EastEnders’ Lauren gains new allies in feud but the result is unexpected

EastEnders’ Lauren Branning (Jacqueline Jossa) gets help from some surprising sources as she steps up her battle with her dad Max Branning (Jake Wood) for control of the car lot next week.

Lauren recently bagged her father’s investment to buy the local Walford business from former owner Jay Brown (Jamie Borthwick), but quickly realised they had very different ideas about how their new partnership would run.

While Lauren assumed Max would be a silent partner, Max saw himself as very much in charge of the operation, having previously owned the car lot.

As a result, Lauren has been on a mission to prove to her dad she is capable of running the show, although she did recently make the mistake of selling a stolen motor supplied to her from hunky gangster Mark Fowler Jr (Stephen Aaron-Sipple). Not ideal.

Max then upped the ante by making her a huge offer – if she manages to sell £80,000 worth of cars within a month, he’ll give her half of the business.

Forthcoming scenes will see Lauren intensify her efforts to win the bet, and pub landlord Alfie Moon offers her a leg up when he points her in the direction of a supplier he knows offering cheap vintage cars that she can restore and sell on for profit.

Lauren then strikes a deal with Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) to carry out the repairs, but things take a turn when Mark steps in and asks his uncle Phil if he can take on the work on his behalf.

Now, Mark’s relationship with Lauren is somewhat complicated by the fact that she found out he was behind a recent carjacking that she was caught up in, later warning him to stay away from her and the business.

However, when the car arrives from the supplier and isn’t what she was expecting, Mark is there to save the day.

While he concludes there is no chance of making a profit, he promises to help Lauren recoup her money.

As the characters are once again thrown back into each other’s orbit, it will do nothing to stop speculation that the pair are about to embark on a steamy affair.

Back in the New Year’s Day flashforward episode, it was heavily hinted that Lauren had been cheating on husband Peter Beale (Thomas Law) before she was  later seen sharing scenes with Mark, who was unknown to the audience at the time of the flashforward ep airing.