Cindy Beale shows her true colours as she clashes with the Panesars and George Knight in EastEnders
IAN Beale is desperate to get into business with the Panesar family and Cindy has agreed to help.
However, the EastEnders icon played by Michelle Collins makes it clear she still has a villainous streak as she ruffles many feathers.
After finding out that his mother had been trying to sell his chippy, Ian Beale (played by Adam Woodyatt) returned to Albert Square with the firm intention of staying in business.
In doing so, Ian decided to turn to the Panesars but they were less than impressed by his business acumen until his wife Cindy Beale took control of their deal.
Coming up next week on BBC One, Cindy launches a new bid to get investment from the Panesars with a pie and mash shop business pitch.
Deeply uncomfortable about getting into bed with Suki’s family, Peter Beale (Thomas Law) confesses their past to his mother Cindy.
As regular viewers of the London-based drama will remember, Peter was not only romantically involved with Ash Panesar but also bedded Suki.
Unfortunately for him, Cindy uses Peter’s past as leverage over Vinny Panesar (Shiv Jalota).
Elsewhere, Ravi Gulati (Aaron Thiara) is horrified to discover Nugget is missing and lays the blame at Suki’s door and they begin a desperate search for him.
Later at The Vic, Nish (Navin Chowdhry) is about to sign the Beales contract when Ravi bursts in to share the news about Nugget going missing.
Cindy’s continued efforts to get the deal done provoke fury in Nish, who slams her parenting track record.
Hurt, she bites back and rips up the contract in Nish’s face, blowing the whole deal.
Following her row with Nish, Cindy hits Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) up for the investment money and almost succeeds.
However, this time it’s Ian who blows the deal after flat-out refusing to take cash from Phil.
Later, Cindy gets distracted when Peter shares his pain over being dismissed by sisters Gina and Anna Knight.
She goes to the pub to try to talk to them and ends up having a heart-to-heart with Gina (Francesca Henry), witnessed by Anna (Molly Rainford).
Soft-hearted Anna decides to tell her mum that George (Colin Salmon) has a buyer for the bar.
In later scenes, Cindy tells Ian that George is selling the Marbella bar, and half of it belongs to her.
Elaine and George’s excitement over the bar sale is destroyed by Cindy, who comes to stake her claim.
Determined to keep things civil, George invites her and Ian to dinner to talk over the issue.
Tensions are high as the foursome sit down together, but when Cindy gets George alone, she becomes manipulative.
Could it backfire?
EastEnders airs from Monday to Thursday at 7.30pm on BBC One.
