There is no better example of a legacy character than Ben Mitchell. The son of EastEnders’ original character Kathy Beale and iconic gangster Phil Mitchell, Ben is an integral part of two of Walford’s longest-standing families.
He is also one of the show’s most visible and popular LGBTQ+ characters; He came out as gay in 2011 and married Callum Highway ten years later. Known to fans as “Ballum”, this pairing has proven popular with many viewers, spawning numerous Twitter fan accounts, fan fiction, and fan-made videos on sites such as YouTube.
Unsurprisingly, fans of Bowden, Ben and Ballum were heartbroken when news broke that the character would be written off the series later this year. Of course, we hate to see an old character leave as much as we hate to see a talented actor like Bowden lose his job.
In truth, this latest iteration of Ben never quite played with originality, undoing much of the character’s development and ignoring much of his foundation in favor of creating a pound-for-pound version of the Kray Twin. Undermining Ben Mitchell could be just what EastEnders needs to improve the accuracy and diversity of its LGBTQ+ storylines.
Ben Mitchell is a complex, complicated and controversial character. Raised primarily by his mother until the age of 10, Ben was a camp kid who enjoyed dancing and musicals when he returned to Walford in 2006.
But almost two decades later, you’d never know. The Ben Mitchell seen on our screens today – brooding, hardened, violent – is a far cry from the kind, sensitive boy who moved in with Phil after Kathy’s supposed death in South Africa.
Of course, he has his own reasons: from being abused by his father’s fiancee as a child, to enduring a prison sentence for murdering Heather Trott, to killing his partner Paul Coker in a homophobic attack, to being attacked by his next partner, Luke Browning. . There are many things in Ben’s past that would warrant this complete change in character.
In fact, since returning in 2019, writers have continued to pile trauma upon trauma on Ben. She was shot by Hunter Owen, raped by Lewis Butler, fell victim to another homophobic attack, lost her friend and the mother of her daughter Lola Pearce-Brown, and finally developed an eating disorder.
The problem is that this complex emotion has never really been explored by the writers. We never discuss how Ben’s trauma has affected him. Viewers have never been told a story that focuses on how Ben becomes the epitome of toxic masculinity to compensate for the homophobia he faces at home and on the streets.
Instead, Ben doubled down on being the bad guy, and fans had to accept that because he was Phil Mitchell’s son. Then-executive producer Kate Oates, who hired Bowden, said the same. “I just want to take the character in a different direction,” he said Digital Spy In 2019.
He did. Ben had never been a malevolent or malevolent character before Oates.
Still, he’s gone from bullying Callum Highway to starting a relationship with him, to blackmailing Martin Fowler and arranging the murder of Keanu Taylor (years before Linda Carter pulled it off), to trafficking his own sister Louise, to violently attacking Peter Beale. up to attack. During his vigilante reign as the Walford Attacker, Ben caused as much misery as he endured. He became one of Albert Square’s leading enemies.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with a gay character or a formerly good character becoming a villain (or anti-hero, to be generous). But this transformation rings hollow when designed to build plot rather than treated as a character-driven development, as with Ben.
This is especially true given that Ben has gone from a believable gay boy dancing to Kylie to essentially being “fixed” with any hint of femininity or campiness erased from his persona. What was set up as a groundbreaking character and dynamic in the 2000s actually turned into Phil Mitchell when he slept with men.
The problem is compounded when dealing with one of the show’s most important legacy characters, and arguably its most important LGBTQ+ character, given that most of the other LGBTQ+ characters are little more than window dressing.
Characters like Bernie Taylor and Felix Baker represent, at best, supporting characters who pop up with the odd one-liner working behind a counter or to serve another character’s story. Bernie has never had a serious girlfriend, and Felix appears so infrequently and in a limited capacity that he might as well be an extra.
Neither found their characters fleshed out or given anywhere near the screen time that Ben Mitchell enjoyed. While this is justified due to Ben being the son of two legendary characters, it also compounds the glaring problems with his characterization.
Many fans clung to Ben and Callum because they were the only true representation of an LGBTQ+ couple on the show. Yes, we have Suki and Eve in 2024, whom we have high hopes for. But for most of the last two years, their relationship remained secret and tortured even when they were together.
Again, this in itself is not a problem. Arguably, Suki and Eve are the hottest couple in EastEnders right now and it’s great to see fans supporting the triumph of same-sex love.
But when the only example of same-sex love is a closeted woman married to a man and a perpetually traumatized thug — which is what Ben becomes in the final version — the show has a huge problem with LGBTQ+ representation.
Ben’s marriage to Callum has been a success on social media, but we don’t see them kissing and showing affection the way other characters, including Suki and Eve, do; The thing that is most common for us is the occasional forehead kiss. Barry and Janine had a more believable relationship and Janine pushed him off the cliff.
Ben’s popularity isn’t an indication that the show got him right, it’s an indication that the show misunderstood all its LGBTQ+ characters. Ben was the only one who was really visible for the last few years.
In reality, EastEnders has never quite figured out what to do with its LGBTQ+ characters. Despite its groundbreaking history with Colin and Barry in the 1980s and Tony and Simon in the 1990s, the truth is that the show has struggled when it comes to long-term LGBTQ+ characters like Ben.
Sonia Fowler’s bisexuality is often treated as an afterthought; Tina Carter, although a lesbian, was largely genderless unless she slept with men, after which she was murdered; Kyle Slater, the show’s first and to date only straight trans character, lasted only one year. Iqra Ahmed barely signed up.
When LGBTQ+ stories are told there is often drama and struggle to come out. Of course, this is the cornerstone of the queer experience, but it is not the only queer experience.
Suki’s struggle to come to terms with her sexuality mirrors Callum’s struggle a few years earlier. Johnny Carter, who will soon return to the Square, similarly had a hard time opening up to his mother, Linda. Christian Clarke and Syed Masood, one of the show’s most successful gay pairings, similarly focused on the latter’s struggle to come out to himself and his family.
But there is more to the gay experience than coming out. Let characters like Bernie, Felix, and Johnny take center stage in the series and you get compelling stories that reflect an accurate LGBTQ+ experience mixed with plenty of frothy drama.
EastEnders needs to invest in gay characters, delivering stories that resonate and are grounded in reality, rather than writing gay characters as straight in all but name or using them as mere window dressing.
It would be great to see EastEnders explore this with a gay couple in a healthy relationship. That won’t happen with Ben Mitchell. He’s gone too far. The show is right to give the character a much-needed rest.
EastEnders It airs Mondays to Thursdays at 7.30pm on BBC One. The program is also broadcast on BBC iPlayer, with most episodes airing at 6am before TV broadcast.
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