‘Hell hath no fury!’ EastEnders’ Cindy will go ‘all the way’ in revenge against Max

Cindy Beale is undeniably one of EastEnders most dangerous women, and actress Michelle Collins has absolutely no doubt that when she discovers Max Branning’s (Jake Wood) duplicity, he’ll regret the day he was born.

‘Hell hath no fury like Cindy’s scorn!’ she warned Metro.

Of course, as it currently stands, Cindy is engaged to Max, Walford’s local lothario, but is completely unaware that on the night he proposed to her, he ended up doing the dirty on her with Priya Nandra-Hart (Sophie Khan-Levy).

Michelle acknowledged that Cindy was trapped from their first meeting: ‘They met at the christening and she didn’t know anything about Max Browning, but by then, I think, her fate had already been kind of sealed, Michelle mused on the beginnings of their relationship.

‘She fell for him, hook, line and sinker, even though she didn’t want to, because she knew, having heard all the rumours and what he was like, and he’s a bit of a bad boy, she didn’t want to get involved, but she couldn’t help it because she felt hook, line and sinker, in love.’

So Cindy thinks she’ll be the one to finally tame him, does she?

‘I think she does think she can change. Doesn’t every woman want to change a man where they’re married?

‘She’s hoping that she can change him. She really believes that he does love her.

‘There’s a part of him that does love her, but could Max Branning settle down?

‘I don’t wanna give too much away, but she definitely is mad in love with him and she thinks she is the one for him and she’s gonna be the one to tame him.’

Famous last words, huh?

Still, despite the obviously apocalyptic showdown we’re undoubtedly heading toward when Cindy discovers that the man she loves is cheating on her, Max and Cindy are quite the delicious couple, aren’t they?’

‘Everyone loves Max and Cindy together. Everyone says they have a great chemistry.’ Michelle said.

‘They’re a bit ‘will they, won’t they?’, the War of the Roses, the kind of Angie and Den.

‘It’s called moonlighting. One minute they’re in love, the next minute they hate each other. People kind of love that, don’t they? That bouncing back, that banter, that banter between couples, and, and I hate to say it, but kind of normality can get a little bit boring, can’t it?

So what is it that draws them together? According to Michelle it’s because: ‘They’re both highly flawed characters, and they’re both unpredictable, they do leave a trail of destruction around them, and they’ve both got kids.

‘They’re not great parents, let’s face it. They’re not. But in Cindy’s case, you know, things that have happened kind of out of her control. She tries hard.

‘She just loves too much, I think. That’s Cindy’s problem. She needs to read that book, ‘Women Who Love Too Much!’’

So just how brutal will Cindy’s revenge be? According to Michelle, it’ll be off the scale: ‘I think she would go very far [for revenge]. She would go all the way.

‘She knows how to use a gun, she’s used a gun before. That sounds terrible, doesn’t it? I wouldn’t put anything past Cindy.

‘As everybody knows, she’s so unpredictable, she’s flawed, she’s a bit crazy, she’s very driven, and she loves chaos and a drama. I would expect nothing less than Cindy to go for him big time.

‘You do not mess with Cindy. She loves hard, but she also will get revenge. Her revenge will be really hard as well.

It’s that dichotomy that Michelle finds so fascinating to portray: ‘She has so many kind of strands to her personality, and that’s what makes her this unpredictable person.

‘Cindy comes into a room and it’s like, ‘oh my God, what’s gonna happen now?’ And I really like that.’