
EastEnders legend returns - and receives the short shrift over his behaviour
Just before Alfie left Walford, he received an important phone call from Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner).
In a flat, Alfie discovered that Stacey had been spending time with Kat's daughter Zoe Slater (Michelle Ryan). The Zoe we met last month was a far cry from the one we were first introduced to 20 years ago, but we're yet to really find out what led her to spiralling so badly.
Alfie was summoned to Stacey's to try and sort the situation, but when Kat followed him, a spooked Zoe climbed out of the window and ran away.
She was begged to return, but Zoe asserted that she'd done something 'so bad' that her family wouldn't want to speak to her. The next day, Stacey received a notification from her credit card company that a flight had been booked to Barcelona.
Fearing the worst, Alfie decided to follow – telling his suspicious wife that he was actually going to stay with brother Spencer (Christopher Parker) in Australia.
At the start of this month, Kat made a discovery about Alfie. She called Spencer, who admitted that Alfie wasn't with him and Kat charged towards Stacey. There, Stace' had to make an even bigger lie. She said that Alfie had suffered another cancer scare, and had gone to Spain to clear his head. More Trending
Kat was distraught, but seemed to accept the explanation. She headed home, and Stacey quickly contacted Alfie to tell him that he must go along with the story to save his marriage.
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Next week, Alfie heads home and it isn't long at all until Kat tears into him for lying about where he's been.
Believing he's actually been helping young daughter Cherry, Kat listens as Alfie promises to never lie to her again.
Someone should probably tell her about Zoe then, before things get even more out of hand…
View More »
MORE: Huge EastEnders update from Alfie that changes everything as Stacey forced to make a choice
MORE: All EastEnders cast returns, exits and new arrivals coming up in 2025
MORE: Help from Martin in EastEnders 'secures the future of The Vic' in final twist

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Metro
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Daily Mail
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3 hours ago
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If art is digging into the human condition, then Betty Grumble has arrived at the core with a pickaxe. The eco-sexual sex clown (more on this later) will be taking her most risky show yet to this year's Edinburgh Fringe in Betty Grumble's Enemies of Grooviness Eat Sh!t. The show is a flowing blend of clownery, silliness, fleshiness, poetry and in its essence is deeply queer – born from drag, burlesque, strip-tease and underground LGBT scenes. Betty Grumble is both profane and profound – depending on who you ask. Her show is also deeply personal for Emma Maye Gibson, the Australian performance artist behind Grumble, she explains in a chat with Metro ahead of her Fringe run. Gibson's alter-ego Grumble – a 'war-mask' against patriarchy and love letter to living – will be masturbating and orgasming on stage every night. Emma Gibson explains: 'If you haven't encountered a sex clown before, you might imagine somebody who uses their body to remind us to love ourselves.' Audience members will be encouraged to look at a content brochure pre-show, which will warn of 'sex scenes' and 'joyfully wetter full-frontal nudity'. The orgasm is a release of all Gibson's personal grief: of losing her best friend, drag artist Candy Royal, in 2018, and the grief of injustice in her horrifying domestic violence ordeal. Gibson has aptly named the moment the 'Grief Cum'. 'I did it last night, and I hadn't actually had an orgasm in my personal life in about a little while, maybe a week and a half,' she says. 'The first time I ever did the show I was so nervous… I didn't fake it, I just didn't have a kind of clench-release orgasm that some of us have. It didn't happen for me. 'So the next night, I said to myself, 'You have to, let's experience this. Let's really go for it.' So I allowed myself to kind of really be seen in all of the contortion and twists that can happen as you're climbing in that way. 'And I did. 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'Whenever I feel myself hardening in particular ways to the world with anxiety and stress, the eco-sexual mindset can help me just expand and breathe out. 'I can zoom into the gradient of the blade of grass and think: 'How am I bringing pleasure and love to this absolutely extraordinary dimension we find ourselves in and all of the living force we're sharing?'' It's an undeniably vulnerable act. But Betty Grumble isn't just about radical rumination: she's also punk. 'Grumble has always helped me celebrate my body, but also criticise the ways in which it has been hurt by patriarchy,' Gibson says. 'In 2018, I experienced domestic violence in a relationship and I then court justice through the court system. It was the same year that my best friend died, and those two griefs kind of composted me,' she says. 'So what I do is share that compost on stage.' It goes without saying that the Grief Cum is also a march against shame – and the male gaze. 'I've been really interested in shame, and where shame lives in the body, and the power of pleasure as a tonic for that,' Gibson says. 'For women, especially – and I use that term really expansively – our bodies have been the site of so much violation, so the orgasm, the Grief Cum and sharing my body that way is a deliberate act of un-shaming. 'Even though I'm talking about my own story, what I'm actually talking about is another way of being with pain and grief and coming to love our bodies despite the wounds that we have.' While all this is a lovely idea, reality is rearing its cynical head. Yes, queer spaces are magic – but isn't Gibson worried about a more mainstream and possibly less respectful audience at the Edinburgh Fringe? Many of them may not be there for Betty Grumble, but for an eye-catching leaflet, or a night on the town. Some will likely scoff at and resist her art. 'We're connected as humans by being human, and it's the role of the artist to make visible the invisible, and the team and I have done a lot of work to translate and to hold the meaning of the show in a protective membrane,' Gibson says. 'So this was a really valid point. But I also think that the Fringe is a place to take risks, and there are people that might come into the show and be surprised, either happily or not, and that's okay, because we can make that together.' Rather than hushing the audience into submission, Gibson is actually inviting them to participate in her Grief Cum. Come again? (No pun intended.) 'They're involved in a percussive way,' Gibson says, carefully avoiding ruining the surprises of the show. 'They can contribute energetically to the soundscape. They are given a tool to assist the climax,' she says, cryptically. 'A sonic tool!' she adds quickly, before explaining, '…I just kind of want people to be surprised by it.' Of course, Gibson isn't a fool: she knows her art is unsettling stuff. But why shouldn't it be? 'It's a big invitation to sit in some discomfort. The ocean goes through different tides; waters are sometimes calm and then sometimes tumultuous, and that's good for us,' she says. 'When handled the right way, this kind of work can be helpful, and that's why I play with taboo and play with my body in particular ways.' Gibson's goal isn't to shock you, however much this may feel like a wacky, avant-garde Fringe stunt to get tongues wagging. 'I don't sit home and go, 'How will I shock them now?' I genuinely want to invite people into my body, even though I'm very aware of taboo protocol. More Trending 'While there are reasons things are taboo, people have agency to be in their bodies in a particular way. 'There are boundaries that definitely need to be tested, especially as we pendulate the way we are towards more conservatism.' She adds: 'I hope that this act of pleasure can be one that is of defiance, but also unity.' See Betty Grumble's Enemies of Grooviness Eat Sh!t from August 1 to 24 at 9.15pm at Assembly Roxy – Upstairs. Tickets here. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: 'I was in love with an incarcerated man – now he's my Edinburgh Fringe show' MORE: 'I was in Amazon Prime's biggest surprise hit – now you can watch me in a hotel room' MORE: Jewish comedians devastated as Edinburgh Fringe shows axed despite being non-political