Janine Butcher will finally have her secret rumbled ahead of her EastEnders exit - as Shirley Carter unmasks the truth.
Charlie Brooks - who plays Janine - will be exiting the BBC One soap in some dramatic scenes over the coming weeks, but her secret is could be exposed as Shirley Carter starts to dig into what happened. Janine crashed the car with Linda Carter in, before pulling Linda over to the driver's side and making a run for it and blaming her for the crash.
It caused a chain reaction of events and social services got involved, taking the kids away from Linda whilst her estranged husband Mick Carter - who is set to marry Janine - was torn between the two women.
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BBC/Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron)However, as Janine's exit looms, Shirley quizzes Janine's daughter Scarlett about the secret but struggles to get anywhere. Shirley spots Janine taking another secretive call as her suspicions continue to grow.
That evening, Shirley sits down to watch a movie and picks Die Hard, but Scarlett is left horrified when she sees the photo of Frankie flutter out of the case. Quickly grabbing it, she hides it in her diary - but how long before Shirley rumbles Janine's secret?
Charlie admits Janine doesn't feel very "safe" in her lie about Linda, and made a "big mistake" by going through with it.
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BBC/Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron)She said: "Again, I don't think she ever felt very safe in that lie. She crashed that car, but she didn't mean to crash the car, and at the end of the day, Linda was drunk. Janine did think she was doing a good thing.
"Where she would have gone with Linda if the car hadn't crashed, I don't know. That is a question that I do sometimes ponder. When she dragged Linda's body into the driving seat, obviously, all that stuff was absolutely awful, but that is what Janine does when she's under that pressure. She thinks she's doing the right thing at that moment because she can't think straight, and she gets all mumbled, and she doesn't quite know what to do and makes the biggest mistakes, and that was one of the big mistakes."
She added: "But in her head, I don't think she intended to hurt Linda or crash that car on purpose. She just makes really bad decisions."
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BBC/Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron)Janine is "oblivious" to how close Shirley is to the truth - but knows Scarlett could ruin things easily for her.
"I think Janine is oblivious to the actual extent of it, and Shirley thinks that she's having an affair," she added.
"I don't think Janine knows that, and that comes as a bit of a surprise. But she's almost amused by Shirley because she doesn't think that anyone's got anything on her. It's only Scarlett, at this point, who could really mess it all up."
