EASTENDERS SPOILER: Phil Mitchell looks as though he is heading for destruction as Sharon struggles to console her husband in the wake of Peggy's suicide

Published: 19:20 EST, 18 May 2016 | Updated: 20:14 EST, 18 May 2016

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She took her life in a heartbreaking episode on Tuesday night.

And it looks like Peggy Mitchell's death doesn't hit anyone harder than her son Phil as emotions continue to run high in EastEnders on Thursday.

Left to deal with aftermath of his mother's suicide, an inconsolable Phil breaks down as his wife Sharon attempts to comfort him.

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Devastated: She took her life in a heartbreaking episode on Tuesday night and it looks like Peggy Mitchell's death doesn't hit anyone harder than her son Phil as emotions continue to run high in EastEnders on Thursday

Almost seven million people tuned in to watch Peggy, played by Dame Barbara Windsor) take her own life by overdosing after breaking her cancer news to son Grant.

In a poignant final scene, after smelling cigarette smoke throughout the episode, Peggy hallucinated the return of her former love-rival-turned-friend Pat Butcher (Pam St Clement), puffing away in thich pink lipstick with 'earrings rattling like Marley's bleeding chains'.

Speaking to her friend, who passed away in the soap from cancer in 2012, Peggy said: 'I'm being eaten alive and it hurts and I can't wait.

Heartbroken: Left to deal with aftermath of his mother's suicide, an inconsolable Phil breaks down as his wife Sharon attempts to comfort him

'I don't want that to be me, I don't want to be that little old lady in the bed, with people saying, "Remember her? Peggy Mitchell? She's all skin and bones".'

She continued: 'I will go as I have lived: straight back, head high, like a queen.'

The ghost Pat remained with Peggy as she took a handful of pills alone, with the camera panning over letters left to her children before a clock stopped to indicate the end of the Square's most vivacious, loved and enduring residents.

Drawing in the masses: Almost seven million people tuned in to watch Peggy, played by Dame Barbara Windsor, take her own life by overdosing after breaking her cancer news to son Grant

Breaking down: It's no surprise that Phil takes his mother's death particularly hard given his reaction to her proposition of suicide, with the alcoholic labelling his mother 'selfish'

But Tuesday night's episode also saw Phil run the risk of losing his beloved wife to brother Grant, who Sharon was briefly married to in 1991 before having an affair with her current husband.

But despite Grant's decision to turn to his former flame in his hour of need, the former flames did not reconcile even though the hard-man confessed that he was 'an idiot' in their past relationship.

Peggy's funeral will see another EastEnders favourite return in the form of Danniella Westbrook, who played her daughter Sam Mitchell, as the family gather along with the soap's fans for a final farewell.

It's no surprise that Phil takes his mother's death particularly hard given his reaction to her proposition of suicide, with the alcoholic labelling his mother 'selfish'.

After telling her sons that she was contemplating her own life, the two tried to reason with their mother and convince her not to go through with it.

'You making out it's romantic and easy and simple. It's not just slipping off to sleep. It's horrible. It's terrible and it's cruel,' Phil blasted

'It's our turn to look after you.'