Emotions have been running high in Albert Square since teenager Shakil was stabbed back in May.
Mum Carmel has been struggling to cope with the loss of her youngest son, brother Kush is trying to keep it together, and Shaki’s friends are just hoping to make sense of it all one day.
So it’s no surprise that when his funeral arrives, things start to get a bit fraught.
As the residents of Walford steel themselves for the difficult day ahead, poor Kush realises that his distraught mum has gone missing.
She’s already told him she’s not going to the funeral, but surely she’s not going to let her son go without saying a proper farewell?
While everyone leaves for the church, a panicking Kush enlists the help of girlfriend Denise to help track his mum down.
She manages to find her friend and pleads with her to attend the funeral, warning she might regret it if she doesn’t go.
Thankfully, after a heart to heart, Carmel realises Denise is talking sense and the pair head to the church where she prepares to say an emotional goodbye to her beloved Shakil.
The drama happens in a special episode of EastEnders, airing on Friday 6th July at 9.15pm. It’s the first ever episode of a soap to share real-life stories among the fictional issues being depicted on screen.
During the episode, viewers will hear the stories of real-life victims of knife crime.
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“From the very beginning we were determined to treat the difficult subject of knife crime in a responsible, non-sensationalist way,” explained EastEnders executive consultant John Yorke.
“We started out with detailed research, and the more stories we heard the more we felt other people should hear them too. The episode gradually evolved into something unique for EastEnders – real families telling their own devastating stories alongside our own characters.
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“We’ve tried to find a way to do justice to an incredibly difficult, tragic and emotive subject, and with huge help from the families of real life victims and the support groups they work with, we hope we’ve come some way to getting that enormity across.”
Are you looking forward to seeing real-life stories form part of an episode of EastEnders? Or do you think fact and fiction should be kept separate? Let us know by commenting on our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix!