Shane Richie has described the 'EastEnders' Christmas Day special as "Deceit, tragic and sad."

Shane Richie has teased a 'tragic and sad' Christmas Day special

Shane Richie has teased a 'tragic and sad' Christmas Day special

The 60-year-old actor, who plays Alfie Moon on the BBC One soap, has warned that viewers are in for an extremely shocking story line involving him and Kat Slater (Jessie Wallace) – but he's keeping tight-lipped on what is set to go down on Albert Square this festive season.

He told RadioTimes.com: "A few things happened on Christmas, which I intentionally didn't read [the script] because I knew that Kat and Alfie were going to be involved, and I didn't really want to know what was going to happen in the Queen Vic on Christmas Day.

"But oh my God!

"I sat there watching this story unfolding in the Queen Vic that happens on Christmas Day, and as a fan of the show anyway, I was like, 'Oh my God I can't believe this! Stop!'"

He continued: "I had to do a line and I kept messing it up because I was so taken in with that the storyline that was happening.

"You're in for a lovely treat this Christmas Day."

On Tuesday night's (22.10.24) episode, Kat's son Tommy Moon - whom she had with Alfie's second cousin once removed, Michael Moon - lashed out at his family and scolded his cousin Freddie Slater with hot soup as they sat around having Chinese.

The horrific scenes happened in front of Tommy's young half-siblings Bert and Ernie.

It came after his mother Kat lied to Alfie about Tommy hitting her in the face before being forced to tell the truth after her walked in and overheard them discussing the incident.

Alfie threatened to "drag" Tommy to social services in a heated confrontation with the boy, who had previously punched his mother in the stomach, and pinned him against the boxing ring before Freddie intervened.

'EastEnders' airs Monday to Thursday on BBC One from 7.30pm and earlier at 6am on BBC iPlayer.