Linda Carter (Kellie Bright), Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner), Suki Panesar (Balvinder Sopal), Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth), Denise Fox (Diane Parish) and Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean) all star in a new trailer for EastEnders.

In the trailer, for episodes airing the week beginning February 20, a monologue centred around making choices is delivered by the ladies, who are dressed normally before changing into evening wear.

Linda is standing behind the bar of The Vic, saying: ‘There is a moment just before you do something’ before the camera cuts to Stacey working on her bap van, who says ‘when time freezes’.

Next, we see Suki at work in her shop as she delivers the remainder of the first line ‘and you think is this really happening?’

Kathy, in the café, asks ‘Am I really going to do this?’ before Denise in the salon says ‘and then suddenly, it’s done’.

The trailer ends with Sharon – the only woman not in her place of work – who says ‘and your whole world shatters’.

A voiceover then says “In a flash, everything changes.”

The use of the word ‘flash’ has not gone unnoticed across social media with theories circulating that the episode will play with time, specifically showing a future event.

The BBC soap has, many times over the years, done storylines containing flashback scenes, most recently flashing back to 1979 with a whole episode centred on the Mitchell family. It has not, however, done a flashforward storyline.

In December, the soap’s executive producer Chris Clenshaw teased that actress Kellie Bright was to film something in January for the soap’s 38th anniversary and that “it’s something that we as a show have not done before”.

Updated on 9th February with higher quality version of the trailer