Ben Mitchell (EastEnders)

Having previously appeared as a baby and a toddler, it was announced on 19 January 2006 that Ben was to return to EastEnders played by child actor Charlie Jones. Jones commented: "It's brilliant - I'm going to be a Mitchell. I am really looking forward to getting started." He was cast alongside Megan Jossa, who would play his cousin Courtney Mitchell.^[1] Executive producer Diederick Santer praised the show's youth cast, comparing Ben and fellow child characters Darren Miller (Charlie G. Hawkins), Libby Fox (Belinda Owusu), Whitney Dean (Shona McGarty), Peter (Thomas Law) and Lucy Beale (Melissa Suffield), Lauren (Madeline Duggan) and Abi Branning (Lorna Fitzgerald), Jay Brown (Jamie Borthwick) and Tiffany Dean (Maisie Smith) to the previous era of iconic youth characters—Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt), Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean), Michelle Fowler (Susan Tully), Kelvin Carpenter (Paul J. Medford) and Simon Wicks (Nick Berry).^[2] In 2007, Ben was part of a storyline which saw he and his father, as well as Ian and Peter Beale, involved in a car accident, when the Range Rover they were travelling in crashed into a lake. The scenes cost £1 million to produce, and were filmed in Surrey over four days, partly in a specially designed stunt tank.^[3]

EastEnders scriptwriters worked closely with the NSPCC on the storyline which saw Ben abused by Stella.^[4] Sophie Thompson, who plays Stella, has praised Jones, stating that he will "go far", and she would like to work with him in the future on a sitcom, "something completely different" to the dark child abuse storyline.^[4] According to Thompson, the best aspect of the storyline was the fact she and Jones "felt so safe and comfortable with each other as actors. And obviously we knew that we were both just telling a story and it was far from real."^[5] Explaining the motivation behind Stella's abuse of Ben, she revealed: "As far as Ben's concerned, she sees him as an obstacle which she has to overcome to get what she wants. And the fact she doesn't understand unconditional love, the fact she's never experienced it, goes a long way in explaining why she's treating Ben the way she is. Ultimately, Ben's in her way and she realises that she has a hold over him and she'll use that power to get him out of the way and to get that ring on her finger she has longed for."^[5]

It was announced on 9 May 2010 that Ben would be written out of EastEnders as part of the show's revamp by executive producer Bryan Kirkwood. A spokesperson said "Ben's exit will be one of the biggest storylines of the summer. It's going to very dramatic and will have repercussions for months to come. Fans are in for a real treat with this one."^[6] In June it was announced that the character would be recast to a different actor after Jones' departure.^[7] Jones left the show on 30 July 2010, leaving the role of Ben to Joshua Pascoe.^[8] Pascoe's casting was announced on 15 October 2010. The young actor commented: "I was so excited when I got the call to say I'd got the part of Ben Mitchell. I never thought I'd get on to a show as big as EastEnders. I've always watched the programme and it will be great to work with fantastic actors such as Steve McFadden and Linda Henry. I'm really looking forward to this fantastic opportunity and making the role of Ben my own."^[8] Pascoe made his first appearance on 13 December 2010.^[9]

The son of Phil (Steve McFadden) and Kathy Mitchell (Gillian Taylforth), Ben is born in 1996 and has meningitis as a baby, leaving him partially deaf in one ear. His parents separate and Ben leaves Albert Square with his mother to live in South Africa in 1998, returning briefly in 1999 to attend the wedding of his half brother Ian Beale to Melanie Healy (Tamsin Outhwaite). Phil agonises over the fact that he cannot be a full-time father to his son. When Kathy and her husband Gavin are killed in a car crash in March 2006, Ben returns to Walford to live with Ian and his fourth wife Jane (Laurie Brett). Ian is against Ben and Phil spending time together, as Phil hasn't seen Ben much since he and Kathy emigrated. Many fights between Phil and Ian ensue, with Ben caught in the middle. Ben runs away from home in the middle of the night, but is found a few days later and brought back to Ian. Though initially scared of Phil, Ben starts to bond with his father and, despite Ian's objections, eventually moves in with him.

Ben grows close to his father and does not want to share his affections, instantly resenting Phil dating Stella Crawford (Sophie Thompson). With encouragement from his friend Abi Branning (Lorna Fitzgerald), Ben plays pranks on Stella and refuses to accept her acts of friendship. In a bid to get closer to Ben, Stella takes him to the London Dungeon, promising him that she is not trying to replace his mother, but Ben gets lost in the house of mirrors and Stella hides and watches his panic. From then on, Stella begins psychologically and physically abusing Ben, ending his friendship with Abi, burning his hand, pinching him, pouring orange juice over his bed to make it look as though he has wet himself, locking him in a garage over night, watching him get attacked by bullies, telling him Phil does not love him and breaking his hearing aid. Stella manipulates Ben into persuading Phil to propose to her, which Phil does to give Ben a stable family unit. On Stella and Phil's wedding day, Ben stands up to Stella, admitting the abuse he has suffered. Phil chases Stella to an old factory, where she jumps off the roof and dies instantly. The Mitchells spend months coming to terms with what had happened to Ben.

Ben goes on to develop an interest in music and dancing. His grandmother Peggy (Barbara Windsor) takes him tap-dancing, something they keep from Phil, who disapproves of pursuits he perceives as feminine. Ben passes a dancing exam with distinction, but when Phil discovers the truth he is furious and forces him to quit dancing. However, after secretly watching Ben performing in a talent show, Phil is impressed and finally accepts that this is what his son wants. In July 2009, Ben stops Phil from murdering Peggy's new husband Archie (Larry Lamb). In November 2009, Ben discovers Phil lying unconscious on the floor of the lounge above the pub, as a result of being badly beaten up by men working for a loan shark who Phil owes money to. Phil reluctantly accepts a loan from Ian for Ben's sake. Worried that Phil cannot pay the loan back in time, Ben gets Ian to extend the loan for a week, but Ian sells the loan to Archie and Janine Butcher (Charlie Brooks) who take over the pub, forcing Ben and his family to move out. However, this was over when Archie was murdered on Christmas Day. Ben showed some sadness at Archie's funeral. At his 14th birthday party, Ben is annoyed when Abi invites Jordan Johnson (Michael-Joel David Stuart). Phil's estranged daughter Louise (Brittany Papple) turns up and stays with the family, and Ben is annoyed again when Phil allows her to stay off school and play with Ben's computer games. Louise is taken into care and Phil fights for custody, moving himself and Ben in with Phil's girlfriend Shirley Carter (Linda Henry). Ben protests that he does not want Louise to move in, but refuses to tell Phil why. Eventually, he tells Shirley that he thinks when Louise arrives, Phil will not want him as his son, as that is what Stella had told him. However, Phil convinces him that this will not happen. Ben overhears Shirley saying that one wrong word would mean Louise going back into care, and considers ruining things, but after speaking to the social worker, Terry (Jon Foster), he says everything will be fine.

Ben prepares for Louise's arrival by baking a cake, and is upset when Louise arrives and Phil has bought a cake. He is further upset when Phil's cousin Danny (Liam Bergin) gives Louise a large Easter egg and Ben a small one, and when Louise tells him that Shirley is useless and she wants to get rid of her. It soon transpires that Ben is being bullied by a gang of girls, led by Tasha (Charlotte Beaumont). After Phil catches Ben and Louise performing a dance routine, he buys Louise dance lessons and Ben new trainers in which to play football. However, Tasha and he friends steal the trainers. Ben tells Phil he lost them but when Louise sees them in a tree, Ben is forced to admit that they were taken. Phil forces Tasha to retrieve the shoes, have them cleaned and return them to Ben with an apology. Tasha makes it clear to Ben that she will not stop, so Ben plans to run away but is stopped by Heather Trott (Cheryl Fergison). He tells her about the bullies and she tells him how she used to deal with bullies. When Ben returns home, he says he has a rash and cannot go into school the next day. Shirley realises it is a lie and Ben admits that Tasha has been sending him threatening text messages. After Phil and Shirley talk to Tasha's father Joseph (Robert Jezek), Ben reports that the bullying has stopped.

Louise steals Ben's diary and jokes about some of the entries with her friends. Phil takes it from her and worries that Ben is gay when he reads comments about Leon Small (Sam Attwater). However, Shirley points out that the entries are not in Ben's handwriting. Phil returns the diary to Ben, telling him to keep it out of Louise's reach. Phil takes Ben out to play pool without Louise and he enjoys the attention. He tells Phil he likes someone at school called Ashley and asks for advice. Phil asks if Ashley is a girl, to which Ben says "of course". On their return home, Phil asks Louise to apologise for writing in the diary but she does not. Phil goes out for a minute, so Ben tells Louise to be nice to him, and burns her hand the same way Stella burnt his, but regrets his actions afterwards.

Ben attends a bhangra night in the community centre with Jordan, and sneaks in a bottle of alcohol he stole from the pub, which Louise sees. He gets Jordan to drink it outside but Jordan's father Lucas (Don Gilet) catches them and threatens to get Phil involved, but Jordan says it was his idea and nothing to do with Ben. The next day Jordan tells Ben he is in trouble with Lucas. Later, Louise asks Phil what alcohol tastes like, but then Ben tells her Phil would not believe her if she said anything but if she does he will make her pay. Left with the responsibility of taking Louise to school, he locks her in a shed for the day, leaving Phil worried that she has run away. Ben later "finds" Louise and demands thanks from his father. Louise blames Jordan for locking her up, and Ben says she is a good girl for doing so, saying he will not lock her in the shed again. The next day, Jordan tells Phil he thinks Ben locked Louise in the shed and Lucas tells Phil about the alcohol that Ben stole. When Ben returns from school, he admits to taking the alcohol as he thought it would make Jordan like him as a friend. Phil then sees burns on Louise's arm and she reveals that Ben is to blame. Phil worries that Ben is copying Stella, and leaves Heather to look after Ben and Louise. However, when he discovers Heather has left them alone, he rushes home to find Ben about to burn Louise. Ben shouts that it is just a game but Phil punches him.

Phil later regrets punching Ben and the atmosphere between Phil and Ben is very strained. Phil asks why Ben did what he did to which Ben responds that Jordan is bullying him. Phil advises Ben to stand up to bullies. When Ben and Jordan are left alone in order to help them bond, Jordan makes fun of Ben so Ben pushes him to the ground and attacks him with a large spanner, leaving him with a fractured skull. The next day Ben confesses to Phil after finding Jordan still in the garage, but lies to Lucas. However, he sends Jordan a text message and a card, both saying "sorry", leading Lucas to believe Ben was involved. Lucas confronts Ben and he admits that he was involved with attacking Jordan. Later, Ben runs into the café and asks Ian to call the police, confessing that he attacked Jordan, which everyone hears. Accompanied by Ian, Ben goes to the police station and confesses. When Phil arrives, he argues with Ian and tells Ben that he is disappointed in him. Ben says he hates living with Phil and moves in with Ian. However, Ben asks Phil to take him to the police station, where he is formally charged and bailed. While Ben attends court, Jordan changes his statement to say that he provoked Ben, after hearing he could get up to four years detention. Ben's case is then transferred to Crown Court as it is deemed too serious to be dealt with by Magistrates.

After being told that Ben could spend six weeks in custody, Phil plans to send him to live with his uncle Grant (Ross Kemp) in Portugal, but Ben refuses, saying he can cope. Phil says that Ben cannot go by himself, so the whole family will go. However, Shirley tells Phil that he cannot do that, so Phil tells Ben in secret that they will go without Shirley, but Shirley overhears it. Peggy stops them from leaving after being told by Shirley of their plans, and Ben thanks Shirley for this. She then teaches him prison slang to help him cope. Jay Brown (Jamie Borthwick) teaches Ben to box, and on the day of the court hearing, Phil teaches him to shave and gives him a cropped haircut. Jordan apologises to Ben at his leaving party, and they make amends. Phil drives Ben to court and he says he does not want to run away as he can cope, but as they enter the courtroom, Ben gets scared and begins to cry, begging his father to take him abroad. However, it is too late and the judge sentences Ben to 10 months, five of which will be spent in custody, for causing grievous bodily harm and perverting the course of justice. As Ben is taken away, Phil is outraged. When he and Peggy visit Ben a few days later, Ben insists that he is coping and has made friends with a boy named Cal Childs (Danny Barnham). However, after the visit, Cal demands to know what Ben has said to his family, telling him to make sure nobody knows he is bullying him. Ben insists he said good things to which Cal says he hopes so and twists Ben's arm around before leaving Ben upset. When Peggy and Phil visit him again, he has cuts on his face and his glasses are cracked. He insists he fell over, but Cal starts looking over so Phil confronts him. After Cal punches Phil in the back, Ben walks out, telling his family not to visit him again. Phil ignores this and visits Ben again, but Ben does not turn up, leaving a message that he meant what he said.

Ben returns home after five months and walks in on Shirley, Billy and Phil celebrating Jay changing his surname to Mitchell. He later talks to Shirley, revealing that his time in the detention centre was bad, and that he is no longer a kid. He then speaks to Jay and warns him that he will soon be kicked out of the house at Ben's hands. Later, Ben visits and speaks to Phil, and violently hits him in the face. Phil, realising his son is now tough, welcomes him home with a hug. Ben has a welcome home party but it is ruined by Glenda Mitchell (Glynis Barber), who is drunk. When Glenda returns home she is pushed down her stairs, unaware that is Ben who pushed her.

When played by Charlie Jones, Ben received negative reviews from critics. The Guardian's Grace Dent has called him a "spooky little git",^[10] while fellow Guardian writer Daniel Martin has deemed him "gormless".^[11] As part of an EastEnders themed drinking game, Digital Spy's Alex Fletcher instructed players to drink beer every time Ben "is spotted whimpering on the stairs".^[12] Dent suggested that Phil and Ian's fighting over custody of Ben would turn him into "the next Jeffrey Dahmer",^[13] and in an article on the future of Britain's soap opera adolescents, noted that: "Albert Square will no doubt reap what it's sown with tiny, cursed, abused, accident-prone, 11-year-old Ben Mitchell. Oh it's going to be fun and games when Ben turns 16 and finds his inner anger."^[14] Continuing this theme, Dent questioned:

How far are they going to push this little boy? Orphaned after a car crash in South Africa two months ago, stuck on a plane to live with stoat-faced brother Ian Beale and Aunty Jane, who argue incessantly. Centre-stage in an endless, petty Mitchell/Beale custody battle from dawn to dusk. Sent to Walford Primary, where he's bullied. Now, Aunty Jane and Uncle Grant (Ross Kemp) are rutting indiscreetly in the kitchen while he's upstairs mournfully making his Hawker Harrier Airfix (which Phil stood on) and Little Mo's (Kacey Ainsworth) accusing him of attempted murder. 'You all right Ben, darling? Seem a bit quiet,' squawks Peggy now and again intuitively. 'Quiet', Peggy? Give him five years and he'll be on top of the community centre with a rifle using your wig as target practice.

— Grace Dent, The Guardian^[15]

Dent later criticized a string of storylines which saw Ben endangered, from his abuse by Stella, to a car accident in which he almost drowned. She observed:

Over in EastEnders, rumour has it that £1m was spent on the recent Mitchell/Beale car crash drowning disaster in which little deaf Ben Mitchell was given a break from being systematically abused by his stepmum and grieving about dead mum Kathy to be trapped in a sinking Range Rover in a muddy lake. OK. This is getting a touch daft now. It feels like Ben Mitchell is fast becoming Kenny McCormick from South Park. Faced with another week of rehashing Stacey/Max/Bradley storylines, I reckon scriptwriters cheer themseves by conjuring up fresh ways to dispense with him. Last week was "drowning slowly in a watery tomb while his friend Peter thrashed about beside him in terror. I've emailed the BBC with some of my own 'Oh my God you've killed Ben (you bastards!)' storylines just to help them out. Mine include 'Chased by Africanized killer bees into a tarmac pit', 'fired out of a cannon by Daz and Squiggle for pay-per-view web purposes landing somewhere past the allotments' and the simple yet adequate, 'Catching E coli in the Vic after eating one of Peggy's sumptuous pig's head buffets.' Don't worry about Ben, though, he'll be OK. The spooky little git is clearly immortal.

— Grace Dent, The Guardian^[16]

Jane Simon for The Daily Mirror has similarly noted: "The scriptwriters' non-stop torment of Ben Mitchell is just getting silly now. Left partially deaf after contracting meningitis as a baby, he's lost his mum and stepfather, been kidnapped by Martin Fowler (James Alexandrou), nearly drowned in a sinking Land Rover, been bullied by his dad's (now dead) fiance Stella... and is inescapably related by blood to Ian Beale. About the only good thing to happen to him lately is that he's got new specs. Even his attempt to escape into show tunes and tap-dancing has only rattled Phil's cage. At the Mitchell's [sic] cosy dinner tonight, Phil loses his rag at Archie and Sean (Rob Kazinsky). But who does he take it out on? His tiny son. Nuts."^[17] Kevin O'Sullivan, also writing for The Mirror, commented on "ballet-loving Ben's obsession with West End musicals, Judy Garland and dancing," suggesting that: "Amid the plethora of pathetic PC plotlines that ensure left-leaning EastEnders is never knowingly realistic, the Beeb's thoroughly modern Cockney rabble were all far too sophisticated to say the G word. But I'm not. So Phil - looks like your son's GAY! Encouraged by Shirley Terrahawk (Linda Henry), budding homosexual Ben defied his fuming father to enter a crappy contest at the Community Centre. Sadly, the plucky youngster swiftly established he can't dance for sh*t."^[18]

With the recast to Pascoe, Liam Tucker wrote for TVpixie.com that he had expected a more dramatic turn in Ben's character after his prison release, but was hopeful for the Ben-Jay feud to develop. He also commented on the new actor's substantial physical dissimilarity from Jones, both thinner and taller.^[19] Inside Soap commented on Ben's recasting describing Ben played by Jones as "Sweet young Ben, dancing around to Girls Aloud songs" and that played by Pascoe he seems "to be dancing to the Devil's tune these days".^[20]

• List of soap opera recasts

• Ben Mitchell at BBC Online