Slaters will be at the forefront of the Christmas Day action. There have been some huge bombshells uncovered this week, but Ben promises that there are more shocks in the pipeline.

“[For] Christmas present, we’ve got the ongoing story with Kat and Zoe,” Ben teased. “We found out this week that Jasmine is Zoe’s daughter, but we have revealed that a week before Christmas, because there are a lot more twists and turns to come on that story, so all is not as it seems.

“And then we go into Christmas future, so the flashforward, and a year of Max and a year of the Brannings…”