EastEnders icon Natalie Cassidy has shared her own theory over the mystery death that is set to be revealed this Christmas Day.
The 40-year-old actress has been playing trumpet playing soap favourite Sonia Jackson on the long-running BBC show since 1993 and has seen her fair share of drama in Albert Square. But since February this year, EastEnders fans have been counting down to Christmas after a flash forward revealed a mystery individual had been killed - with Stacey Slater, Sharon Watts, Linda Carter, Suki Panesar, Kathy Beale and Denise Fox all in the frame as they were gathered around the dead body.
Now the identity of both the victim and the killer is set to be unveiled in less than three weeks - and theories about who the body is have been rife with Matt di Angelo’s Dean Wicks, Brian Conley’s Tim ‘Rocky’ Cotton and Navin Chowdhry's Nish Panesar all tipped to be the one that meets a sticky end. While fans might expect the cast of EastEnders to be clued in to who the victim and the killer are, Natalie has teased that she is as in the dark as everyone else.
And this has led her to reach a conclusion of her own - and she thinks there is only one character that could be the one to be killed off this Christmas. In a new interview with Heat magazine, Natalie was asked who she thinks has been killed.
Initially avoiding speculation, Natalie said: “You know who you want to be talking to - my daughter [Eliza, who she shares with ex-fiancé Adam Cottrell]. Oh my goodness me, she’s got theories, she’s got screenshots, she’s got notes on her phone - she’s driving me mad!”
EastEnders' Jake Wood's snap of son has fans pointing out the pair's likenessBut pressed for an answer, Natalie confessed: “I don’t know, it could be anyone, couldn’t it? You’ve got Nish and all that stuff with Suki [Balvinder Sopal], but you’ve also got Rock and the Kathy [Gillian Taylforth] stuff. Rocky lives very easily - maybe she finds out what’s happened and kills him. That’s my theory.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Natalie shares a career confession that is in itself a twist of EastEnders’s proportions - she has been offered a performance slot at the 2024 Mighty Hoopla festival in London. For decades, her soap character has been admired, and mocked, for her skills at playing the trumpet - and festival organisers are desperate fro Natalie to take to the stage to show off her music skills.
She revealed: “The Mighty Hoopla got in touch and asked if I would come on stage. It would be good, wouldn’t it? It would be next summer, but I don’t know if I’m allowed to or not - but it would be hilarious. It’s lovely because it’s always tongue in cheek. People really like it and for some reason it’s become this iconic thing.”
The actress went on to suggest she could write a single to perform at the festival that she would then release - with proceeds to go to a charity like Children In Need. Her character was last seen playing her instrument in an episode that aired in 2019 - with Sonia apologising for her rusty skills, saying: “I haven’t played this for 20 years."