The police have arrived at The Queen Vic – spelling trouble for the landladies.
As viewers have seen recently, Elaine Knight (Harriet Thorpe) has entered self-destruct mode in the wake of her separation from husband George (Colin Salmon).
She decided to cheat on him with a Prince Albert punter after deciding he’d been emotionally unfaithful on numerous occasions with his ex-wives Cindy Beale (Michelle Collins) and Sabrina.
Finally snapping, she confessed everything and ordered him out.
This has come as a huge annoyance to her daughter Linda Carter (Kellie Bright), who has been having to run the pub single-handedly, while also trying to maintain a happy and healthy lifestyle for herself in sobriety.
In scenes that have aired this week, George has made it clear that he intends to take half of The Vic in the divorce settlement, something which has only further infuriated Elaine.
Her careless behaviour has continued, however. After handing 5k to Priya Nandra-Hart (Sophie Khan Levy) for a singles cruise, she agreed to host Patrick Trueman’s (Rudolph Walker) birthday party despite being ridiculously understaffed.
In today’s instalment she demanded an extra 80 quid out of Howie Danes (Delroy Atkinson) for the celebration, which was bold and brash and decked out in kitsch decorations – something which Patrick’s family hadn’t expected.
She then knocked back the booze and joined in the atmosphere, dealing a menacing glare to George when he arrived.
Elaine didn’t think twice about handing over a glass of punch to Howie’s 16-year old son Denzel (Jaden Ladega) and his mate Joel Marshall (Max Murray), but was unaware when they whipped off with the pitcher jugs instead.
They took them back to Denzel’s house, where the teens were enjoying a party but also babysitting the younger Walford children.
It wasn’t long before twins Bert and Ernie, and little Raymond got their hands on the alcohol.
Oh dear.
A traumatised Denise Fox (Diane Parish) feared the worst for the boys and rushed over, and it wasn’t long before the paramedics arrived.
They alerted police to the fact minors had been served alcohol – and they had some serious questions for Elaine.
