It's the whodunit that's gripped EastEnders' fans and at Christmas, we discovered the identity of who attacked Ian Beale - none other than his 'best mate' and new wife Sharon along with her ex-husband Phil Mitchell as retribution for the death of Sharon's son, Denny. Ian has never really been the Square's Mr. Popular. But ever since his accidental role in Denny's death last year, he's been an even greater prat that usual, and has really succeeded in rubbing a long list of people up the wrong way. Will this man ever learn? Probably not!
EastEnders' love their mysteries and whodunnits just as much as they love their 'who's the daddy' storylines - which we suppose are another kind of whodunnit! And these mysteries are guaranteed to keep viewers tuning in to discover the identity of the culprit and their motives. Think back to the very first EastEnders scene, and that involved a murder - that of local resident, Reg Cox. If Hercule Poirot lived on The Square, he'd never be out of work with all the murders, attacks, thefts and mayhem that takes place there!
We're taking a look at some of the most memorable mysteries ever to occur on the Square, with some going as far back as the early days of the show. They definitely had us on the edge of our seats!
1. DEBBIE'S PHONE PEST (1985)
After getting several obscene phone calls, Debbie Wilkins suspected café owner Ali Osman of being the phone pest. Her enraged boyfriend Andy wanted to have it out with him but Debbie had other ideas: she decided to invite Ali and his wife Sue over for dinner in order to confront him. It was a very tense dinner as Sue worked out that Debbie and Andy were blaming Ali for the phone calls... and then the phone rang...
You guessed it - it was the phone pest! And a horrified Debbie realized that she had made a mistake and still didn't know the identity of the person making the malicious calls.
It was during a visit from Debbie's friend Naima that the identity of the caller was revealed. Naima had answered the phone when it rang and despite Debbie's attempts to take the phone from her, Naima insisted on speaking to the caller herself. So she did - in Bengali.
Naima realized that the caller was her own husband, Saeed.
2. FOWLER BREAK-IN (1986)
When Pauline and Arthur invited a group of friends and family back to theirs, they weren't expecting to be greeted by the sight of a ransacked home. Furthermore the Christmas club fund that Arthur had recently withdrawn from the bank was gone. The question was... who could have done it?
As far as mysteries goes, this was pretty tame stuff. But then again it was back in the eighties when EastEnders was just getting warmed up. And far from it dragging on and on, the culprit was revealed within a couple of episodes as loveable Arthur Fowler who'd used the Christmas club money to pay for his daughter Chelle's wedding and then staged the break-in to explain the missing money to all his friends, family, and neighbours. Wife Pauline had already sussed it out, and this incident lead to Arthur's eventual breakdown and imprisonment.
3. WHO'S VICKI FOWLER'S DAD? (1986)
Drama didn't follow anyone around as much as it followed Michelle Fowler, and it all began when she got pregnant at sixteen and refused to name the father. This storyline occurred very early on for EastEnders and it is still one of the most memorable and often talked about storylines today.
There were several characters who were in the frame for being the father of the yet-to-be-born Vicki Fowler. On the day of the big reveal, viewers saw Andy O'Brien, Tony Carpenter, Den Watts, and Ali Osman hurriedly getting into their vehicles and driving away - just as Michelle was on her way to the canal to meet the father, leaving viewers excitedly guessing which one of the four was the baby's dad.
A car appeared at the canal, with an unidentified figure stepping out before going to open one of the rear doors - and out jumped Roly! Yes, the father was none other than the Queen Vic's landlord 'Dirty' Den Watts - who also happened to be the father of Michelle's best friend, Sharon.
4. WALFORD SERIAL ATTACKER (1987)
An unknown man was terrorizing and attacking the local women of Walford, stalking them at night. Some of the Square's female residents had had close calls with the Walford Attacker, including Sue Osman and Sharon Watts but both had escaped unharmed.
Unfortunately Pat Wicks didn't fare so well. She was brutally attacked and left for dead. Her ex-husband Pete became a suspect as he loathed Pat with a passion, but although he had a motive for attacking her, there was no reason why he should go after the other women.
Eventually the Walford attacker was caught when he tried to assault Debbie Wilkins after finding her alone in the launderette. Unfortunately his capture was a bit of a let-down because instead of being a well-known or at least recognizable character, the attacker just turned out to be some random guy called Oxley who no one had ever heard of before!
Still not bad for a soap that was pretty much just starting out.
5. MURDER OF EDDIE ROYLE (1991)
Ex-policeman Eddie Royle hadn't been landlord of The Queen Vic for long when he had been found knifed to death in The Square's gardens. Dot stumbled across his body when she found Roly stranded in the Square who led her to Eddie's body. But what Dot didn't know was that she wasn't the first person to discover Eddie's body...
Viewers saw Clyde Tavernier standing over the body with a knife in his hand before wiping the blood from his hands and fleeing. He then set about acting very suspiciously: tiptoeing back into his house before burning a shirt with Eddie's blood on it - unknowingly under the watchful eye of his suspicious grandfather, Jules.
However Clyde was innocent. He'd found Eddie lying in the gardens and foolishly picked up the murder weapon thus incriminating himself. Not only that but Clyde also had a motive for killing Eddie after they fell out over a boxing betting scam. But then Eddie was hardly a popular man in The Square with a few of the residents including Grant, Phil and Sharon holding grudges against him.
Then the ever-trustworthy Nick Cotton told police that he had witnessed Eddie's murder - and that the killer was Clyde. Nick's statement caused a terrified Clyde to go on the run with his son Kofi, on-off girlfriend Michelle Fowler and her daughter Vicki. Thankfully Joe, a friend of Michelle's brother Mark, came forward and told police that he had seen Nick Cotton in the Square that night, and had even witnessed Nick shin down the drainpipe outside his bedroom window. A recovering drug addict, Nick had been locked in his bedroom by his desperate mum, Dot. But after escaping, Nick was seen by Eddie who tried to do the right thing in escorting Nick home - and he paid for it with his life.
Hardly known for his angelic behaviour, it probably didn't come as much of a shock to viewers that Nick was Eddie's murderer. But despite being arrested and tried for the murder, Nick was found not guilty due to lack of evidence, leaving him free to wreak havoc in the Square for years to come.
6. WHO FRAMED ARTHUR FOWLER? (1996)
After getting elected as the new allotment committee secretary, Arthur Fowler began fundraising for the Flowering Wilderness Fund: a new initiative to create an eco-friendly, urban garden in Walford. It was Arthur's old friend and fellow allotment owner, Willy Roper who took a keen interest in Arthur's fundraising and set about advising a very trusting Arthur on how to handle the money. But when it appeared that there was fraudulent activity, Arthur was questioned by police - and imprisoned. Distraught at going to prison for a second time - this time for a crime he didn't commit - Arthur had a breakdown, refusing to his see family.
By now viewers had got an inkling of what had happened but it was Arthur's son Mark who was the first person to become suspicious of Willy. Alarmed at the amount of time Willy was spending with Pauline, Mark confided his fears to his mum but Pauline dismissed Mark's concerns believing Willy to be a dear friend and a tower of strength. Then Pauline and Willy went on a break to Jersey much to Mark's dismay who by now had figured out that Willy must have moved the stolen money to an off-shore account in a fake name.
It was only when Pauline discovered credit cards in a different name, that she realized that Mark had been right about Willy all along. So setting a trap in order to get to the truth, Willy fell for the ruse and was subsequently arrested and eventually imprisoned. Willy had come up with this elaborate plan in order to steal the money to pay for a place at a care home for his mum.
Although Arthur was released from prison, it sadly came too late for him. A shell of his former self when he returned from prison, Arthur was working on his beloved allotment, when he collapsed and died due to a head injury he sustained in prison, leaving his family - and viewers - heartbroken.
7. WHO SHOT PHIL MITCHELL? (2001)
EastEnders' very own version of the 'Who shot JR?' saga was 'Who shot Phil Mitchell? With the number of residents Phil had cheesed off, it could've been anyone! On the evening he got shot, a very drunken Phil was irritated by what he thought were kids playing knock down ginger. So he went outside and hollered in typical Phil fashion that if they did it again, he'd 'tan their backsides'. Then as he turned around to walk back inside, he was shot in the back.
But before losing consciousness, Phil caught a glimpse of his assassin fleeing... and we all - twenty two million of us - waited until Phil was out of hospital for that humdinger of an episode where Phil confronted the person who shot him.
Steve Owen, Lisa Shaw, Dan Sullivan, and Ian Beale were all suspects - but it turned out that it was little Lisa who pulled the trigger.
7. DENNIS RICKMAN'S MURDER (2005)
Who didn't have the biggest crush ever on Dennis Rickman? So we were absolutely heartbroken when Walford's hottest resident was killed off, especially as it was in an extremely brutal manner.
After marrying Sharon, the woman of his dreams, the newlyweds were thrilled beyond belief to discover that they were going to have the one thing that they didn't think was possible - a baby. Who still remembers the scene where Sharon broke the news of their very own Christmas miracle to Dennis and how jubilant they both were? But sadly their happiness wasn't to last...
Local gangster, Johnny Allen, was furious with Sharon for meddling in his relationship with his daughter, Ruby, and with Dennis for having crossed him. So he threatened Sharon and told her that if she and Dennis didn't leave Walford before the new year, her baby was going to grow up without a father. Sharon managed to talk Dennis into leaving for a new life in America but on the day they were due to leave, Phil Mitchell told Dennis that Johnny Allen attacked and threatened Sharon, and that he had killed Dennis's friend, Andy Hunter. A furious Dennis went over to Johnny's, where he beat him half to death. But then Dennis made the mistake of throwing Johnny a phone so that he could call for help, thinking it wouldn't matter as he and Sharon would be long gone by the time help arrived.
But Johnny didn't call for an ambulance; he called for someone to take care of Dennis in revenge for the vicious attack. As Dennis and Sharon looked for each other among the crowds of New Year's Eve revellers, they caught sight of each other - and as they did so, someone brutally stabbed Dennis leaving him to die in a hysterical Sharon's arms.
It was in Spring 2006 that we found out that the man ordered to kill Dennis was Alfie Moon's cousin, Danny.
9. WHO KILLED ARCHIE MITCHELL (2009)
Even for a Mitchell, Archie was a thoroughly unlikeable character. A philanderer, narcissist, liar, control freak, rapist and trouble maker, Archie Mitchell made a lot of enemies - even among his own family. So when he was murdered at Christmas, after being hit over the head with the Queen Victoria bust, there were many possible suspects including Ian Beale, Bradley Branning, Ryan Malloy, Stacey Branning, and practically the entire Mitchell clan.
Archie Mitchell's killer was unmasked during EastEnders' first ever live episode to mark the show's twenty fifth anniversary. It appeared that the murderer was a panic-stricken Bradly who was fleeing from the police and was killed as he fell from a roof.
But it wasn't him...
…The murderer turned out to be Bradley's wife Stacey.
10. KAT'S MYSTERY MAN (2012)
They may have originally started out as one Walford's greatest love stories... but when it came to ups and downs, Dow Jones had nothing on Kat and Alfie! It seemed as though they had finally put the past behind them, and were settling down to family life with their three kids, when a mystery man managed to catch Kat's eye... Not only did Kat have an affair but she fell head-over-heels in love with this man, wanting to leave Alfie and start a new life with her secret love. The question we all wanted answered was - who was he?
And so did Alfie! After realizing that his wife was playing away, Alfie set about trying to discover the identity of Kat's mystery man, suspecting almost every man in Walford. He eventually worked out that it was one of the Branning brothers. During a very tense, public showdown at The Vic between Alfie and the Brannings, Kat made a very frantic call to one of the brothers - Max! After rushing in to the pub and finding Max and Alfie brawling, Kat was forced to reveal the truth about the identity of her mystery man. Much to the relief of Max's wife Tanya, it wasn't Max after all...
…It was Derek Branning!
Most of us would have opted for Jack but whatever floats Kat's boat!
What's your favourite EastEnders' mystery?
Photos: YouTube
Word Cloud: Angel Noire
When Phil Mitchell got shot the whole country was glued to the TV. It was a really good storyline. With other storylines they make you wait ages before they tell you who did it. But with Phil, I think the person who shot him was revealed very quickly. Maybe within two weeks. It was Lisa but I was so sure it was Ian.
Kat's mystery fella turning out to be Derek Branning was such a massive let down not to mention unrealistic. True it might of been too obvious if they went for Jack, but Derek was a nasty piece of work and after everything Kat had been through in her life, I really could'nt see her getting swept off her feet by someone as vile as Derek. Not to mention jeopardize the marriage and family life that she so badly wanted.
Being a typical Mancunian family, we were big corrie fans but we did of course watch Eastenders as well and I remember a lot of these storylines. The serial attacker in Walford story line was just ridiculous and such a let-down. We thought that at the time as well. We'd never seen this guy on the show before!