ARCHIE assassin Stacey Branning will get away with murder - because EastEnders bosses are desperate for her to stay in the soap.
The fall guy (yet again) will be her poor hubby Bradley, with detectives blaming him for the Queen Vic killing.
A whopping 16.6 million viewers saw Bradders plunge to his death just before Stacey's confession in Friday night's live episode to mark the show's 25th birthday.
But bipolar Stacey - played by multi-award-winning Lacey Turner - won't be going down.
An insider told us: "Lacey is with us for the foreseeable future.
"But don't forget she told her father-in-law Max that she killed Archie - so there are plenty of twists and turns to come."
Yesterday Lacey, 21, revealed she nearly couldn't say the infamous words, "It was me, I killed Archie" - due to a bad sore throat.
Terrible
Earlier in the day she'd missed the dress rehearsals because she'd lost her voice - then she lost it again straight after filming.
She said: "It's typical isn't it - just as the live is upon us I get ill and lose my voice but, to be honest, even though I felt terrible nothing was going to stop me doing it.
"Everyone has worked so hard on this episode and it is such a big part of TV history that I just knew I couldn't miss it. I just made sure I rested my voice throughout the day so I could save it for the filming."
And sexy singleton Lacey had NO inkling she was Archie's killer until 20 minutes before the show.
The plot was such a huge secret that the cast had to rehearse TEN possible endings. Lacey, 21, said: "I honestly couldn't believe it. I had no idea and didn't for one minute think it would be Stacey.
"Usually you are told when you get such a big storyline but this really must be the best-kept secret in EastEnders' history."
She went on: "I got a call to go and see Diederick (Santer, the executive producer) about 20 minutes before we went live. We all knew he was going to see Archie's killer but I didn't think for one second it would be me.
NOTW
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