Vicki Fowler (Alice Haig) has been left gobsmacked after the identity of her blackmailer was revealed in EastEnders.

Earlier this week, following her hen do, Vicki enjoyed a passionate moment with Zack Hudson (James Farrar). This isn’t the first time the two have connected, despite being warned by Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth) about pursuing something serious.

While Vicki told fiancé Ross Marshall (Alex Walkinshaw) that she had been unfaithful, she didn’t tell him who with!

Little did the two realise at the time, someone had snapped a picture of their illicit encounter.

Matters worsened when Vicki received a text demanding £20,000, and she was forced to tell brother Mark (Stephen Aaron-Sipple) what had happened. He used some software to determine where the message had been sent from, and the pinpoint was on Lauren Beale’s (Jacqueline Jossa) house.

Cindy Beale (Michelle Collins) and son Peter (Thomas Law) had credible alibis – they’d both been in the cinema when the text was sent, so it couldn’t be them. Lauren was completely clueless, as was Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt) – until he clocked what was going on.

He urged Vicki to come clean to Ross before the blackmailer had opportunity to, but it wasn’t long before the culprit was revealed. While visiting Nigel Bates (Paul Bradley) in his care home, Ian and Kathy clocked that their grandson Louie (Jake McNally) was acting strangely.

They took him back to Albert Square for an audience with Vicki, who asked him to delete the image and never speak of what he saw. She also questioned how he knew what blackmail was – and he spilled that his granny Cindy had told him that it was sometimes a “necessary evil”!

Very Cindy.

Louie also explained that he’d only asked for the money in order to support Lauren and Peter, who were wanting to raise funds to send his little brother Jimmy to a specialist nursery.

Later, Ian told Vicki and Zack that he felt guilty lying to Ross. She shouldn’t be marrying him, and that there was clearly a lack of trust in their relationship.

He said that he wouldn’t be able to look Ross in the face and be his best man on the wedding day, and that he’d have to back out. Ian also asserted that if he knew they’d been together again, he’d tell Ross everything.

That night, things turned incredibly awkward. A disheartened Zack had been asked to replace Ian, and so not to arouse anymore suspicion, he’d accepted.