YASMIN VINCE: ‘Mark Jr’s return could save EastEnders – but not for the reason you think’
Mark Fowler Jr's return has been rumoured to be part of the Branning family storyline - but the focus should be on the Mitchells
With Mark Jr back on EastEnders, it’s time the Mitchell reign resumed(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/Jack Barns/Kieron McCarron)
If I could only watch one TV show for the rest of my life, I would pick EastEnders. For me, it’s a near-perfect show – drama packed, enough suspense to have me clutching at my Dot Cotton inspired pearls, and whole lot of heart to go along with it. But if they let me in the writer’s room, I also know exactly what I would change – I’d bring the Mitchell family back into focus.
Family has always been at the centre of EastEnders. Whether it’s the OGs like the Fowlers and the Beales or relative newbies like the Panesars and the Knights, the soap has often championed a family rather than one of its members.
For instance, when the Vic changed hands last year, it was less about Linda handing the keys to Kat, but about the Carters making way for the Slaters, issuing a new era.
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Families like the Mitchells and the Fowlers have always been the heart of the show(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/Jack Barns/Kieron McCarron)
Over the years, the families at the centre of the show have changed. Recently, the soap has been centring on the Slaters and the Brannings. Zoe Slater and Max Branning’s respective returns have pushed their families to the forefront, meaning the Slaters were the focus of the Christmas special, and the Brannings of New Years Eve.
But there was a glorious time when the Mitchells reigned supreme. Cast your minds back to 2008. Peggy Mitchell was telling unruly punters to get out of her pub, Ben was dancing around the Vic as his dad Phil growled his way into my heart and everyone wanted to know when Danielle would finally tell Ronnie she was her long lost daughter. This is the EastEnders I think of when I imagine its glory days.
Why? Because the Mitchell family has been and always will be the beating heart of the show. No one does scary grump like Steve McFadden’s Phil, no one did messy but iconic like Rita Simons’ Roxy. Samantha Womack’s Ronnie could inject ice into your veins with one look and the next second, make you ball your eyes out as she dealt with the heartbreak of losing a child. And who can forget Larry Lamb’s villainous Archie? I, for one, cheer every time I rewatch his d.e.a.t.h.
Ronnie and Roxy were two of the best Mitchells(Image: BBC/Steven Peskett)
The Mitchells have been fractured of late. With Peggy, Roxy and Ronnie d.e.a.d., Grant absent and Ben off in prison, there seem to be few Mitchells left in Walford. Phil’s there, but he barely interacts with anyone but Nigel and Debbie. Sam has returned but only temporarily. And Amy and Ricky seem more like Brannings than Mitchells. Even Billy, Harry and Barney, who we now know isn’t a Mitchell at all, seem more like Nicola’s own family than part of the wider clan.
With Mark Fowler Jr’s return, EastEnders has a chance to bring the Mitchells back together. He is Grant’s son, as they reminded us several times on the show. But his first appearance on the show, as part of the New Year’s flashforward, put him squarely with the Brannings. He was there as Max was arrested, and the reason isn’t yet apparent.
My hope is that the next 11 months only peripherally attach Mark to the Brannings, and he instead acts as the glue to bring this iconic family back together – maybe even back to their (sorry, Kat) rightful place as the owners of the Vic.
The in-fighting of the Brannings and the fractious and wary nature of the Slaters can both continue, but they shouldn’t be the focus. EastEnders needs a family that is strong, unafraid to take the criminal route for action and quick to band together.
That’s who I root for, not philanderer Max or ‘you ain’t my muvva’ Zoe. It’s that Mitchells or d.i.e attitude that I need to grip me, to make me care that someone has been hit with a car for the 78th time or that someone else had a secret child their sister’s boyfriend.
With a family like the Mitchells, the show goes from being inevitably repetitive and formulaic to deeply interesting. So, bring back the Mitchells, and long may they reign!
