Departing EastEnders boss Diederick Santer has promised that Stacey Branning's murderous secret will remain an "active" storyline over the next few weeks.
In Friday night's live episode, Stacey was seen telling former lover Max (Jake Wood) that she killed Archie Mitchell on Christmas Day. She revealed her guilt after seeing husband Bradley (Charlie Clements) fall to his death from the roof of the Queen Vic while he was running from police who believed he was the culprit.
Lacey Turner, who plays the troubled character, was only informed of her alter ego's crime minutes before the 25th anniversary instalment went on air last week. Episodes which will be transmitted over the coming days were all filmed well before Stacey's live confession.
Explaining how the forthcoming editions will work in a BBC blog post, Santer confirmed: "Monday's episode picks up with Stacey and Max both distraught at the loss of Bradley, and to some extent blaming themselves for what's happened.
"But the audience now know something more than the actors did when playing those scenes - that Stacey is the killer and Max knows it. Here's where it gets tricky!
"With the greatest respect to those two brilliant actors, their sadness and guilt plays both ways. Upset at their loss and at encouraging Bradley to run, or upset at their loss and the fact that Stacey's actions may have led to it - these two sets of feelings and emotions more or less look the same."
He continued: "With Stacey and Max, it's all helped by the fact that Stacey mysteriously disappears quite soon too.
"We won't be filming new scenes [today] - although we are doing some sound editing - but we will be dropping some quickly shot material in before too long. So I can assure viewers that the story doesn't become conveniently forgotten about, but rather stays active."
Stacey's confession was watched by 16.6m viewers on Friday night.
Reply With Quote