EastEnders spoilers: Mick Carter's dad revealed to be Karl Howman's character Buster Briggs

At the end of tonight's episode, career criminal Buster was seen whispering to Shirley: "You silly tart, you should have told me. He's mine and all, isn't he" before giving a quick glance in Mick's direction. The fact that Shirley has known Buster on and off for 40 years means that the dates definitely add up. The trouble is that Mick doesn't have enough of the vital information to hand to do the maths.

Dean, on the other hand, now knows full well that lawbreaker Buster is his father and not - as he'd previously thought - Kevin Wicks. Yet Mick remains completely unaware of his own paternity.

Unbeknown to him, Mick's family tree is a lot more complicated than he realises. So here's a quick recap for those who want to know all about the Carter family connections:

The woman Mick believes to be his sister (Shirley) is actually his mother, which makes Stan his grandfather rather than his father. Dean is therefore his brother and not his nephew, while Tina is actually his auntie and not his other sister. Conniving Aunt Babe - who seems to be the only one to know everything about everyone - is Mick's great aunt. Phew, thats one hell of an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? in the making.

To add further drama into the mix, Mick is also oblivious to the fact his wife Linda (who isn't really his wife, by the way, but that's another story), has recently been raped by Dean. Buster, meanwhile, has now been led away by the police after being shopped to the authorities by his own son (who doesn't know he's his son, don't forget), who he's now just threatened to kill.

As far as we're aware, Lee, Nancy and Johnny are all Mick and Linda's children, even though they're unaware of the fact that their mum and dad aren't married. If and when all these secrets blow, can you imagine the scale of the fallout?!

EastEnders continues on Monday at 8pm on BBC1