An unlikely suspect blackmails EastEnders’ Bernie Taylor (Clair Norris) next week as things get seriously messy ahead of her forthcoming exit.
It is soon to be revealed that Bernie has been stealing money from the Panesars’ business accounts, having been left in charge of them in Nish Panesar’s (Navin Chowdhry) will.
This week’s episodes have seen the Panesars’ new employee Vicki Fowler (Alice Haig) grow suspicious about irregularities on some invoices, with Bernie trying to shut down her investigations.
But in scenes to air next week, Vicki gets the evidence that proves Bernie is up to no good and sets about blackmailing her.
The week’s episodes begin with Vicki and her partner Ross Marshall (Alex Walkinshaw) being told Sharon Watts (Letita Dean) is evicting them because they failed to repay the loan she gave them.
When Vicki then goes to Bernie for an advance on her wages to help raise the cash, she ends up getting fired.
After stealing Bernie’s laptop in retaliation, Vicki’s suspicions about Bernie’s book fiddling are confirmed and she tells Bernie she wants half of her stolen profits in return for her silence.
Backed into a corner, Bernie is seemingly ready to cough up. However, Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth) is horrified when she learns the truth about how Vicki is suddenly so flush with cash, worried about the threat it poses to The Six’s secret.
As fans will no doubt remember that back in September, Bernie found out that Linda Carter (Kellie Bright) killed her brother Keanu Taylor (Danny Walters) in the Queen Vic on Christmas Day 2023, with Kathy, Sharon, Suki Panesar (Balvinder Sopal), Denise Fox (Diane Parish) and Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner) all helping her to cover it up.
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When Kathy later tells Suki that Bernie has stolen money from the accounts, Suki confronts Bernie, who turns the tables on her blackmailer and tells her that Vicki is the one who has been stealing the money from the accounts.
Will Bernie get away with her plan, or will things blow up in her face before she leaves the Square forever?
Discussing her exit from the soap after eight years playing Bernie, actress Clair Norris told Metro on the red carpet of the British Soap Awards earlier this month: ‘It’s exciting. It’s an exciting time. Also very dramatic. You’ll have to stay tuned…’
