Exclusive: EastEnders Michelle Collins warns fans will ‘hate’ Cindy Beale after explosive Christmas episode

EastEnders is gearing up for it’s dramatic Christmas Day episode (Image: BBC/Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron)

Michelle Collins has warned EastEnders viewers may “hate” Walford schemer Cindy Beale by the time the BBC soap’s Christmas Day episode concludes.

Cindy’s lies explode with dramatic consequences, as her affair with Junior Knight finally comes to light. It’s a devastating realisation for Cindy’s partner Ian Beale, as the Beales and the Knights clash over some big discoveries.

It had been teased Cindy’s comeuppance was on the cards, after she unintentionally spilled all on cheating on Ian with Junior, the son of her ex-husband George Knight, to David Wicks. Her confession was recorded after Freddie Slater had left his audio equipment running, and soon enough it made its way onto a USB.

Viewers had predicted this would be Cindy’s downfall, and that the recording would at some point be played out in scenes to mirror Sharongate in 1994. A recent trailer revealed this would be the case, with Cindy’s confession played out in The Queen Vic no doubt paving the way for some seriously dramatic scenes.

Speaking to The Mirror ahead of the big episodes airing, Michelle, who returned as baddie Cindy last year, teased the fallout to the big episode. With scenes being kept under wraps for an epic Christmas Day viewing, Michelle warned that it could lead to viewers hating her even more.

Michelle spilled: “She’s very unpredictable, you never know what she’s going to be doing next thanks to Simon Ashdown [EastEnders writer]. She’s a joy to play. People love to hate her. I don’t know, after this maybe they’ll just hate her and want her gone.”

The actress shared she was thrilled to learn last year that Cindy would be back to her villainous ways, after months of her appearing to have turned a corner. From ordering a hit on husband Ian to her many flings, past Cindy was completely ruthless – and it was only going to be a matter of time before the ‘changed’ Cindy reverted back to her old ways.

Michelle revealed: “When she came back it was great and I was very thankful and everything, but I was like where is Cindy? We want the old Cindy back. I remember Chris [Clenshaw] last year saying, ‘Don’t worry Michelle, it’s gonna be alright, she’s gonna come back’.”

Soap boss Chris had his own say on the return of Cindy’s scheming ways, telling us: “If you bring back Cindy Beale… you want Cindy Beale. So we always knew it wouldn’t probably take too long for her to look elsewhere. We knew it wasn’t going to take long for Cindy to get up to her old tricks.”

Michelle also teased: “You probably learn more about Cindy in these episodes than you ever did cos she opens up more. She is so desperate, this is a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown, she’s a woman on the edge. And what actor doesn’t wanna play that?”

On what fans can expect from the episodes, Michelle shared: “We filmed this in October, November, and the Square looked incredible. There was something so romantic and nostalgic about it, so beautiful given what was gonna happen. There’s something very special about filming Christmas in Albert Square.

“It’s fantastic to be involved in the Christmas storyline and I want to say thank you to Simon Ashdown for writing those episodes, they’ve been incredible. I’m really proud to be in the Christmas episodes.

“Also what EastEnders do so well so, there’s so much else going on so even though there is darkness, there’s humour as well that I think it really needed. It’s never a normal Christmas on EastEnders is it.

“I couldn’t really remember many Christmases in EastEnders to be honest with you, but this was 25 years ago so I’m sure I was involved in a few but I’ve never been involved in one as big as this. What a Christmas. So much goes on, the attention to detail, the relationships with everybody, it’s really fantastic what they’ve done and I’m really excited for people to see it. Its very different from last year. It’s not really comparable, just different.”

Adam Woodyatt, who plays Walford legend Ian, also shared his say having appeared in many Christmas episodes since his 1985 debut. He told us: “It’s always great when you get the Christmas storyline because over the years they have been so iconic going as far back as 1986. I don’t think we had a Christmas episode in 1985. We didn’t, so Christmas ’86 was the first one. Everyone remembers that, Den and Angie. Over the years there’s been so many iconic Christmas episodes so getting the Christmas storyline is always nice.”