CINDY Beale has been left fighting for her life in an induced coma in EastEnders after the horror Christmas attack.
The businesswoman – who is played by actress Michelle Collins in the BBC soap – was hit with a shovel by a mystery attacker as she tried to flee Walford after her affair with Junior Knight was exposed last night.
Cindy had clashed with her family and ripped into them all leaving a convenient list of suspects in her attack.
They are husband to be Ian Beale, his mother Kathy, her lover Junior Knight, daughters Anna and Gina Knight, son Peter Beale, his girlfriend Lauren Branning, her own ex George Knight and his wif Elaine.
In tonight’s episode George and Kathy found Cindy in the Square hours after she was attacked – but there was a strange clue.
When viewers saw Cindy collapse from the attack she fell onto her front, face down.
But when she was found she was on her back – having been turned over by someone else, possibly her attacker.
As her friends and family claimed to think it was a mugging gone wrong, the police disavowed them of this notion.
And suspicion fell amongst them.
Gina tried to throw blame onto Ian, while Kathy defended him, and George suspected his own son Junior when he found him packing to leave hastily for Dubai.
However it’s going to be a long wait for the truth as soap bosses have revealed the truth will be exposed in February for the live episode.
EastEnders boss Chris Clenshaw revealed: “Our 40th anniversary storylines have been in the works for some time, but even at the very start of planning, we knew that we wanted to reveal the identity of Cindy’s attacker as part of this.
The Sun’s Soaps Editor Carl Greenwood runs down the suspects in the big EastEnders whodunnit
Anna Knight
Shall we just rule Anna out straight away?
The woman’s barely got enough about her to kill a fly, so the chances of her finally becoming worthy of being Cindy Beale’s daughter and bashing her over the head with a shovel are slim to none.
But she was watching out of the Queen Vic window so she may well know who did attack her mother.
Gina Knight
Fiery, recovering drug addict Gina is a good shout for shovel-ing her mother this Christmas.
She’s got the boxing skills of George and the temper of Cindy – so she definitely has the ability and will to take her mother down.
And she was seen sneaking out of the Vic just before Cindy was attacked.
Peter Beale
This Peter is a bit of a drip – he’s more Anna, than Gina, shall we say.
It’s hard to imagine him being able to pick up a shovel without mummy’s approval.
But having said that he was seen drowning his sorrows in tears shortly before the attack, so maybe he finally embraced his mum’s side?
Lauren Branning
Never before has a character failed to learn from her past mistakes more than Lauren.
Except Cindy obviously who appears doomed to repeat the affair cycle until the day she dies.
But Lauren’s ability to ruin Christmas is unrivalled – and it provoked explosive drama.
And it left her with a bag of pills in the car lot having lost her relationship, her family and her son – and it’s all Cindy’s fault.
So could Lauren be the one responsible?
Ian Beale
For a man whose Christmases have included the time he was nearly murdered by his wife with a killer carbonara, you’d think he’d have quite low threshold for bad days but this was something else.
Humiliated in public by a recording of Cindy saying he couldn’t satisfy her so much so she was sleeping with her former stepson, Ian didn’t have a happy Christmas.
He threw a drink over and then punched Junior, before rejecting Cindy and throwing her out onto the streets.
Last seen smashing up his own living room and storming out into the Square, he was certainly in the mood for killing Cindy.
But could he? Really?
Kathy Beale
There’s been no love lost between Kathy and Cindy since they both returned from the dead and a full-on brawl is well overdue.
But after everything that happened last Christmas, would Kathy really want to go through that again?
It’s a miracle she managed to get back into the Vic.
Elaine Peacock
The Queen Vic landlady’s scheme to get rid of Cindy once and for all backfired quite spectacularly.
She began Christmas Day convinced she was about to be rid of Cindy forever – but ended it single and alone.
Hearing George rage about Junior taking what was his pushed her over the edge and she kicked George out.
But did it push her enough to grab a shovel and try to kill Cindy?
George Knight
Cindy cost him everything.
He’s now homeless, job-less and son-less after Cindy’s affair was exposed and as a former professional boxer he’s capable of explosive rage.
He was seen working out his emotions on a punching bag, but maybe it didn’t work and maybe he needed Cindy to pay for what she’d done?
Junior Knight
The spurned lover, unwanted son, humiliated man… things aren’t looking good for Junior.
He fell for Cindy, hook, line and sinker, and worse, he fell for her lies.
Last seen trying to call Cindy after everything went down – did he want to find her to kill her or to seduce her again?
“Many characters currently find themselves in the line of question, but over the coming weeks, the audience can look out for clues themselves to who may be the culprit.
“Cindy’s attacker reveal is just one of many stories we have planned for the anniversary as it is set to be a week of explosive drama for the audience to remember.”
