There’s a whole heap of drama to occur in the Queen Vic and beyond.

The BBC One soap is nearing the end of its 40th year on television, and it has been a huge year of drama for our favourites in Walford.

Now, as Christmas approaches, we thought we would catch you up on the action that lies ahead in Walford.

Much of the main Christmas Day action will take place in – you guessed it – the Queen Vic pub as a long-running storyline with the Slaters looks set to explode. At the same time, it seems an awkward Christmas dinner with the Beales-Brannings lies ahead.

In case you somehow missed the news, Zoe Slater (Michelle Ryan) made a surprise return to Walford after 20 years away and having grown estranged from mother, Kat Moon (Jessie Wallace).

It was clear that Zoe was hiding a dark secret, and we soon discovered that in 2006, Zoe gave birth to twins, and while she believed that her daughter had died, she abandoned her son in her grief.

In recent months, Zoe has been trying to raise funds to help track down her long-lost son and along the way, she met Max Branning and entered into a romantic relationship with him until they split after she almost killed a man who attacked her after she sought information from him on her son.

Zoe later came back to Walford after being tracked down by younger brother Tommy Moon (Sonny Kendall) and was reunited with Kat after a long period of arguing, and was also shot by accident – don’t worry about that bit.

After coming clean to Kat, her mum vowed to Zoe that they would find her son. Zoe also briefly pretended that her ex-boyfriend, Dennis Rickman (Nigel Harman), was the father of her twins, but this turned out to be a lie to con Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean) into paying to track down the twins.

Meanwhile, Zoe was also reunited with her ex-boyfriend – and Kat’s ex-boyfriend – Dr Anthony Truemam (Nicholas Bailey). Anthony has split from his wife, Sophie, and was later revealed to have had a restraining order brought against him.

It also became clear that Anthony was fixated on being with Zoe again.

During this time, Zoe began to receive threatening messages and was attacked and stalked by a mysterious tormentor – and she accused everyone and sundry of being responsible, particularly Jean Slater (Gillian Wright).

After briefly reigniting his romance with the vulnerable Zoe, Anthony recently did some digging for Kat on Zoe’s children and discovered that both twins were alive, and the dates meant that he was likely the father

Furious that Zoe had hidden the twins’ existence from him, Anthony lied to Kat that both twins had died.

Zoe also survived an arson attack on the former home of Dot Branning (June Brown), where she had been staying, but she was saved.

Moving back to the Vic for Christmas, Kat kept the false news of Zoe’s dead children from her before Zoe received a card, apparently from her son, telling her he would visit her on Christmas Day.

However, viewers are aware of further twists…

Jasmine Fisher’s true identity

Arriving in Walford in the Autumn was confident newcomer Jasmine Fisher (Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness), who swiftly got a job at The Albert and began a romance with Oscar Branning (Pierre Counihan-Moullier).

However, fans were suspicious of Jasmine due to her cageyness about sharing identity papers at work and her apparent fixation on her new boss, Cindy Beale (Michelle Collins).

The focus on Cindy, along with Jasmine’s focus on revenge and even breaking into GP records, led the Beales-Brannings to fear she was connected to the Ford crime family, who had forced Cindy to previously fake her death and go into witness protection.

This resulted in Cindy fleeing Walford and Jasmine being arrested. Then, in the police interview, the truth was revealed: Jasmine was Zoe Slater’s daughter, alive and well.

Despite some interactions with her mother, Jasmine remained focused on revenge against her birth mother, revealed in flashbacks as Zoe’s tormentor.

Sadly, Jasmine had some doubts, but these were discouraged by her accomplice…

More spoilers to follow…