EastEnders spoilers: Stuart Highway actor Ricky Champ teases twist in intense two-hander episode with Linda Carter

Tonight will see the huge two-hander EastEnders episode air starring just Kellie Bright as Linda Carter and Ricky Champ as Stuart Highway, with Linda attempting to finally get a confession out of Stuart to help save husband Mick.

Mick has been banged up for shooting his dodgy pal, but viewers are well aware that Stuart in fact shot himself. Over the last few weeks Linda has been pulling out the big guns to get him to confess, but so far to no avail.

Tonight, however, will see her go one step further to extract that all important truth, but will she put herself in danger to do so? We know that not only is Stuart mildly unhinged, he seems to be starting to fall for Linda, so no doubt whatever is about to go on between them wont go as smoothly as Linda hopes.

But will she be successful? To find out youll have to watch, but in a chat with metro.co.uk, Ricky has teased a big twist, and revealed the episode, shot entirely in The Vic, is seriously intense.

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Speaking of the big twist, he teased: How the episode is left Stuart is scrambling to get out of it, but initially before any of that theres a real shame here with Stuart. Whilst he has been softened on the outside with Linda and hes gone into this with a clear idea of what he wants to do and have Linda, and then all of a sudden we see Stuart leading up to this two hander when his defences are down, when hes most vulnerable. Hes been completely duped. I was playing falling, he was falling for Linda. And maybe it comes out hes always loved Linda, just the same as hes always loved Mick. The antithesis is that Mick has been hardened in prison, so when the two of them should meet again, youll see something very different.

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What was it like to film, was it intense?

Intense is the right word. We split it into two obvious parts, the upstairs and the downstairs. The upstairs was filmed in one day and the downstairs was filmed in one day. It was 58 pages duologue. I remember opening it and the full cast list stared at me – Stuart, Linda. That was daunting. Two huge scenes. We got our teeth into it, there was limited time to rehearse as with any work here because it moves so fast. Myself and Kellie, we were able to grab 10 minutes here and there to run lines and go over a scene. A lot of the episode was intimate or close and physical. We had to go about it safely and cleverly.

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What was it like to film the intimate stuff?

I always approach something physical with another actor in a professional way, be a gentleman, make sure your breath smells nice, and go for it. Serve the story as best you can. Approach it like you would a fight scene or a dance, heavily choreograph it out, so you can convey what youre trying to get across. And when youre doing physical stuff you have to make the choices together and its a real privilege when its with someone like Kellie Bright. She was great to work with.

The chemistry between you is great and it looks like its all been shot in one take

Thats down to our lovely director John Howlett. He had a very strong idea where he wanted to see the scenes from, and where he wanted to shoot it. He didnt shoot it excessively. Because it was so intense we only got a couple of gos at most of it. Luckily enough our energies were correct. Im thrilled with it, you dont get this opportunity that much.

How did it feel having an episode about just you two?

I think that it was having the time, its like a kid in the classroom, if there are 50 other kids youre not going to get much attention from teacher, but if theres two of you its all about you. Im not going to lie, the actor in the spotlight in me definitely came out. It was great to grab the bull by the horns and crack on and it was all about us. Even though it was really daunting learning that in the middle of two busy blocks, the other episodes dont wait for you youre just doing a two hander in the middle of it. It was daunting. I enjoyed most when it finished, in the sense that there was a real relief and a real feeling of accomplishment. If I can do that in an episode, I can do anything.

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Are you worried about how fans might react to you after this episode?

No nothing like that, I play Stuart Highway, Im accustomed to that! Thats not a problem. Im nervous because you put a lot of yourself into it. And when you do that I always feel nervous because I really want people to like it.

EastEnders is a great bunch of people, a great bunch of actors who care about the show. It translates on screen and since my time in EastEnders Ive noticed that feeling of wanting to do really well from everyone. Its quite infectious. It makes for a great place to work.

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