Alfie Moon (Shane Richie) has returned to EastEnders – and has received a firm warning from wife Kat (Jessie Wallace) concerning the multitude of lies he’s told her.

As viewers of the BBC One soap know, he’s spent the last few weeks searching for his estranged step-daughter Zoe Slater (Michelle Ryan), who fled London for Barcelona after telling him that she’d done something ‘so bad’ that her family would disown her.

Zoe and Kat haven’t seen one another in years, and she was adamant that her mother play no part in her life. As a result, Alfie had to think quickly for an excuse to leave.

He first told his family that his brother Spencer (Christopher Parker) – who lives in Australia – was in turmoil, so had to rush off to be by his side.

Of course, it didn’t take long for the truth to out and Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner) was forced to say Alfie had suffered a cancer scare, and was in Spain trying to clear his head.

Stace’s mum Jean (Gillian Wright) then began asking questions about what was going on, and yet another lie was created – that Alfie needed money to track down his own daughter Cherry, after her mum Hayley (Katie Jarvis) ended up in a bad way.

Kat got wind of what was being discussed, and saw red. She couldn’t wait for Alfie to return so that she could confront him.

Back in Spain, Alfie thought that Kat knew about Zoe. While drunk, he poured his heart out and told her everything about what was going on in a voicemail message.

Arriving back in tonight’s episode, he feared the worst. He was firstly surprised to learn that he was now landlord of The Queen Vic, with Kat making the purchase in his absence.

She put on a façade, making it seem like she was thrilled to have him home. But as he relished in the glory of getting away with his many, many fibs, Kat slung a bouquet of flowers around his head and drenched him in champagne.

Upstairs, Alfie assumed she’d listened to the voicemail. However, as their conversation progressed, it became clear that she still believed that he was trying to find Hayley and Cherry.

Kat – having calmed down – said that it would be wrong for her to dismiss his concerns about his daughter, and that if she ever found herself in that situation with Zoe she knew he’d feel similar.

But there was one condition. The lies stopped immediately.

If only she knew!

But there was one big issue. She still hadn’t listened to the voicemail from the night before, and despite Alfie’s attempts to delete it, it was still there.

She headed out into Bridge Street for some privacy, with Stacey rushing after with an excuse to bring her back in. However, just as Kat pressed play on the incriminating voice note, she was mugged by a lad on an e-scooter.

Later, it transpired that this person was drug dealer Okie (Aayan Ibikunle Shoderu), who then dropped the device off at Harry Mitchell’s (Elijah Holloway) flat.