Look out for some serious TV fireworks this Christmas as big plotlines in Coronation Street and EastEnders reach payoff time. Don’t worry, we won’t give away the details – but illicit liaisons feature rather largely (well what would you expect?)

In the East London corner, fighting out of Walford, it’s the Max and Stacey show – how long can they keep things under wraps? And all the way from Weatherfield comes Corrie’s brilliant Rosie-and-John teacher-student iffiness, which is surely going to blow up at some point.

On the other hand Corrie’s writers are past masters of the slow-burn plotline that keeps you guessing for months or even years – we thought David Platt’s canal trick would wrap up that whole story, but not a bit of it. So come Christmas we’ll still be glued to the screen…

(Image: from rothwb’s Flickr stream)