Phil Mitchell
| Phil Mitchell | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| File:Philll Mitch.jpg | |||||||
| Duration | 1990–2003, 2005— | ||||||
| First appearance | 20 February 1990 | ||||||
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Phillip James "Phil" Mitchell is a long-running fictional character in the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders. He is played by Steve McFadden.
Phil first arrived in Albert Square on 20 February 1990, along with his brother, Grant, and sister, Sam. He was later joined by his mother Peggy.
He has at various times owned many businesses in the Square, including the Queen Vic, The Arches, Bridge Street Café, the Snooker Hall and Walford Video, and been married three times, to Nadia Borovac, Kathy Hills and Kate Morton.
Profile
Phil has been described as a fat bully who uses his fists when he doesn't get his own way. He has been involved in several of the show's biggest storylines, including Sharongate, in which he had an affair with his brother's wife, Sharon, and was subsequently beaten up by Grant, and, perhaps most notably, the "Who Shot Phil?" saga in 2001, when the character was gunned down by a mystery shooter on the day of Steve Owen and Melanie Healy's wedding day. There was no shortage of suspects in this classic "whodunnit?". The prime suspect was Steve because he had found out that his new wife Mel had a drunken one-night stand with Phil on Christmas Day 2000. The culprit eventually turned out to be Phil's ex-girlfriend, Lisa. Surprisingly Phil forgave Lisa and decided to frame his arch nemesis Dan Sullivan.
Dan was arrested for the attempted murder of Phil and committed for trial, but the jury found him not guilty. He decided to kidnap Mel and gain revenge on Steve, thinking that he was the one who shot Phil). Steve and Phil set about rescuing Mel by paying the ransom money he demanded and after she was released Dan left Walford with the money.
Steve then started a vendetta against Phil which he was about to lose. He planned to flee to the United States with Mel, Lisa, her boyfriend, Mark Fowler, and daughter, Louise (Phil's daughter). After Mark was unable to go due to being HIV-positive, causing Lisa to have second doubts about emigrating, the plan was falling apart close to the day of departure. Steve had to sort a few things out, and Phil was hot on his trail (baby Louise was in the back of Steve's car). After a high-speed car chase Steve lost control of his car and crashed into a wall. Phil rushed to get Louise out of the car. He went back for Steve but the car exploded into flames with Steve inside, and by the time help arrived Steve was dead.
Also notable was the episode in which Phil and Grant's car plunged into the River Thames in 1999. The Mitchell brothers had fallen out after Grant slept with Phil's ex-wife Kathy (possibly in revenge for the "Sharongate" saga), and while fleeing in a getaway car from a "job" that had gone wrong, Phil confronted Grant and the two entered into a heated argument. Phil started shooting at the dashboard, causing Grant to lose control of the car, which plunged into the river. The brothers managed to escape the sinking vehicle, and Grant then fled to Brazil.
In 2003, Phil and Den Watts planned a robbery, but Den set Phil up (in revenge for treating Den's daughter, Sharon, so badly over the years and having his son Dennis beaten up) and he was arrested for armed robbery. He escaped and attacked Den on Christmas Day. Den, seeing no other option, gave Phil enough money to survive for a while on the run so Phil left Walford and wasn't seen for over a year.
In April 2005, Phil returned to Albert Square desperate for cash. In desperation, he attacked his old enemy, Ian Beale. Ian tricked him into believing he was going to help him get away but Ian called the police. Phil ran from the police, who by now were crawling around the Square, and he burst into the houses of Pat Evans, Ian Beale and the Fowlers in a bid to avoid arrest. In a stand-off outside the pub, he attacked a few policemen but was caught and remanded in custody.
On Monday 24th October 2005, Phil returned to the Square on a permanent basis. The case of armed robbery had fallen through, after brother Grant (who also returned on the same night) paid the security guard who had been present at the warehouse to change his testimony. Peggy Mitchell had also employed the help of what was - according to Johnny Allen - one of the most crooked lawyers in London.
Phil and Grant then set about trying to prove the innocence of their sister, Sam, in the murder of Den Watts. Sam had been framed by Den's real killer Chrissie The brothers still felt much resentment towards each other, but working together towards a common goal enabled the pair to build bridges and move on from the past.
In December 2005 it transpired that Phil had paid 27-year-old Juley Smith to begin a relationship with Johnny Allen's 17-year-old daughter Ruby.
On New Year's Eve 2005, Dennis got involved with Phil's feud with Johnny. He was ready to leave Albert Square for good with his wife after being convinced by her that they should make a new start in America. Dennis did not know that Sharon had been threatened by Johnny Allen for interfering in his business involving Juley and Ruby and that he would die if they had not left by midnight on New Year's Eve. Sharon told Phil Mitchell all about it. Phil had been wanting revenge on Johnny for some time. As Sharon and Dennis were about to leave, they were stopped by Ian Beale who asked where they were going. Sharon then went to Pauline Fowler's New Year's Eve party, and Dennis was left with Phil. Phil took Dennis home and told him everything that Johnny had done to Sharon, as well as telling him Johnny had murdered Dennis's old friend, Andy Hunter (whose death was originally believed to have been suicide). Dennis got angry and went to see Johnny who was in the office of his nightclub. Dennis beat Johnny up, and Johnny begged for help as he thought he was dying. Dennis threw a mobile phone at him and said if he could reach the phone then he could live. Dennis left and went to wash the blood off his hands at Pauline's (Sharon and everyone else had since moved on to the Queen Vic). Phil went over to see Johnny and found him lying on the floor of his office, and believed him to beat. Johnny was really alive, and had made a phonecall to a hitman to murder Dennis. Dennis was walking across the square to meet Sharon and was stabbed by a couple of paces away from Sharon by a hitman sent by Johnny. Phil was feeling guilty that he is partly responsible for Dennis's death and also discovered Sharon was pregnant - her son Dennis was born 6 months later.
In January 2006 Phil Mitchell left Walford again with ex-lover and good friend, Sharon Rickman after the murder of Sharon's beloved husband, Dennis Rickman. As they left Phil vowed to make Johnny pay.
He returned in late March and was shocked to discover his ex-wife Kathy had died and his son Ben has been back in Walford living with his step-brother Ian. Phil was furious that he had not been told that Ben was back in Walford. He attacked Ian at Ben's birthday party for not telling him and Ben saw it and got upset. Jane Collins, Ian's girlfriend took Ben to see Phil at the Arches, and they got on well, but Ian came and broke up the meeting. Phil was just about to drink some alcohol, when his brother Grant walked into the Arches with an "'Ello, bruv!". They went out to Essex to find Johnny Allen and confront him about Dennis's death. Phil wanted a confession from Johnny that he killed Dennis. Grant found out about the nasty things Phil had been doing while he was away in Brazil such as paying Juley Smith to sleep with Johnny's daughter Ruby just to make him suffer. Johnny then got Danny Moon to capture the Mitchell brothers and under orders from Johnny he took them to the forest and was supposed to kill them. He was just about to kill Grant when Danny's brother Jake Moon turned up and shot Danny, killing him instantly. He revealed that Danny had told him he was the hitman sent by Johnny to kill Dennis. After Johnny surrendered himself to the police with the persuasion of Ruby, Phil and Grant returned to Walford.
Ben recently admitted to Phil that he accidentally dropped Little Mo's son, Freddie. Ben confessed everything to Little Mo and Dr. Oliver Cousins but Phil has ordered them both to keep quiet about this. He also took care of Courtney when Grant left Walford temporarily. Phil wasn't fond of his sister-in-law, Carla. Phil supported Grant when Carla returned, and said goodbye to Grant and Courtney as they left for Portugal.
More recently, Phil has been bonding with Ben, teaching him how to sack race for his school sports day. He also tricked Juley Smith, by offering him a job at The Vic, only to reveal that it was a cleaning job when Juley arrived. He also decided to buy the video shop on Turpin Road as an investment for Ben, enlisting the help of lawyer Stella Crawford to do so.
Women
Phil has been with many Walford women and has been married three times.
He had an affair with Grant's wife, Sharon, which was uncovered two years after it had happened; he was briefly married to Romanian immigrant, Nadia Borovac, so that she could stay in the country. They divorced when Phil wanted to marry Kathy Beale, which he did.
He had a son, Ben, with Kathy in 1995. The marriage turned stormy when Phil became an alcoholic and turned violent towards his wife. He had an affair with another alcoholic, and Kathy walked out. She slept with his brother, Grant (partly as revenge for when Phil slept with Grant's wife years earlier), and had a fling with a vicar, Reverend Alex Healy. Kathy then fled to South Africa with Ben to live with her brother.
Phil had a rocky romance with Lisa Shaw, and towards the end, he became verbally abusive toward her and threw her out. He had a one-night stand with Melanie Healy, Lisa's best friend, but Mel planned to marry Steve Owen, another nemesis of Phil's. On the day of Mel and Steve's wedding in March 2001, Phil was shot by a mystery person and Steve was a suspect. It turned out Lisa had shot him in revenge for treating her badly. Phil confronted her with the truth (he had seen her running after she fired the bullet), but instead of reporting her to the police, he decided to set up his arch-nemesis Dan Sullivan for the shooting, as he wanted to deal with Lisa in a more personal way. After Phil broke up with Lisa, she started a relationship with his enemy, Mark Fowler, who deeply cared for her. Lisa found out she was pregnant with Phil's child, but in a bid to erase their past, she and Mark decided to pretend it was his (even though Mark was unable to have children due to his HIV). Lisa never truly loved Mark, and they both knew this; however, they married shortly after baby Louise's birth.
When Phil's ex-lover Sharon Watts returned in May 2001, they gave their relationship another try and ran The Queen Victoria together. Phil wanted children, but Sharon revealed that she was interfile, and that baby Louise Fowler was really his daughter. This revelation ended Phil's relationship with Sharon, and he confronted Lisa about baby Louise, demanding that he become part of his child's life.
After just five months of marriage with Mark, Lisa began an affair with Phil. She moved in with him, and eventually Phil and the rest of the Mitchells slowly pushed Lisa away from her daughter until she was a virtual stranger. She realised that getting back with Phil was a huge mistake, and escaped with the baby to Portugal, with Phil in hot pursuit. Phil arrived back a month later with Louise, but not Lisa. Some residents suspected that Lisa was dead and that Phil had murdered her.
Phil fell for manicurist Kate Tyler, but she was really an undercover cop called Kate Morton, who was investigating Lisa's disappearance (and possible death) in Portugal. After gaining a confession from Phil (that he mentally manipulated Lisa into handing over their daughter in flashback), Kate in turn admitted who she really was. She admitted that she was in love with Phil and would give up her job for him. Phil eventually forgave her, and they married. At their wedding Lisa made a surprise return. When Kate threw the bouquet of flowers none other than Lisa caught it. Lisa was no longer the shivering wreck she once was, and she made it clear that she wanted access to Louise. She planned to shoot Phil again, and finish the job, but she came to her senses just in time when Den Watts shortly after his return assured her Phil would get what he deserved. When Phil was arrested for armed robbery (which Den set him up for), Kate left Phil and handed over Louise to Lisa, who fled Walford.
In 2006 Phil Mitchell left Walford again with ex-lover and good friend, Sharon Rickman after the murder of Sharon's beloved husband, Dennis Rickman and promised to avenge Dennis's death for her. The "Get Johnny" storyline saw Phil and Grant hunt down Johnny Allen, who had ordered Dennis's death, and he was eventually arrested. Danny Moon, who carried out Dennis's murder, was shot dead on the same day, by his brother Jake - who had known all along that Danny had killed Dennis.
Family
- Father: Eric Mitchell (deceased)
- Mother: Peggy Mitchell
- Brother: Grant Mitchell
- Sister: Sam Mitchell
- Wife: Kate Mitchell
- Son: Ben Mitchell
- Daughter: Louise Mitchell
- Grandfathers: Robert Mitchell (deceased), Jack Martin (deceased)
- Grandmothers: Sandra Mitchell (deceased), Lilly Martin (deceased)
- Uncle: Clive Mitchell
- Aunt: Sal Martin
- Niece: Courtney Mitchell
- Second cousins: Billy Mitchell, Charlie Mitchell (deceased)
- Second cousins once removed: Jamie Mitchell (deceased), Janet Mitchell
In popular culture
The character of Phil Mitchell has been spoofed in the cartoon sketch show 2DTV.
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