WILL GRAY KILL AGAIN?

Toby-Alexander Smith on Gray’s potential victims as the evil EastEnders lawyer faces his desperate last stand

The net is closing in on Gray in EastEnders this week as his murderous past catches up with him. He’s called in for questioning following the discovery of his victim Tina’s body, while her sister Shirley’s out for his blood.

By the end of the week, Gray will have had potentially deadly confrontations with his nemesis Whitney and his wife Chelsea, and as the police flood the Square, he realises his options are running out. With Gray panicking that the truth will come out about Tina, and also how he murdered his previous wife Chantelle and pushed Kush to his death under a train, just how far will he go to evade justice?

‘It’s a ticking timebomb before everyone around him realises that he’s responsible for killing Tina,’ says Toby-Alexander Smith, who plays the evil lawyer. ‘Gray knows the walls are closing in around him and he needs to come up with a plan before it’s too late. He’s worried and not confident he can escape.

‘I think Gray’s quite capable of killing either Whitney or Chelsea. He’s a caged animal and, put in a position where he must make a decision, it’s fight or flight. He’s a coward and will do whatever it takes to keep himself safe.’

The result is a series of what the actor calls ‘thrilling and intense’ episodes, which will include one explosive scene with Whitney. ‘There’s a big stunt involved,’ he says. ‘Whitney is fearless at this point, she’s been trying to get Gray for a long time, so there’s a massive showdown.’

This storyline has been building for months, but Toby-Alexander believes his character genuinely thought he wouldn’t be caught. ‘Right up to the last second he thinks there’s a chance he can get away with everything. He’s such a manipulator and is so used to having control that I don’t think he can imagine life without it.’

Toby-Alexander, who’s 31, says working with Zaraah Abrahams (Chelsea) and Shona McGarty (Whitney) has been ‘an absolute pleasure’. ‘They’re total powerhouses and the dynamic is brilliant between the three of us. We’ve all taken this storyline so seriously, but between scenes we can have a real laugh.’

Much of the action was filmed on EastEnders’ recently opened new set, a momentous occasion not lost on Toby-Alexander. ‘Everyone has done such an amazing job replicating the old set, even down to there being rust on the bars in the Square,’ he says.

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