Dangerous liaisons between Amira, Syed and Christian

As the happy couple Amira and Syed celebrate their engagement, Christian is viciously attacked in his flat.

Wearing those tight-fitting vests and outrageously camping it up, Christian acts as if every day is an audition for a Village People tribute band. And after years of brazen sexual promiscuity, even he has now found love.

But it’s with the dashing Syed - a man so determined to deny he is gay because of his Muslim faith that he has proposed to his girlfriend Amira and they are about to celebrate their engagement.

"Let me get this clear," Syed tells a devastated Christian on Monday. "I don’t wanna talk to you, I don’t want anything to do with you. Tomorrow, the party, you’re not welcome."

If only it was that simple.

With Syed’s formidable and refreshingly un-PC mother Zainab wielding a clipboard and organising the event like a military campaign, Christian’s help is required.

"And if you are coming to the party later, would you mind toning it down a bit?" Zainab asks him. "Some of the older relatives might be offended... I don’t suppose you could look a bit less gay."

While love triangle stories are nothing new in Soapland - and this one certainly has echoes of the Michelle, Sonny and Sean saga in Corrie a couple of years ago - it still works particularly well.

For not only is Syed and Christian’s relationship threatening any planned marriage, but Amira has an explosive secret of her own, too. And no, she isn’t secretly having an affair with Bradley Branning’s girlfriend, Syd...

But it’s when Christian huffily stomps out of the party and picks up a burly bloke in the Vic that a dark shadow of violence is cast over events.