Jay Brown

For the boy band member, see Jason 'J' Brown.

For the law professor, see J. Robert Brown, Jr..

Jay Brown
Jay Brown in 2011
EastEnders character
Portrayed by	Jamie Borthwick
Created by	Kate Harwood
Duration	2006—
First appearance	14 December 2006
Classification	Present; regular
Spin-off appearances	"East Street" (2010)
Profile
Alias	Jay Mitchell
Date of birth	8 October 1994
Occupation	Student (until 2010) Mechanic (since 2010)
Family Family Mitchell Father Jase Dyer Mother Karen Brown Adoptive father Billy Mitchell (foster) Half brothers William Mitchell (foster) Half sisters Summer Swann (adoptive) Janet Mitchell (foster) Grandfathers Bert Atkinson Grandmothers Evie Brown

James "Jay" Mitchell (né Brown) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Jamie Borthwick. He made his first appearance during the episode broadcast on 14 December 2006.

Storylines

Backstory

Jay is the son of Karen Brown and Jase Dyer (Stephen Lord), and grandson of Bert Atkinson (Dave Hill) and Evie Brown (Marji Campi). Karen died in 2004 of breast cancer. Jay was first mentioned on 5 December 2006, when a dying Evie told Bert that he had a grandson.

2006—

Jay first appears after Evie's funeral, when he is taken to live with Bert, per Evie's wishes. Jay steals from the local shop and the market, and is intrigued by his grandfather's criminal past. Jay tries to befriend a gang of boys who tease him when Yolande Trueman (Angela Wynter) mothers him, and tries to impress them by calling her a "black cow". Jay's father Jase then arrives in Walford, and Bert leaves Albert Square, to allow Jay and Jase to bond. Jay continues getting into trouble, becoming involved with a gang of older boys, known as the E20 crew, led by Tegs Teague (Ben Smith). Jay helps them shoplift, and they give him a knife. The gang terrorises Dot Branning (June Brown) and Jay steals her keys so the gang can break into her house. When Dot returns, the gang escape, but Jay is left hiding in the house, and he realises he has done wrong. The gang orders Jay to throw a brick through Dot's window, but he refuses and is rejected from the gang. However, Tegs later confronts Jay in a park and a violent fight breaks out, with Jay being stabbed in the leg. Tegs is arrested, and his mother Tina (Kerry Ann White) tries to threaten Jay out of testifying against her son at his trial. However, she is scared off by Jase's girlfriend Dawn (Kara Tointon). Jay gives evidence at the trial and Tegs is sentenced to two years in a Young Offenders Institute.

Jay and Jase plan to flee Walford when Jase's criminal past returns in the form of his old gang. Dawn stops them from leaving by setting a date for her and Jase's wedding. Jase's old gang, led by Terry Bates (Nicholas Ball), holds Jay hostage to get revenge on Jase. Jase is able to save Jay with his friend Billy Mitchell's (Perry Fenwick) help but is beaten to death by Terry's men, and Billy, too frightened to intervene, leaves Jase to die. Jay accuses Dawn of causing his father's death and decides to go into care to get away from her. Jay is later fostered by Billy, who is wracked with guilt for not saving Jase from the gang. Jay's behaviour worsens when he plans an arson attack against Dawn, but Billy is able to stop him, and Jay later apologises to Dawn. After staying at The Queen Victoria public house for three months, Jay moves into a flat with Billy and Janine Butcher (Charlie Brooks). Janine tries to get rid of Jay by stealing, and blaming it on Jay. When Billy believes Janine over Jay, he leaves the flat, and he meets and befriends Marissa Moore (Finn Atkins), who works at a Massage Parlour. They plan to run away together, but Marissa backs out, leaving Jay to run away alone. Upon his return, Jay lies that he is living with Bert, but is actually sleeping on a park bench. He later decides to move back in with Billy back at The Queen Victoria. Terry's trial for Jase's murder approaches and Jay learns the truth, that rather than attempting to help Jase, Billy hid to save himself. He tells Billy he hates him. Later, Billy meets Terry's wife Viv Bates (Dido Miles) who threatens to hurt Jay if Billy testifies. Jay is taken hostage as a security measure, and Billy risks his own life to save him. Billy and Jay are both rescued by the police, and Billy testifies, which results in Terry receiving life imprisonment for murder, partially redeeming himself in the eyes of Jay.

In November, Billy and Jay are thrown out of The Queen Victoria, and are forced to move in with Billy's relative, Archie (Larry Lamb). When Billy is struggling with finding a job, Jay takes matters into his own hands by mugging Lucy Beale (Melissa Suffield). Jay later feels guilty, and soon he and Lucy begin to develop feelings for one another and they kiss. Jay is then later upset when Lucy is nasty to him in front of her friends. After Archie's murder, Billy and Jay are forced to move house again, this time moving in with Heather Trott (Cheryl Fergison). Several months later, while Jay is visiting Dawn, the house is repossessed, and Billy and Jay move back to The Queen Victoria. However, when the pub is destroyed by fire, they move to Phil Mitchell's (Steve McFadden). Billy receives a letter and a phone call and Jay asks what they were about. Billy lies that they were about money, so Jay steals two drills from Greg Jessop (Stefan Booth), hoping to sell them on but leaving Billy angry when he finds them. Phil tells Jay the letter was about Billy's past, so Jay asks Billy about it, calling him pathetic and a coward for not facing up to his past, so Billy punches Jay in the stomach, but is immediately apologetic. Jay is angry and refuses his apology. On Jay's sixteenth birthday, Jay asks Phil for a job and Phil offers him a day's trial. He sees a bruise on his stomach but Jay says it happened at school. However, Phil later learns from Billy that he hit Jay, and then offers Jay the job. When Billy still refuses to talk about his past, Jay returns the phone call pretending to be Billy and a police officer visits, but Billy refuses to talk about Julie Perkins (Cathy Murphy) and orders Jay to see the police officer out. Jay then sets up an internet profile pretending to be Billy and contacts Julie, who visits Billy. Meanwhile, Jay spends time boxing with Phil. At Stacey Slater's (Lacey Turner) Halloween party, Jay tries to ask Lauren Branning (Jacqueline Jossa) out, but she isn't interested, so makes sexual remarks and is confronted by her father Max Branning (Jake Wood). Whilst working at Mitchell's Autos garage (known as the Arches), Phil tells him that he is dealing in stolen jewellery and asks him to deliver a supply of it to Connor Stanley (Arinze Kene). When Jay meets him, Connor under-pays him and threatens him not to tell Phil. Jay tells Shirley Carter (Linda Henry) and she encourages him to retrieve the money. Jay confronts Connor again and beats him up, he also gets the cash. Afterwards, Jay tells Phil that he has got all the money owed, and announces that he intends to change his surname to Mitchell. Phil and Shirley throw Jay a party to mark his name change, but it is interrupted by the return of Phil's son Ben (Joshua Pascoe) who has returned from prison. The following day Ben tells Jay that he is not welcome and he will find a way to get rid of him. However, they soon become friends.

Jay starts dating Abi Branning (Lorna Fitzgerald), but when Max catches them kissing he thinks that Jay is only interested in sex, throws Jay out and bans Abi from seeing him. Max soon softens towards Jay and allows them to date. Jay promises Abi a drink in The Queen Victoria but Eddie Moon (David Essex) refuses to serve them alcohol so he instead gives them squash and patronizes Jay. Jay and Abi break into The Vic but Abi pushes glasses off the bar causing the pair to flee. When Abi confesses the truth, Jay breaks up with her. However, they later reunite and Abi tells Jay she is ready for sex, to which he agrees. However, Abi losses confidence as Lola has made fun of her earlier. Jay gets angry and says he would give Lola a call to have sex, though he immediately apologises, but Abi is hurt and dumps him. However, they soon reunite again.

Jay meets Lola Pearce (Danielle Harold), the granddaughter of Billy Mitchell (Perry Fenwick) and she tries to make Abi jealous by lying to her that she and Jay had sex, but Abi ignores her and Jay chooses her over Lola. Lola begins working for Phil, and fires her after catching her stealing, but when she asks for her job back in exchange for her mobile phone, he refuses, and in a fit of rage, Lola smashes up the Arches, but unknown to her Jay is working underneath the car and kicks a piece of equipment down into the pit, which hits Jay and knocks him unconscious. Lola gets Billy's partner Julie Perkins (Cathy Murphy) who calls an ambulance and takes the blame for the incident, Jay is taken to hospital where he gets stitches on his forehead. He soon returns to the square and tells Lola he remembers what happened; and gives her a day to confess what really happened to Phil or he will. Jay is eventually persuaded by Julie against telling Phil, and Jay recovers from the incident. When Jay learns that Lola is pregnant, he comforts her. However Abi misconstrues the situation and dumps Jay.

When Phil is arrested for the murder of his ex-partner Stella Crawford (Sophie Thompson), who jumped from a building several years previously, Ben denies any involvement, but it soon emerges that he told the police that Phil forced Stella to jump, and Jay falls out with Ben, helping to eject him from the family home. Derek Branning (Jamie Foreman) assumes Phil's position in the Arches and tells Ben and Jay to make up, although Jay says to Ben that he does not mean it.

Development

Jay Brown as he appeared in September 2007.

Originally a recurring character, Jay was considered a regular from July 2007. He was involved in a minor racism storyline, where he called another character a "black cow". EastEnders' executive producer Diederick Santer said this was inspired by the race row in Channel 4's reality show, Celebrity Big Brother, commenting: "The Celebrity Big Brother race row kicked off as I took charge of my first scripts. I thought it was fascinating because it showed there was a real need for a debate about race in Britain. [Big Brother] didn't do it particularly well, so I thought it could be something EastEnders should do. Our stuff won't be overly moralistic or preachy but it will tackle this serious issue head on."

Another controversial storyline saw Jay get involved with a gang of youths, ending with him being stabbed in the thigh. A BBC spokesperson said "This is easily one of the most shocking and controversial storylines EastEnders has ever done. It is not a decision bosses have taken lightly, but it is an issue that is top of the news agenda. [...] We're going to tread very carefully — it won't be gratuitous. The plan is to screen the episodes in the usual slots before the watershed. Hopefully by showing the suffering that gang violence can cause, some people may think twice about getting involved."

Reception

In January 2008, the BBC received 184 complaints from viewers over 13-year-old Jay's stabbing storyline, angry that children would have seen it. Ofcom received a further seven complaints. The BBC allowed the controversial broadcast despite a clampdown on soap violence being ordered. John Beyer of Mediawatch UK said: "I think this shows that at a flagship programme such as EastEnders they are prepared to ignore public opinion, prepared to ignore the regulator and the complaints and carry on regardless." A BBC spokesperson defended the storyline, stating: "EastEnders has always tackled difficult issues and we acknowledge that some viewers could consider this storyline challenging. However, we aim to reflect real issues and during this storyline the audience will see Jay's torment through to him deciding not to yield to peer pressure like his father did many years ago. This is part of a long-running storyline that in no way glamorises the use of knives, or portrays violence in a positive light. In fact the storyline will culminate in the character of Jay doing the right thing."

Borthwick has been praised by critics for his portrayal of Jay. Nancy Banks-Smith of The Guardian wrote that the episode in which his father died "offered Jason's young son, Jay (Jamie Borthwick), a chance to steal the show, which he duly did with a touching torrent of grief. His father, a thief himself, would have been proud of him." Borthwick was nominated in the category 'Best Dramatic Performance from a Young Actor or Actress' at the 2008 British Soap Awards, and 'Best Child Actor' at the 2008 Digital Spy Soap Awards.

External links

• Jay Brown at BBC Online