EastEnders' Phil Mitchell's big demand over Keanu murder in early BBC iPlayer release

As Father's Day arrived, Phil was feeling lonely, with eldest son Ben (Max Bowden) in prison in America and daughter Louise (Tilly Keeper) living abroad. Meanwhile, young son Raymond (Michael Jose Pomares Calixte) was being taken to the Truemans' for the day by his mum Denise Fox (Diane Parish).

Phil was also left out of a video call Ben would be having that day with his husband Callum Highway (Tony Clay), daughter Lexi Pearce (Isabella Brown) and Jay Brown (Jamie Borthwick).

This only left Phil's youngest child Albie (Arthur Gentleman), who does not yet know that Phil, and not Keanu, is his biological father.

Phil persuaded Albie's mum Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean) to let him play football with the little boy; while across the Square, Keanu's mum Karen Taylor (Lorraine Stanley) aired her suspicions after Dean Wicks's (Matt Di Angelo) pointed the finger at the true killer, Linda Carter (Kellie Bright).

At The Vic, Karen revealed that Dean had accused Linda of lying about seeing him carry Keanu's body at Christmas, and suggested that Linda had good reason to want her rapist Dean jailed.

When Linda commented that Dean needed to be locked up "whatever it takes", detective Callum had cause for concern. In the café, though, Callum assured Karen that all the findings in the police case stacked up against Dean, leaving her convinced enough to head back to Spain for good.

But then Johnny Carter (Charlie Suff) warned a bemused Callum to keep Karen away from Linda; and after Sharon convinced Callum to include Phil in Ben's video call, Sharon rushed off abruptly when Callum suggested maybe Dean wasn't guilty after all.

At Phil's house, Callum told him about Linda, Johnny and Sharon's reactions, wondering if Linda's witness statement was wrong. While Sharon put in a call to Jack Branning (Scott Maslen), who was aware of the truth, Phil abandoned the call with Ben to head over to Sharon's.

When Sharon left her phone unattended, Phil spotted a text from Linda saying that Karen was gone, but that Callum was asking questions. Knowing that Sharon had something to hide, Phil demanded answers. Will Sharon be able to throw him off the scent?

Read more:

• EastEnders airs ominous cliffhanger for Karen and The Six in early BBC iPlayer release
• EastEnders' Sharon Watts makes big decision in early BBC iPlayer release
• RadioTimes.com Soap Awards reveals 2024 nominations
• EastEnders cast: Who is joining, leaving and returning to the soap?
• 5 EastEnders spoilers: Callum Highway and Phil Mitchell grow suspicious over Keanu’s murder

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