EastEnders fans were left reeling after Monday's episode as a murder mystery plotline was teased - giving viewers 10 months to speculate before it actually airs.
The BBC soap aired its first ever 'flash-forward' scene, which saw several characters gathered in the Queen Vic at Christmas and staring down in horror at an unidentified dead body. Sharon Watts appeared in a blood-stained wedding dress, while Stacey Slater was shown with bloodied hands and Denise Fox clutched a broken champagne bottle in the dramatic preview scene.
All will be revealed this Christmas - but until then, fans have been left guessing about what it could all mean - and most importantly, who has been bumped off. Scouring the two-minute clip for clues, some fans spotted one key detail that they believe might have given the game away.
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When Sharon checks the pulse of the mystery man, he can be seen wearing cufflinks - and viewers were quick to speculate that they were the same ones as previously worn by EastEnders icon Phil Mitchell in an earlier episode. Sharing a side-by-side comparison, one person questioned: "Look at the shirt and cufflink - is it Phil who dies?"
"That's Phil!" another fan insisted, while another declared: "I'm saying it now - it's Phil Mitchell who's dead."
Steve McFadden has played the Walford icon since 1990, taking a hiatus from the soap in late 2003 before making a permanent return in October 2005. Fans were distraught at the idea that this festive season could spell the end for Peggy Mitchell's son, with one person vowing: "If Phil gets murdered on Christmas I swear to god I will never watch EastEnders again!"
However, others were more sceptical that the soap would bump off one of its most famous characters - who has already survived alcohol and drug addiction, a car crash, and being gunned down in the famous 'Who Shot Phil?' whodunit storyline back in 2001. "You don't think they'd actually kill off Phil?!" one viewer tweeted.
Another joked: "Phil is like a cockroach - he'll come back, don't worry."
And it seems that the cast are no more enlightened as to the identity of the murder victim than viewers at home, as Kellie Bright, who plays Linda Carter, revealed on ITV's This Morning. "When we filmed that flash-forward, we weren't told very much at all," she told Holly and Phil.
In the Christmas preview, Linda appeared alongside Sharon, Denise, Stacey, Kathy and Suki in the Queen Vic with a split lip. "I don't know why - I don't know how I've ended up with a split lip," she revealed, adding that even the a body double stood in for the murder victim.
"We've all gone right round the houses of who we think it could be," Kellie said. And the actress teased: "I think there's going to be lots and lots of red herrings."
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