EastEnders stars Jessie Wallace and Michelle Ryan have praised the storylines that will air over the festive period, with their respective characters Kat and Zoe Slater set to be at the heart of the drama.

As is always the case in soapland, and especially Albert Square, there’s set to be some big arc over Christmas, with it already being confirmed that a major incident will stun the patrons of The Vic on Christmas Day.

 

 

Zoe, who returned to Walford earlier this year after an absence of two decades, is at the centre of the action after a bunch of sinister secrets are revealed, and Ryan shared that the storyline is one of the best in her time on the BBC soap.

“These are the best scripts I’ve ever read and been part of in EastEnders,” said the actor, who debuted as Zoe in 2000. “The two-hander we [Jessie and I] did was special, and these ones, for me, are alongside that.

 

 

“I was just going through them, and I was like, ‘wow, this is amazing stuff’. And then the director Chris [McGill] was like, ‘I need to speak to you!’ It’s a privilege to be part of them, because they’re just brilliant scripts. They stand out.”

“They’re [the scripts] brilliant,” added Wallace, who first played Kat in the same year. “It’s like one thing after another after another. Just when you’re getting over that, then there’s something else. It’s chaotic.

 

 

“As an actor, when there’s so much going on, there’s all these things you’ve got to think about, so it’s an explosion of stuff. I have never known a Christmas episode like it, that I’ve been part of anyway.”

While the Christmas Day episode, along with the aftermath, will prove to be dramatic, Ryan teased that the lead-up will also be full of incident, with both Kat and Zoe worried about the ongoing stalking ordeal.

“Zoe is still very much in a spiral,” said the actor. “She feels that someone is out to get her. Kat’s very worried. You see Zoe seeming okay, and then she struggles again – it does cause tension with Kat and Alfie. So the family is trying to piece back together.”