EastEnders bids a final farewell to Peggy Mitchell with a heartbreaking funeral

Walford residents lined the streets of Albert Square to watch the horse-drawn hearse make its way to the church for the matriarch’s funeral.

Troubled alcoholic Phil Mitchell fought back tears as he struggled to hide the grief of burying his mother without his brother Grant – insisting he step up as a pallbearer despite his poor health alongside his son Ben and cousin Billy.

When the time came for him to step up to the pulpit to offer his final words, Phil barely managed to choke a few sentences out before fleeing the church and abandoning the service.

As the coffin was lowered into the ground and mourners paid their last respects, Grant was revealed to be lurking in the bushes armed with a single red rose, which he laid at his mother’s graveside once everyone had left.

Back in the square, Sharon had caught up with Phil to reveal one of Peggy’s deepest and darkest secrets she’d recently learned from Aunt Sal… Years ago, Peggy had committed the Mitchell family cardinal sin of being a grass – giving up their abusive father Eric to the police in order to protect them.

The revelation led Phil back to the Queen Vic to finish the speech he’d not been able to at church, wrapping it up with the Peggy’s classic one-liner: “Get outta my pub!”.