EastEnders’ Max Branning has trouble on the horizon, of a more complicated sort than he first realises.

Max (Jake Wood) is due to be paid a visit by Karin Smart (Denise Van Outen) and she returns to Albert Square as the bearer of bad news.

Newly released pictures from an upcoming episode show ladies’ man Max fresh out of the shower and wrapped in a towel, as Karin stands in his kitchen with a warning.

EastEnders
Karin (Denise Van Outen) comes back to Walford to speak to Max (Jake Wood) (BBC)

She has come back to Walford to tell Max that the police are onto his dodgy business deal involving stolen cars, leaving him with no choice but to turn to Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) for help.

But after Max’s recent night of passion with Karin, the widow of Phil’s dodgy car dealer pal, viewers saw her being paid a large sum of money by the Mitchell hard nut, suggesting he had engineered the whole thing.

Whatever evil plan Phil is the puppet master of, will Max stand a chance of getting himself out of the looming sticky situation?

The episode is due to air on BBC One on April 27.