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Phil Mitchell is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Steve McFadden. Phil was introduced to the soap opera on 20 February 1990, and was followed by his brother, Grant (Ross Kemp), sister Sam (Danniella Westbrook/Kim Medcalf) and mother Peggy (Jo Warne/Barbara Windsor). Phil is one of the major introductions made by executive producer Michael Ferguson, who wanted to bring in some macho, male leads. Phil and his brother Grant became popularly known as the Mitchell brothers in the British media with Phil initially portrayed as the more level-headed of the two thugs. Storylines featuring the Mitchell family dominated the soap opera throughout the 1990s, with Phil becoming a popular and long-running male protagonist into the 2000s and the 2010s. McFadden temporarily left the series in late 2003 then returned in April 2005 for a brief stint, before making a permanent return in October 2005. McFadden took a hiatus from the series at the end of Phil's liver cirrhosis storyline with the character departing on 6 February 2017. He returned on 24 July the same year. McFadden took another break in 2018 from 31 August to 22 November.On December 6th 2019, It was announced McFadden would be stepping down in Eastenders, after he announced standing as a Labour Co-Op candidate in the Finchley and Golders Green constituency.

Phil's most prominent storylines include his battles with alcoholism and addiction; suffering from cirrhosis of the liver; various criminal dealings; having an affair with Grant's wife Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean) — a storyline popularly dubbed "Sharongate"; a failed marriage to Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth); a longstanding rivalry with his tormented stepson and Kathy's eldest child, Ian (Adam Woodyatt); his closest interactions with cousin Billy (Perry Fenwick), whom he often clashes with, and godson Jamie (Jack Ryder); his feuds with the likes of his uncle Archie (Larry Lamb) and stepfather Frank Butcher (Mike Reid), as well archenemies Steve Owen (Martin Kemp), Dan Sullivan (Craig Fairbrass), Mark Fowler (Todd Carty), Dennis Rickman (Nigel Harman), Jill Marsden (Sophie Stanton), Den Watts (Leslie Grantham), Johnny Allen (Billy Murray), Nick Cotton (John Altman), Lucas Johnson (Don Gilet), Janine Butcher (Charlie Brooks), Patrick Trueman (Rudolph Walker), Alfie Moon (Shane Richie), Derek Branning (Jamie Foreman), Max Branning (Jake Wood), Jack Branning (Scott Maslen), Carl White (Daniel Coonan), Mick Carter (Danny Dyer), Vincent Hubbard (Richard Blackwood), Gavin Sullivan (Paul Nicholas), James Willmott-Brown (William Boyde), Luke Browning (Adam Astill), Aidan Maguire (Patrick Bergin), Keanu Taylor (Danny Walters), Hunter Owen (Charlie Winter), and Ray Kelly (Sean Mahon); a one-night stand with Steve's wife Mel Healy (Tamzin Outhwaite); being stalked by his son Ben (Charlie Jones/Joshua Pascoe/Harry Reid/Max Bowden) — leading to an arrest for the murder of Phil's ex-fiancé Stella Crawford (Sophie Thompson), who physically and mentally abused Ben before committing suicide by jumping from a factory roof; coping with the deaths of Peggy after she had cancer, before his two cousins Ronnie (Samantha Womack) and Roxy (Rita Simons) later died on New Year's Day 2017; and being hit over the head with a wrench by Stacey Fowler (Lacey Turner) leaving him seriously injured in hospital. In 2016, Phil was revealed to be the father of a baby that local resident Denise Fox (Diane Parish) gave birth to following a short-lived fling between them. One of the most culturally significant storylines featuring the character aired in 2001 and was dubbed "Who Shot Phil?". The events saw Phil shot in a whodunit mystery, with the assailant eventually revealed to be his former girlfriend Lisa Fowler (Lucy Benjamin), who would later give birth to their daughter Louise (Rachel Cox, Brittany Papple, Tilly Keeper). The "Who Shot Phil?" storyline captured viewer and media interest and the culprit-reveal episode was watched by 22 million viewers. Over 13 years later, Phil was again shot by his old lover Shirley Carter (Linda Henry) on his wedding day to Sharon.

Storylines

1990–2003

Phil Mitchell first arrived in Walford to open an automobile repair shop, known as The Arches; he is joined by his older brother Grant (Ross Kemp) Two years later, Phil goes into partnership at The Queen Victoria public house with Grant and his wife Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean) - up to the point where he moves in with them. Phil grows close to Sharon, who turns to him for comfort during Grant's violent outbursts. Sharon and Phil have sex but she stays with Grant, who is unaware of their betrayal. Sharon and Grant's reconciliation is brief, and amidst more rowing and physical violence, Grant is arrested and imprisoned. In his absence, Phil and Sharon continue their affair but when Grant is released, Sharon reconciles with him, leaving Phil heartbroken. On the rebound, Phil enters into a marriage of convenience with Nadia Borovac (Anna Barkan) - a Romanian refugee - enabling her to stay in Britain, with Nadia departing after the wedding.

Phil begins a relationship with Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth), but Nadia returns, needing Phil to prove he is her husband to prevent deportation. She moves in with him while she is investigated. Nadia seduces and sleeps with a drunken Phil. He regrets it, denying it to Kathy so Grant threatens to kill her to make her leave but Phil later bribes her into agreeing to a divorce. Kathy agrees to marry Phil in 1994, despite discovering that he torched a vehicle in a car lot - owned by his would-be stepfather Frank Butcher (Mike Reid) - to secure an insurance scam, accidentally killing a homeless boy trapped inside. Intent on winning him back, Sharon kisses Phil but he ends things there. During Phil and Kathy's engagement party, Grant listens to a cassette of Sharon admitting to the affair and plays it at the party. Kathy is incensed, and Grant beats Phil so badly that he has to go to hospital, due to a blood clot in his brain. Phil undergoes surgery, which stirs remorse in Grant. He pressures Phil into blaming Sharon for their affair and Grant forces her to leave Walford. Phil and Grant make peace but things between them are not the same.

Kathy and Phil eventually sort out their differences, up to the point where they get married and Kathy later gives birth to their son - Ben (Matthew Silver). As time goes on, however, Phil becomes depressed and turns to alcohol - which causes him to develop an addiction. This makes him abusive and neglectful towards Kathy and Ben, so Kathy takes Ben and moves out. Realizing what he has lost, Phil gives up alcohol and attends Alcoholics Anonymous. This soon helps Phil, up to the point where it manages to reveal the basis of his problem – the physical abuse he received from his father Eric when he was a boy, and his fear that he may abuse Ben. He and Kathy reconcile when he attends counselling, until he begins an affair with fellow alcoholic Lorna Cartwright (Janet Dibley) - who starts stalking him. With his marriage in jeopardy, Phil takes Kathy to Paris and admits his affair with Lorna so Kathy throws her wedding ring into the river. Phil begins sleeping rough, gambling, and blaming Kathy for his decline. This prompts her to leave Walford for South Africa, letting it be known that an offer of reconciliation from Phil would make her reconsider. Phil is undecided until Lorna stops him going after Kathy by locking herself in his bathroom and attempts suicide. He later follows Kathy to the airport but is stopped by Kathy's son, Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt), who persuades him that Kathy and Ben are better off without him. Phil agonies over the loss of his son.

To distract himself, Phil gets involved in a protection racket with Annie Palmer (Nadia Sawalha), who he is also having casual sex with, but grows tired of being bossed around by her and quits. He starts seeing Lisa Shaw (Lucy Benjamin), but the relationship stalls when Kathy returns briefly in 1999 and sleeps with Grant. Before Kathy returns to South Africa, she asks Phil to go with her but he declines as Grant has planned an armed robbery and Phil refuses to let him do the job alone. Infuriated by Phil's loyalty to Grant, Kathy reveals their recent tryst, leading to Phil confronting Grant and Grant's confession that he slept with Kathy as revenge for Phil's affair with Sharon. While trying to escape, Phil pulls out a gun and shoots at the dashboard, causing Grant to crash into the River Thames. Phil is rescued, but Grant isn't found and is presumed dead. However, it is soon revealed that Grant is alive and he escapes to Brazil - though not before sending Phil and their mother Peggy (Barbara Windsor) the deeds for his half of The Queen Vic. Though Phil is entrusted by his mother to protect Grant's share of The Queen Vic, he ends up selling it to his business partner Dan Sullivan (Craig Fairbrass) for £5 to spite Peggy due to her favouritism towards Grant. By then, Phil and Dan have become best-friends; with Phil being the only person to defend Dan after the latter is revealed to have cheated on his boyfriend Carol Jackson (Lindsey Coulson) by having an affair with her daughter Bianca (Patsy Palmer), the wife of Frank's son Ricky (Sid Owen) - whom Phil has frequently clashed with overtime.

Phil and Dan's friendship soon ends after Dan tells the police about a motor scam Phil was involved in and Phil cons Dan into signing the pub over to Peggy. Phil is unsupportive when his girlfriend, Lisa, has a miscarriage and he starts domestically abusing her by getting her sacked from her job and insists she stay at home. This makes her dependent on him so he moves on to her best friend, Mel Healy (Tamzin Outhwaite). Lisa is paranoid that Phil is having an affair and accuses Mel of being his other woman, which she is not, at that point. However, Mel is upset by Lisa's accusation and Phil comforts her, leading to a one-night stand. Mel, however, realizes it was a mistake and reconciles with Steve Owen (Martin Kemp), making Phil jealous. Lisa decides that a baby will improve their relationship so stops taking contraceptive pills but Phil wants Lisa to leave him, not get pregnant, so he admits to Lisa that he and Mel slept together. Lisa leaves, keeping quiet about her pregnancy, so when Mark Fowler (Todd Carty) suggests they tell people that the baby is his, Lisa agrees. Phil now has many enemies: Lisa; Steve, who also knows about Mel and Phil's one night stand; Ian, who Phil bullies mercilessly; Mark, who wants to avenge Lisa; and Dan. On Steve and Mel's wedding night, Phil is shot and collapses in a pool of blood. Steve is the prime suspect and is arrested but Phil, knowing Steve is innocent, confronts the real culprit, Lisa, after he is discharged from hospital. Realizing he drove her to it, Phil frames Dan. He is assisted by Ritchie Stringer (Gareth Hunt), who gives Dan the gun used to shoot Phil. Unaware that he is being set up, Dan holds Phil at gunpoint, demanding money until he is arrested for attempted murder. Steve is a witness at Dan's trial and gives evidence as agreed with Phil, further implicating Dan but he is cleared and seeks revenge by kidnapping Mel, threatening to kill her unless they pay him £200,000. Steve and Phil rescue Mel but Dan escapes with the money and is never seen again.

Phil reconciles with Sharon when she returns in 2001 and they run The Queen Vic together. Phil now wants children but Sharon reveals she is infertile due to botched abortion. She later admits that the baby she aborted six years earlier was Grant's. This puts a strain on their relationship and by Christmas they have separated, resulting in Sharon returning to the United States. Before Sharon leaves, she tells Phil that he, not Mark, is the father of Lisa's daughter, Louise (Rachel Cox). Phil confronts Lisa, demanding contact. Horrified at this, Steve and Mel ask Lisa and Louise to emigrate to California with them. She agrees but changes her mind and telephones Steve, asking him to return Louise. He refuses to, so Phil attempts to get Louise back, resulting in a car chase that ends when Steve crashes his car into a wall. Phil rescues Louise but the car explodes before he can help Steve, who dies in the inferno. Phil persuades Lisa to return to him and then makes it clear that it is Louise him and Peggy want, not Lisa. Phil and Peggy hire a nanny, Joanne Ryan (Tara Lynne O'Neill), without consulting her, telling her that Lisa is mentally unstable. Phil demands that Lisa change Louise's name to Mitchell legally and organises a christening. Lisa agrees until some of Phil's relatives, assuming she is the nanny, start talking about how unstable Louise's mother is. Furious at this, she and Louise flee to Portugal, assisted by Phil's godson Jamie (Jack Ryder) - whom Phil originally took in as his wing to spare him from being further abused by his legal guardian: Phil's cousin Billy (Perry Fenwick), However, Phil soon takes his frustrations out of Jamie until he dies after being struck by a car - leaving Phil devastated. After Jamie's funeral, Phil goes to Portugal and returns a month later with Louise. This causes some of Phil's neighbors to suspect that he has murdered Lisa.

Phil falls for Kate Morton (Jill Halfpenny), unaware that she is an undercover police officer investigating Lisa's disappearance. After Phil confesses that he manipulated Lisa to give him Louise, Kate reveals her true identity and says she loves him and will quit her job, but Phil threatens to kill her. Kate disappears, but several months later, Phil finds her working for gangster Jack Dalton (Hywel Bennett). Phil saves Kate's life when Jack orders her dead, but Jack then demands that Phil repay him by killing Sharon's long-lost brother: Dennis Rickman (Nigel Harman). Initially obeying Jack's request, Phil corners Dennis at gunpoint and prepares to kill him until Dennis offers to kill Jack himself - so that they can both be free of him; Phil reluctantly agrees, but is surprised to learn that Dennis actually killed Jack as he promised. Phil and Kate later get married, but Lisa returns on their wedding day - demanding access to Louise. When Phil refuses, Lisa plans to shoot him again until she backs down. When Jack's representative Andy Hunter (Michael Higgs) confronts Phil over the circumstances of the kingpin's death, Phil denies involvement and Andy pardons him when he refuses to implicate Dennis for Jack's murder. Soon afterwards, Dennis and Sharon are reunited with their father Den Watts (Leslie Grantham) - who returns to the square after 14 years, with his last presence being that he had supposedly been shot dead as Dalton had orchestrated. Upon interacting together, Phil and Den quickly become enemies. Their feud culminates badly for Phil, when he reluctantly joins Den in an armed robbery - only to learn that Den had set him up on behalf of both Lisa and his family; Phil is subsequently arrested when the police besiege the scene of the crime. When she discovers this, Lisa tells Kate that she is taking Louise. Unable to stop her legally, Kate agrees; however, Phil discovers this and his marriage with Kate ends after he refuses to forgive her for costing him Louise. Up towards Christmas 2003, Phil escapes from prison and confronts Den; they fight until Den gives him £250,000 to survive "on the run", and Phil punches Dennis in retaliation for getting assaulted at their first encounter. Phil thereupon departs Walford and is not seen for over a year afterwards.

2005–

Phil returns 18 months later, needing more money. He attacks Ian, who calls the police and Phil is arrested. However, the case collapses after Grant returns to Walford pays a witness to change his testimony and Phil is released. The brothers return to Walford when Peggy requests they help his sister Sam (Kim Medcalf), who is wrongfully remanded in custody for Den's murder; Den was murdered by his second wife and Sam's nemesis, Chrissie (Tracy Ann Oberman), after the duo and Sam's friend Zoe Slater (Michelle Ryan) initially worked together to get revenge on Den for his nefarious activities - including Sam's intent to avenge Phil's ordeal. Upon arriving at the square, Phil and Grant notice Peggy being mugged and end up rescuing her. Shortly afterwards, they learn that Peggy's mugging was organised by her enemy and Walford's newly crime kingpin: Johnny Allen (Billy Murray). This prompts Phil and Grant to confront Johnny, warning him to stay away

1. "Series 3: Meet the cast". EastEnders: E20. BBC Online. Retrieved 25 June 2011.
2. ^ Cite error: The named reference first10years was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
3. ^ Smith, Rupert (2005). EastEnders: 20 years in Albert Square. BBC books. ISBN 978-0-563-52165-5.
4. "EastEnders TUE 04-JAN-94 episode description". Walford.net. Retrieved 3 December 2006.
5. "EastEnders TUE 02-JUN-98 episode description". Walford.net. Retrieved 3 December 2006.

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