Lacey Turner has hinted at tough scenes ahead for her ‘on-edge’ EastEnders character Stacey Slater as her world starts imploding.

It’s been a busy few weeks for the bap van trader, who has left terrified Nish Panesar (Navin Chowdhry) would shop her and the rest of The Six to the police after discovering their involvement in Keanu Taylor’s (Danny Walters) murder.

While Nish wound up taking the fall for the crime, Stacey was then dealt another blow when her best mate Eve Unwin (Heather Peace) found out about their crime and broke off her engagement to Suki Panesar (Balvinder Sopal).

Stacey was then stunned when her former best friend Ruby Allen (Louisa Lytton) returned to Walford and revealed she had a secret child with Stacey’s ex-husband Martin Fowler (James Bye).

Next week, her concerns for mum Jean Slater (Gillian Wright) also grow after it was revealed she’d fallen victim to a financial scam. 

‘I think there is a lot going on in Stacey’s world at the moment,’ Lacey says.  

‘Nish is aware about the events of Christmas, Eve had gone AWOL and Ruby’s suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and Martin has another child! To add to that, her mum is obviously not in a great place, so I think there’s a lot going on for Stacey, and she’s on-edge.’

Speaking of Stacey’s concerns for Jean, Lacey says: ‘When it comes to her mum, it’s always a worry because you never know how far anything is going to go with her mental health. 

‘It’s difficult to know if it’s going to pass quickly or if it’s going to escalate, so whenever it comes to Jean, she is always very worried about where it could lead.’

She also hints that fans should not expect an immediate reconciliation between Stacey and Ruby, who previously had her mate sent to prison after she falsely accused Stacey of pushing her down the stairs, resulting in her losing her unborn child. 

‘She doesn’t trust Ruby as far as she can throw her,’ Lacey says. ‘The last time they saw each other, things obviously didn’t end very well and Stacey ended up spending six months in prison because Ruby lied. 

I’m not sure that they’ll ever get past that, although, I think Stacey is trying to do the right thing for Martin, and she’s trying to do the right thing by his child. I guess there is also a bit of mothers instinct in Stacey that sympathises with Ruby, but I think she is very wary and keeping Ruby at arm’s length.

‘At the moment, in Stacey’s world those bridges have been burnt, but in time, maybe it could change.’

The same can’t be said for Stacey’s friendship with Eve, however, as Lacey reveals the pair will soon patch things up when Eve returns from Brighton next week. 

‘What I love about Stacey and Eve’s relationship is that both of them can do things wrong, but they’re so close and they’re such good friends, that they’ll get over it quickly,’ she explains. ‘They can have a row, say what they need to say to each other, and then it’s done and they can move on.’

She teased that Eve may not be quite as forgiving where it comes to Suki, though.

‘Eve can’t help but forgive Stacey, whereas I think with Suki it’s different because that’s a different kind of relationship. Stacey tries to make Eve see that she can’t have one rule for Stacey and one rule for Suki.’

EastEnders airs Monday to Thursday at 7.30pm on BBC One and iPlayer.