The Ultimate Soap Cheat-Sheet For The Omnibuses You’ll Be Watching Over Christmas

Max Branning came back after a year in jail following his acquittal of Lucy's murder, now wants to kill Ian and Phil because Phil somehow managed to keep him in jail. Max hasn't been having a very good time of things. He's was staying with Stacey (yeah, she's still around) but Martin Fowler isn't into itLast year Phil Mitchell had liver problems, but he got a transplant and is now scheming with his old jail buddy Aidan Maguire and clearly up to no good. He found out that he was the father to Denise's baby but Denise is with a guy called Kush now and his family are about to move in with them. Dot Cotton/Branning left Walford back in October but her grandson has just come back to the square for some Christmas drama. Sisters Lauran and Abi Branning had another huge fight. Abi confessed about a secret relationship with Steven Beale (yes, Ian's son) but Steven was meant to marry Lauren that same day. He ended up passing away, his ashes were unintentionally scattered all over the place and besides Abi's pregnancy, the two of them seem fine. Three faces you might not recognise are Rebecca, Gethin and Sonia who were in an awkward love triangle but you don't need to worry too much about that now Gethin is gone. The Taylor family were also new this year, as far as we can tell there's nothing stand out to know about them apart from the fact that Keanu Taylor (the guy off of Benidorm) is involved in Aidan's criminal plans. Also, people think Kat might be coming back…

Okay, so Shane Ward is now a Coronation Street person. He plays Aidan Connor but word on the cobbles is that he's going to be leaving early next year so better savour this last remaining screen time. Race has been a bit of a theme recently with a new storyline about Underworld's new clients. Alya Nazir who works at Underworld found out that she's been cut out of important meetings with Aiden. She got suspicious about it and assumed it was a sexist thing but it transpired that the clients are racist and super awful. Elsewhere in the Nazir family Rana has been pretending to be pregnant with her husband Zeedan while having a secret relationship with Kate Connor. Then there's Peter Barlow who threatened to murder Billy Mayhew on Christmas day as revenge for his sister Susan's death earlier this year. He's got Billy in the boot of his car, you see and says that he's going to let it roll off the cliff he's gone and parked next to. Rosie Webster has been back on after been off for a while but IRL Helen Flanagan has announced that she's pregnant with her second child so might not be around very far into 2018.Earlier this year David kicked his mum out of her own house (something to do with Shona being Claytons mum and Clayton being to blame for Kylie's death and Gail knowing all about it). They seem to be better now and were a bit distracted by Sarah's boyfriend Gary apparently being killed in Ukraine. Chesney is due to marry Sinead (I know, he grew up way too quickly) but earlier on he hit himself with a brick and blamed Daniel, who we can consider his arched nemesis, however this sort of lie always comes out at a really inappropriate time and we're guessing it'll be over Christmas. Carla's due to come back soon though. That'll be fun.

Leyla Harding proposed to her boyfriend Pete but he said no before proposing to her a few episodes later. But then when it came to the actual wedding they both tried to run out on each other but then caught each other in the act. Awkward. She isn't going to be on the show for much longer as IRL actress Roxy is about to go on maternity leave. But poor young Jacob is probably going to be devo when she does leave the village because back when David Metcalf was struggling with cancer and Alicia left, he really didn't deal very well. Ashley's had a turbulent rid this year after moving into a care home then going missing after his dad's birthday. Then we found out that he only had days to live and ten passed away after spending his final moments with his wife Laurel. Finn finally found out that Emma pushed his dad off a bridge last year. Emma almost died in a barn fire with Moira who she was fighting with at the time. Moria's son went after Emma with a shotgun, Emma manged to grab it and then accidently shot her own son Finn who was then rush to hospital and then Emma kidnapped Moria's new-born son. There was a weird flashback to Ross finding Emma's suicide note but Adam has been arrested on suspicion of her murder so that'll play out pretty soon, we hope.

The Amy Barnes death was a big deal for 2017. Turns out it was Ryan Knight AKA Duncan from Blue who killed his wife-to-be when she found out that he was having an affair. Nevertheless, Harry Thompson was convinced that he did it and confessed to his dad Tony. Armstrong was also the potential murderer but did find out that he was Leelas stalker and after stalking Cindy a bit he found out that Milo Mr and Mrs Cunningham all those years ago in the car crash. But then it turns out that Milo isn't who he says he is. He's actually Simon Jones and this storyline got even more complicated. Remember the really sad storyline about Luke who was raped by a man called Mark? Like spotted him in Chester for the first time in 17 years while out and about with Mandy. Elsewhere, Mac started an explosion at Hollyoaks High which was a secret until Jack Osborn spotted him looking into the burn he got from the blast so the secret will probably be out soon. Especially after Ellie blabbed that she's given Mac an alibi and Mac was all smug and menacing when he had is 'not going nowhere' moment. If you're wondering what's been going on with the McQueens, John Paul left the show way back in March (sob) but Cleo and ex boyf Joel might be getting back together (they broke up because Cleo found out that he knew Warren killed her cousin Bart). Cleo slept with Brody Hudson to get at Lisa Loveday for having an affair with Mac and it all being interwined with Nathan's death.Oh, and Tony 'The Hutch' Hutchinson is still knocking about.