Yesterday, we took a look at some of Corrie’s baddest villains, primarily because John – teacher turned hostage taker – is about to officially join their ranks, but what about the women of soapland in general?

In the Corrie villains’ piece, we highlighted the Street’s femme fatales, including Maya Sharma, Anne Malone and Katy Harris, so let’s take a look at who have been some of the best Black Widow-like women in the rest of the top three soaps.

Well, of course, one of the first killer women to spring to mind is Eastenders’ Chrissie Watts who murdered cheating husband Den and buried him under a load of concrete in the Queen Vic’s cellar.

Mind you, to be fair – not that I’m condoning murdering someone with a doggy shaped door prop – he had been slamming her head into a fruit machine just prior to the events of that night in 2005 as well as sleeping with his son’s girlfriend. It was actually Zoe Slater who hit Den over the head originally, in an attempt to stop him trying to fit Chrissie’s head into the slot machine, but it was Chrissie who finished him off. Take a trip down memory lane with this video of the fateful blows…

Another Eastenders killer lady was Janine Evans who, on New Year’s day in 2004, chucked her hapless new husband Barry off a cliff and watched him die. She’d married him for his money but in the end, couldn’t stand being near Barry and decided to confess how much she hated him before shoving him off the cliff. Poor Barry died, all alone and unloved at the bottom of the cliff. Here’s a clip of his final scene…

But before either of those two appeared, the original and archetypal soap bitch crown was proudly held by Kim Tate, played by Claire King. In 1994 Frank and Kim got married for the second time. He and Kim then had a son, James, who was born on the 24th September 1996 and for a while, there was doubt if Frank was the father as Kim was having an affair with Dave Glover. Frank suffered a fatal heart attack on 22nd May 1997 and Kim watched him die. So while she didn’t exactly murder him, she didn’t try to save him either.

See his final moments here as Kim calmly powdered her nose…

And next up is the hideously nasty Tracy Barlow, played by Kate Ford, who murdered boyfriend Charlie Stubbs by smacking him over the head with a heavy ornament. Tracy-luv has always been a super bitch but she got her comeuppance in the end and was sentenced to serve at least 15 years for the murder. The two episodes in 2007 when Tracy was on trial for murder achieved some huge viewing figures and at the end of the second episode in which sentence was passed, the National Grid reported an electricity surge of 1,600 megawatts, which is equivalent to 650,000 kettles being boiled at the same time!

You can see her bumping off Charlie here…

And last but by no means least, we’ve another Emmerdale super-bitch, Steph Stokes, played by Lorraine Chase. She did her best to bump off her friend Shelly Williams, however, Shelly turned up again alive and well but not until Steph had been sent to prison for her murder.

The storyline began when Steph introduced her dad to Shelly and the pair dated before falling in love. However, Steph hated that her father’s attention was taken away from her and split up the love birds. After a confrontation with Steph over it, Turner fell down some stairs and his injuries left him at his daughter’s mercy. As she nursed him to ‘recovery’, Steph was in fact poisoning Alan. He managed to get word to friends and she was stopped. Evidence then emerged about Shelly being held in the B&B cellar and it looked as if Steph had killed her! Months went by but Shelly made a shocking return to the village at her own memorial service.

Alan forgave her for letting Steph go to prison for suspected murder, but Shelly couldn’t remain in the village and told Alan she was leaving. Turner felt loyalty to his daughter and remained in the village but after Shelly left, Alan begged Steph to go after her. She did and on the ferry in Scotland – and unbeknown to Alan – Steph then ‘accidentally’ pushed Shelly off the boat and Steph left her to drown.

So, there you have it; the best soap bitches and best villainesses. Who’s your favourite killer lady?