EastEnders’ Steven Beale will find himself stuck between a rock and a hard place as he is confronted by Max Branning in fiery scenes airing next week.
After a failed attempt to get the upper hand, the tables turn for Steven (Aaron Sidwell) as he finds himself trapped by Max (Jake Wood), who threatens to reveal his brain tumour lie to Lauren Branning.
New photos reveal the clash from next Thursday night’s episode and show Max pinning Steven up against a wall as he attempts to blackmail him into helping with a risky task.
Viewers have watched in disbelief as Steven lied to Lauren (Jacqueline Jossa) about having a brain tumour.
It comes as Aaron revealed he was leaving the BBC One soap and told viewers they will “start to see the danger” in Steven as his storyline with Max hots up.
He returned to the soap last year after previously playing the character in 2008.
He revealed: “That’s a great dynamic that’s not fully come into play yet, and Steven’s very much been the manipulator and now he is becoming manipulated.
“I think we are going to start to see the danger there now, because he’s completely out of control of the situation, he was any way, but now he’s not even running the show… he really does become the puppet.”
Meanwhile, Aaron opened up about his heartbreak after losing his best friend to a brain tumour a few weeks ago.
And he got emotional as he spoke about the tragedy during an appearance on Lorraine.
With his character Steven lying about having the exact same disease, the star revealed it was difficult to film because his friend was suffering for real.
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Stand in host Christine Lampard said: “I have to ask you Aaron, it’s an awful thing – here you are playing this role, pretending to have brain cancer, but actually in real life one of your really good friends was dealing with this disease and sadly lost his flight just a week ago.
“That must have been a dreadful period for you.”
Aaron, who appeared to get emotional, said: “It wasn’t easy. He’s such a young man with two beautiful girls, just a couple of years younger than mine.
“To have lost his battle, it was very tough personally, but this is what we do.
“You can’t always do the stories you want to do, and this was given to me and I had to run with it.”
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He went on to explain that his cast mates were amazing support for him including Jacqueline Jossa, his on-screen fiancee.
He said: “I always had Jacqueline so was able to talk to Jac the entire time. We have a very close family life as well as close [work] one, so I had her the whole time.”