Denise Fox (Diane Parish) gets a shock when she returns to Walford in EastEnders next week upon learning of Pastor Clayton’s (Howard Saddler) death.
This week’s episodes saw Yolande Trueman (Angela Wynter) learn that Clayton – who sexually assaulted her in harrowing scenes earlier this year – had died by suicide.
Devastated that his death meant he would not face justice for his crimes, Yolande’s family rallied around her, but her faith in God faltered as she was seen throwing her bible in the bin.
In scenes to air next week, Denise makes an early return home when she receives news of Clayton’s death to support Yolande.
During a heart-to-heart, Yolande talks to Denise about the importance of honesty and truth, triggering guilty Denise into opening up in a vague way about her lies over the club crush.
As fans know, Denise’s daughter Chelsea Fox (Zaraah Abrahams) inadvertently caused the crush at Peggy’s, and confessed to her mum that she’d tampered with the club’s online booking system to get one over on Penny Branning (Kitty Castledine) for stealing her job as manager.
Denise has kept Chelsea’s secret despite seeing her estranged husband Jack Branning’s (Scott Maslen) agony over his daughter Amy Mitchell (Ellie Dadd), who was hospitalised following the incident, and he has continued to blame Penny for her sister’s injuries.
With Yolande’s words about the corrosive nature of lies ringing in her ears, Denise steels herself to tell Jack the truth about Chelsea causing the club crush.
But with a reconciliation seemingly on the cards for the former couple, will she stop short of revealing all?
EastEnders airs these scenes from Monday 7 October at 7.30pm on BBC One and from 6am on iPlayer.
