Nasty Archie Mitchell stoops to his lowest point yet – by exploiting his premature grand-daughter’s fight for life.
The manipulative dad puts a comforting arm around both fiancée Peggy and daughter Ronnie.
But behind his concern the twisted dad continues to torment his eldest daughter Ronnie.
In dramatic scenes, viewers will see her sister Roxy Mitchell go into labour and give birth early to a little girl.
The baby is taken straight off to intensive care where doctors say she is too delicate to hold.
But as Ronnie visits her tiny niece for the first time her dad can’t resist playing the perfect father, despite viewers knowing he’s really a rotter.
Archie forced Ronnie to give up her own baby for adoption when she was a teenager.
Recently viewers saw him lying that her daughter died at the age of four in the adoptive parents’ bath.
An EastEnders insider said: “When Roxy’s baby daughter arrives into the world early she faces a real fight for life.
“The entire Mitchell family are beside themselves and Ronnie feels it really badly.
“She believes she’s lost a daughter and doesn’t want her sister to experience the same pain. It’s all very close to her own heartache and Archie knows this.
“He really is a nasty piece of work where Ronnie is concerned. But he can’t control her.
“It’s going to be a very interesting time – especially as he’s also been pulling the wool over Peggy’s eyes.”
Fans of the hit BBC1 soap can catch the emotional scenes a week on Tuesday.