It’s Christmas, folks, a special time of yuletide happiness and joy, where everyone comes together and feels the love.
Well, not if you live in Albert Square, of course! That’s where misery reigns.
And this festive period seems to be no different as viewers can supposedly look forward to such cheerful storylines such as the suicide of Lee Carter and the potential death of Phil Mitchell from his cirrhosis.
And fans aren’t happy.
In fact, some viewers have pledged to stop watching the soap if producers decide to kill off the much loved character.
As fans of the soap will know, Phil has been moping around the Square for a while now in desperate need of a liver transplant after being diagnosed cirrhosis of the liver.
But viewers are beside themselves that Phil might not make it past Christmas dinner this year and follow his mum Peggy Mitchell up to that great big soap opera in the sky.
One fan – called Emma Bt – raged: “If they kill phill off eastenders I swear I’ll never watch it again (sic)”
While another, rather overly dramatic, fan called Caitlin gasped: “If they kill Phil Mitchell off EastEnders for the Christmas Story line, I don’t want to live to see 2017!” (Steady on, girl!)
But one savvy – and seemingly weary – ‘Enders fan called Matthew Rimmer, reckoned the show’s writers will actually chicken out of killing off Phil because he is such a big part of the show.
“Worst thing about this interminable Phil storyline, ” he raged, “is they’re clearly not going to kill him off at the end. Meanwhile we suffer.”
This was echoed by Sean Ferguson, who, too, was doubtful that producers would dare to kill off such an established character when they are already writing out other major regulars.
“With Roxy and Ronnie leaving soon surely they’re not going to kill Phil off,” he wrote.
However, other fans appear to be getting a little bored of the ongoing and drawn out storyline and are begging producers to nip it in the bud ASAP!
Emma Hood tweeted: “Can’t they just kill Phil off already?”, while Imaani – who we’re guessing ISN’T the 1998 UK Eurovision entry – moaned: “EastEnders are really dragging storylines. Please kill off Phil, kill off Dot and cut Shaky and Becks scenes.”
Oh well, you can’t please everyone.
But one thing’s for sure, it certainly looks like scriptwriters will have us on the edge of our seats over the Christmas period to find out whether Phil will cark it or manage to make it into 2017 for another year of moaning, groaning and “fresh starts”.
We’ll just have to wait and see. Oh the anticipation!