Who killed Archie Mitchell?

The storyline that has the nation gripped. EastEnders' Archie Mitchell was murdered on Christmas Day 2009 when the bust of Queen Victoria was pushed off the bar of The Queen Vic and landed on his head. But whodunnit?

In my mind there have only been two suspects: Jack and Stacey. The show's executive producer has given a number of hints. He said there have been three big clues, initially he said "one in the Christmas Day episode, one more recently than Christmas and there's another one that, if I were to tell you where it was, would perhaps give it away too easily" but in a chat with Sharon Marshall, shown on today's This Morning, he said there was one in the Christmas Day episode, one about halfway through the investigation and one "on screen but not in the programme". He also has said that the outcome would be "surprising", "satisfying" and "in retrospect, inevitible", adding that "it makes sense". I also believe he said the killer was angry on Christmas Day. We know that the cast received their scripts for the Live Episode, featuring the reveal, about 10 days ago, that rehearsals for the 10 or so possible endings started about 2 or 3 days ago, and that the person playing the killer will only find out during the live broadcast.

Apparently Sean Slater is the bookies' favourite to be the killer. He might have come to the Vic on Christmas Day to see Amy and overheard Bradley and Archie talking about his sister Stacey and decided to kill Archie for raping Stacey. How does Sean fit in with what we know? Well, that would have made him angry on Christmas Day, but he wasn't mentioned so there's no real clue there. Also, he knows Amy isn't his daughter so why would he try to visit her? Maybe he wanted to see his wife Roxy? He didn't know the Mitchells had been kicked out of the Vic. I don't remember him being mentioned since, so I'm not sure how that fits with the second clue. However, when Diederick Santer was interviewed on This Morning a while ago, he said he was disappointed with Sean's exit. Could that be the third clue? Maybe we could be satisfied with his new exit?

Unfortunately for everyone, it doesn't make sense for it to be Sean, since if Rob Kazinsky had turned up for rehearsals, then everyone in the cast would know it was Sean. If Rob Kazinsky doesn't return and it's just mentioned that it's Sean, that won't be very satisfying, and also the killer won't be there to be told it's them. It has to be someone appearing in the episode, and if Sean was appearing, surely at least one other cast member would know about it? Unless he's going to shock everyone by having a solo scene! But I can't see Rob being sneaked into the set and hidden from everyone until the final scene. Would Santer have lied about the killer finding out during the broadcast?

Anyway, I don't think it's Sean, and I hope it's not Sean. From episode spoilers we know that Bradley Branning is leaving during the live episode, and we've all guessed that he dies in it. He's credited in the following episode on the BBC website, meaning he'll probably appear as a corpse. Larry Lamb, who plays Archie, appeared as a corpse for two episodes after his death and was still credited for those two episodes. Bradley is about to become the prime suspect for the murder because of Stacey's friend Becca Swanson, who it seems is becoming paranoid and knows all about Archie and Stacey, and what Bradley did at Christmas. Bradley may try to escape from Walford to avoid being sent down for the murder, and somehow die in the process. As he is dying, Stacey might tell him that she killed Archie, but then after Bradley dies, the case might close because the murder has been pinned on a dead person. DCI Marsden is also in the following episode, but it seems that's her last appearance.

Let's see how the clues fit in with Stacey. On Christmas Day, Stacey was seen looking towards the Vic before Archie was killed. Didn't she vanish after that? She would have been angry. It would make sense for it to be her, and it would be surprising and satisfying. I don't know what the other clues were. It's almost impossible to guess. If it was Jack then the major clue for me is in the Boxing Day episode where he went off to do something while Roxy and Ronnie stayed with Archie. So that doesn't work. We know Janine, Ian, Peggy and Phil were all heading for the Vic that day. Ian went to steal Archie's laptop, Peggy went for her divorce papers, Janine planned to kill Archie with a letter opener. I don't think it was any of them. Other clues were the blood on Phil's shirt and his lost cufflink. Phil claimed that he found Archie dead before Ronnie did and that's how he got the blood on his shirt. Do we believe him? There's also Ben. He had a perfect motive as Archie manipulated the entire Mitchell family. Could be. Then there's Ryan, who might have done it for Janine, and if it was him he's very clever at covering it up. I don't think so. Maybe it was Shirley. She covered up for Phil and tried to pin it on Janine by lying that she saw her on Christmas Day. I don't think it'll be anyone who is too obvious (i.e. the main suspects: Janine, Ronnie, Peggy, Phil, Ian, Bradley). Then there's the matter of the missing ring. Stolen from the Vic on Christmas Day, Janine was arrested after it was planted in her teapot. Shirley may have tried to pin it on Janine a second time. But I don't think so. Was the killer the person who stole the ring? Janine said that it probably was, and only Roxy, Peggy and Phil were there when she said it. Someone wearing black gloves too it, and lots of characters were seen with black gloves.

Also, Rob Kazinsky is currently filming in America! (Thanks, Kieran, for reminding me!)

This storyline has been so cleverly done that it could be almost anybody. But my first choice is Stacey, second is Jack and third is Ben. If it's Sean, I'll be very disappointed.

Watch the live episode of EastEnders tomorrow night on BBC One at 8pm to find out who it was. What do you think?