EastEnders spoilers: new romance for Shabnam Masood

"She's got some amazing stuff coming up and Rakhee Thakrar is a brilliant actress. Viewers will have a much better understanding of Shabnam before long," he told Inside Soap.

The news follows comments that Thakrar recently made to RadioTimes.com about what lies ahead for her character: "There's a potential love interest for Shabnam on the way, but you just never know because the guy who comes in is quite hot. He's got his pick of the girls and she could easily scare him off!"

When quizzed as to whether the man in her life would be newcomer Khoroush 'Kush' Kazemi (played by Davood Ghadami), Thakrar replied: "I'm not saying anything! Recently Shabnam has just been in the Minute Mart helping Denise out. But what's going to happen is that her life is going to be explored. So that'll be great and I'm looking forward to it. There's definitely potentially some romance in the air."

When Shabnam returned to Walford back in January, viewers were led to believe that there was more to her comeback than met the eye: "The Shabnam who returns home is older, wiser and a chip off her mother's block. And - of course - carrying a terrible secret from her time away from Walford," said Dominic Treadwell-Collins at the time.

When asked when the secret would come to light, Thakrar added: "I don't think it's in the next couple of months, but next year I think. That's what's been teased. The secret is a good one, but that's all I can say at the minute."