The Christmas television schedule is one of the most important and competitive of the year and it is always a hotbed of dramatic storylines across the soaps. This is the time of year that a main character can meet a sticky end among the sprouts and turkey legs or for a wedding to become a battle ground between warring families.
This time around there has only been one soap that has been the talk of t=Twitter and dominating the entertainment pages and that's the residents of Albert Square. Eastenders promised an action packed festive offering and they didn't disappoint and as Mick Carter found out that his sister is actually his mother, he reels from the news that his prospective wife-to-be had been raped by the person that turns out is his brother.
As Laurel and Hardy used to find, this was another fine mess they'd gotten in to but it was one that placed a new star at the top of the tree.
It is fair to say that when it was announced that Danny Dyer was joining the Eastenders, there was a generous amount of raised eyebrows and wry smiles. The feeling was that this was going to blow up in Auntie Beeb's face as Danny Dyer was surely a risk too far.
He had certainly had plenty of time on TV but it wasn't anything that required a serious amount of acting as he followed hardcore football firms and tough guys around as they took him to the edge of reason with their macho and dangerous games.
It seemed that Danny Dyer was at his best when he was playing an East End 'tasty sort' that was very much in the mould of Danny Dyer. From the Football Factory to the World's Deadliest Men, there always seemed an opportunity to show that he was one of the lads and always up for a rumble.
Of course, this line of television work meant that he became a character of Danny Dyer the person and it was this persona that the likes of 8 out of 10 Cats and other comedy game shows wanted to bring a bit of colour to proceedings. It seemed that there was much laughing at him rather than with him. Dyer himself admitted that the Eastenders role saved him from a stint in the Celebrity Big Brother house and we all know that is a byword of a career hitting a brick wall.
That was until Mick Carter walked in to Walford and with one of the most memorable Christmases in Eastenders for many years, it looks like Danny Dyer is going to have the last laugh.
After travelling the world it seems that the East End of London is going to bring out the best in Dyer and all of a sudden he is being talked about as being a bona fide acting proposition. Not only has he stolen the show on Albert Square, he can legitimately lay claim to being the new King of the Soaps.
There has not been a character or story that has had more coverage and it looks like 2015 will elevate Mick Carter up to Dirty Den level of being someone that everyone knows regardless of whether they watch the show or not. It is without doubt that Danny Dyer could be walking away with a clutch of Soap Awards and there is every possibility that he could be heralded in soap folklore.
It has been a journey as arduous as a Top Gear Christmas challenge with more dangers faced than the stone throwing mob in Argentina that drove Clarkson et al out of their country but it seems that Dyer is going to come up smelling of roses. His Mick Carter character may be standing in the ruins of a life after the revelations on Christmas Day but Danny Dyer is a star reborn and his reign at the helm of Soapland could be one that goes down in the annals of television history.