FROM the start, Dawn Swann's romance with Rob Minter seemed doomed. When EastEnders' star-crossed lovers first met she was pretending to be Jane, Ian Beale's wife-to-be, causing much confusion as they got together.

Now the big romance of Dawn's life has been ripped apart by the revelation Rob has a wife - his childhood sweetheart May - who he's very reluctant to leave after the trauma they've experienced trying for a baby with IVF treatment.

''It's not that he's a bad man,'' explains Kara Tointon, who plays Dawn. ''The IVF treatment put such a strain on Rob's relationship with May that they decided to have a break, which is when he met Dawn. So it's just that he's become a bit stuck. May wanted him back, and he's in a dilemma because he's in love with two women. He was going to leave May but he realises he can't put his wife through any more heartache.''

But this Christmas will provide heartache for all three when Dawn discovers she is pregnant with Rob's baby. At first she is determined to have an abortion, but when her brother Mickey finds out, and then Rob, it's not long before May hears the news.

May's reaction is surprising - she offers to buy the baby from Dawn, so she and Rob can finally have the family they've long desired. ''Dawn is shocked,'' says Tointon. ''She thinks May has been knocked over the head with a brick or something. May offers her money, but Dawn doesn't want money, she wants her man.

''In the end she agrees to do it. Not for the cash; she thinks she's going to get Rob, because she thinks that in the end all he really wants is a baby.''

The gripping storyline is just one of a handful that will have fans of the soap watching this Christmas, not least self-confessed 'Enders fan Tointon herself.

''I've read my part,'' says the 23-year-old, ''but I don't read anyone else's because I still watch it every week. I'll definitely be watching at Christmas because there's quite a lot of things going on.''

* Dawn faces a pregnancy dilemma in EastEnders on BBC1 from Thursday, December 28