EastEnders wins the Serial Drama award at the 2015 NTAs

The BBC1 soap - which is set to celebrate its three-decade anniversary next month - beat rivals Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks at the prize-giving bash at London's O2 arena.

Taking to the stage, star Adam Woodyatt (Ian Beale), said: "A big thank you to Dom [executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins] and all his team. He's the one who's picked our programme up and dragged us back up here. We haven't been up here for something like four years."

Woodyatt also paid tribute to the late Coronation Street star Anne Kirkbride, who died earlier this week. "We'd like to accept this for the Weatherfield One," he said, referencing the storyline that saw Deirdre Barlow falsely imprisoned during the 1990s.

The award topped off a strong evening for EastEnders, which also scooped the Newcomer award for Maddy Hill's portrayal of Nancy Carter and Serial Drama Performance for Danny Dyer, who plays Queen Vic landlord Mick Carter.

February 2015 will see the soap celebrate its 30th birthday with a 'live week' of episodes that will feature the climax of a long-running murder mystery as the killer of Lucy Beale is finally unmasked.

Past stars including Barbara Windsor, Jo Joyner and John Partridge are all set to make comebacks for the anniversary, while a special flashback instalment will trace Lucy's final moments before she met her maker.

Earlier in the evening at this year's NTAs, viewers got to see - or rather hear - a new clue in the investigation as what appeared to be the tune from Lucy's music box was played.

As show host Dermot O'Leary explained, this was the last thing that Lucy heard before she died. But what does the revelation mean?

You can watch a 60-second rundown of next week's episodes of EastEnders below: