EastEnders star Zaraah Abrahams has opened up about her character Chelsea
Fox’s guilt after causing a crowd crush at Peggy’s. In scenes airing on the BBC soap
next week, Chelsea is still reeling after getting demoted from her role as manager
at Peggy’s, with Penny taking her job. When the pair have another frosty exchange at work, Chelsea decides to sabotage Penny’s club night by making more tickets available online, despite the event having almost reached capacity. Things soon spiral out of control and the club becomes increasingly overcrowded, leading to a dangerous crowd crush. Discussing Chelsea’s reaction to the crush, Abrahams said her character “feels absolutely awful” as “it was never her intention for anything to go so badly wrong”. “She is filled with guilt that she has had a part to play in what is a catastrophic, and potentially fatal, accident,” she added.
As for how Chelsea will cope with the guilt, the soap star said: “I think she is going to take it quite hard, especially because she is a mum now so has another perspective on what life means.” Explaining why Chelsea decides to mess with the booking system in the first place, Abrahams said she wants to “rubbish the night” in the hopes that Phil will give her the job back and demote Penny. She continued: “As far as Chelsea is concerned, she has worked herself up to that position – there has never been any trouble in the club, and Phil has always been happy with the way that she has been running it. “Chelsea is just thinking, ‘You know what, I am going to ruin this night for you and Phil will give me my job back’.”