EastEnders continues to ramp up the drama as Sharon Mitchell, played by Letitia Dean, receives unsettling news about her father.

The Mitchells are facing a hard enough time as it is as they prepare to say a fond farewell to matriarch Peggy Mitchell, so memorably portrayed by Dame Barbara Windsor.

Sharon is doing her best to comfort Phil (Steve McFadden), but then Gavin’s sister, her aunt Margaret Midhurst (Jan Harvey), returns to give her an update about Gavin.

Letitia Dean and Steve McFadden in EastEnders (Jack Barnes/BBC)
Letitia Dean and Steve McFadden in EastEnders (Jack Barnes/BBC)

Last year, he had taken his ex-wife Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth) hostage and threatened to blow up a box of fireworks.

Talking to the Radio Times, actress Letitia revealed that Sharon is a bag of nerves. “She knows how dangerous Gavin is,” she said.

“She has seen what he did to Phil and also how he behaved at Halloween. But now she knows he’s her father, I think a small part of her believes he wouldn’t hurt her.

“But can she really be sure of that? All I will say is all lives are at risk. Gavin is a man on a mission and he is desperate, which is a really dangerous mix.”

Sharon and Margaret exchange words in EastEnders
Sharon and Margaret exchange words in EastEnders (BBC)

EastEnders fans barely had time to take in the “Ello Princess” bombshell about evil Gavin being the biological father of Sharon before he showed his true colours.

But now there are more shocks in store for one of Albert Square’s original characters.

Adoptive parents Den Watts (played by Leslie Grantham) and wife Angie (Anita Dobson) loved Sharon as if she was their own child, but the spirited blonde tracked down her birth mother and had long wondered about her real father.

Paul Nicholas as Gavin in EastEnders
Paul Nicholas as Gavin in EastEnders (BBC)

Sharon confronted Gavin, only to be left heartbroken when she learned why he had sold her to Den: “I was hardly cut out to be a dad,” he said.

“I just never did kids.”

In true EastEnders style – this wasn’t the end. Gavin wreaked havoc during his time in Albert Square and now he is back with the intention of getting Kathy by any means necessary. Even if it involves his daughter.