When EastEnders’ Linda Carter (Kellie Bright) announced she would be selling The Queen Vic last month, it marked the end of an era for the iconic soap boozer.

With the pub now on the market, an unexpected potential buyer enters the frame next week – but they won’t exactly make for a popular new owner.

As the week begins, current landlady Linda informs Kat Moon (Jessie Wallace) of a change in strategy to sell The Vic, revealing it is set to go to auction.

This news soon reaches local entrepreneur Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt), whose business brain is sent into overdrive.

He then tells mum Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth) and her partner Harvey Monroe (Ross Boatman) that he wants to rebuild the Beale empire and is going to bid for The Vic.

Of course, with this being Ian Beale we’re talking about, the idea of becoming the pub’s new landlord goes straight to his head, and he wastes no time in lording this over Kat and her cousin Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner).

Stacey’s mum Jean Slater (Gillian Wright) soon starts to worry about losing her cleaning job at The Vic if the Beales take over, given her recent history with Kathy over her affair with Jean’s ex Harvey.

This prompts Kat and Stacey to come up with a plan, and Stacey later tells a furious Ian she has won £100k on a scratchcard and will be bidding for The Vic too.

But is everything about Stacey’s windfall really as it seems?

Either way, it looks like it will be Kat who will win the bidding war, as reports have already claimed she will be The Vic’s new Queen.

She previously ran the pub between 2010 and 2013 with husband Alfie Moon (Shane Richie), before Linda and husband Mick Carter (Danny Dyer) took over following their arrival in Walford.

Ian has also enjoyed a stint behind the bar too, as he lived in the boozer with Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean) in 2020, after the Carters temporarily sold the place to Sharon.

A bizarre turn of events saw longtime best friends Sharon and Ian get married, but Ian had no idea that she had been plotting revenge against him after finding out he had inadvertently been responsible for the death of her son Dennis Rickman (Bleu Landau).

High-camp scenes saw Sharon try to kill Ian with a poisoned Christmas pudding, but she soon had second thoughts and revealed the truth, before eventually forcing Ian to leave Walford.

Meanwhile, the pub was eventually sold back to the Carters in 2021, and Linda now owns it with her mum Elaine Peacock (Harriet Thorpe), following Mick’s presumed drowning in 2022.