‘EastEnders’ looks set to get its first gay bar.
Kate Oates, senior executive producer of ‘EastEnders’, ‘Casualty’ and ‘Holby City’, has teased the BBC One soap’s fans they can expect to see more LGBTQ characters grace Walford with their presence in the coming year, and the characters will also have a "super cool precinct" to hang out in.
She said: "I’m really interested in bringing some more LGBTQ characters in. Maybe we’ll have a new precinct for them as well?
"We’re looking at opening a new gay bar on the Square. It will be a super cool precinct where gay and straight characters can all just hang out and loads of stories can cross. It will be something really exciting, really fun and visual.
"It should be something really exciting, really fun, really visual and feel really true to multi-cultural London."
Kate teased one of the big storylines of 2019 will be a "long-running saga" involving the Mitchells, which will come off the back of Sharon Mitchell’s (Letitia Dean) affair with Keanu Taylor (Danny Walters), which has been dubbed "Sheanu" by fans of the show.
She said: "We’ve got a really long-running saga with the Mitchell family. It all comes from the Sheanu story. But it’s really exciting, because everybody involved all have really strong agency in it.
"There’s lots of twists and turns."
Things look set to come crashing down for patriarch and Walford hardman Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) but not before he gets close to his employee Keanu, without knowing about Sheanu.
Speaking in a Q&A video on EastEnders’ official Twitter account, Kate added: "What I like about it is Phil is going to find himself in a place where he’s kind of complacent about life.
"Things seem to be falling into place, he’s really close to Sharon, so he thinks, and he becomes increasingly close to Keanu.
"Keanu is a really good guy, he’s a hard worker, has a good moral compass. So Phil starts to become close to him."
The soap recently confirmed a number of new additions – including Karen Taylor’s (Lorraine Stanley) daughter Chantelle – and the return of Danielle Harold as Lola Pearce, and Kate admitted there are "a couple more secret returnees" on the cards.
EastEnders to get first gay bar
