An emotional week is approaching in EastEnders, as Ross Kemp returns to the serial as Walford’s prodigal son Grant Mitchell.
He’s back to bid farewell to beloved Nigel Bates (Paul Bradley), whose health is seriously declining amid his young on-set dementia battle. There’s also concerns for brother Phil (Steve McFadden) too, who’s cutting himself off from the world and refusing to visit ailing Nige’ at his care home.
Phil feels like he’s betrayed his mate’s wishes, having promised to care for him during his dying days.
In a special episode, which airs next Wednesday (April 29), Grant follows a distressed Phil to the beach, where he’s searching for a special item relating to Nigel’s past. The brothers have an emotional conversation, though Grant is left in somewhat of a predicament as Julie Bates (Karen Henthorn) calls to say that Nigel doesn’t have long left.
Will Grant choose to support his brother, or his old school friend?
“[The episode] has been extended because it was very hard, I think, for the editor and the director and the producers to cut any of it. But they had to cut some of it because it was 10 minutes over,” Ross explained to Radio Times after a photoshoot for this week’s magazine cover.
“I think it’s now running in about 35 minutes, which is five minutes longer than you normally get at least.”
During the episode Grant urges Phil to race back to the care home – but the brothers face a number of setbacks on their journey.
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Kemp continued: “What was quite amazing about it was that quite early on in me going back, and I had something happen personally to me – which was really shocking – and someone was very, very ill very quickly.
“So we allowed two hours to shoot the scene where we drive off and it started raining, and Steve and I managed to shoot what was a two hour schedule in 40 minutes, which shows how quickly we can work together.
“It was pouring down with rain. We went down to the beach, the sun came out. All of a sudden, the sun came out and we shot this amazing episode which involved Paul, Steve and myself.
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“As soon as we returned to work, it started pouring with rain again, but it’s sort of sort of kind of quite apt in terms of what was happening in those eps.”
While Nigel is at the care home, it seems that Bradley also shot scenes on location, as confirmed in stills from the instalment. Very sadly, at the conclusion of the episode, Nigel passes away.
“They’re emotional [episodes]. It’s the final episode for Paul. So that’s quite special and and I think hopefully it’s a tribute to Paul and Steve’s work over the last 18 months, and also to people who who have family members who are suffering with Alzheimers right now.”
Read more about Kemp’s return in the latest issue of Radio Times now – subscribe here.
Read more:
- 5 EastEnders spoilers next week: Nigel Bates’s tragic story ends as Grant Mitchell returns
- EastEnders first-look pictures reveal Grant’s return – and Mitchell family reunion after 10 years
- EastEnders reveals Vicki and Zack’s blackmailer in early BBC iPlayer release – and it’s not who you’d expect
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