Grant's Coming Back!
By Larry Jaffee
LONDON-After several years of media speculation, the BBC announced in late May that Ross Kemp has signed a contract to reprise his popular EastEnders role of Grant Mitchell. Grant was last seen on the series nearly six years ago, driving a getaway car that ended up taking a dive into the Thames near the Millennium Dome to avoid being captured by the Old Bill. Grant couldn't be found, but his brother Phil was saved. Soon thereafter it became obvious that Grant had survived the dip, and he managed to pick up his toddler and catch a Heathrow flight to South America to start a new life.
For Americans who watch EastEnders via U.S. public television stations, Grant won't be on their screens for another four years. But for Dish Network subscribers or U.K. fans, Kemp's signing means that the Mitchell family (Peggy, Phil and Sam) will be back together on screen this fall for the first time since his departure in October 1999. Steve McFadden (Phil) and Barbara Windsor (Peggy) had also taken sabbaticals from the show but have since returned.
In an official BBC press release, Kemp stated: "I have been away from EastEnders for almost six years now and have enjoyed myself enormously working on other dramas, but I have kept great memories of my time on the Square.
"I think it will be enormous fun to return for a while to a show that I love and respect to do some more work with some fantastic acting and writing talent."
EastEnders executive producer Kate Harwood added: "We are so pleased that Ross will be back on the show. His character Grant Mitchell is one of the most iconic and popular in the history of soap. The impact of his return for the inhabitants of Walford should not be underestimated. It is going to be fireworks from the start."
From the start, Grant Mitchell has been clearly one of EastEnders' most enigmatic characters, and for that reason alone his return is most welcome, especially when the series has been criticised for losing its way.
At times, Grant is clearly psychotic, such as when he pummelled Eddie Royle to near death because he thought the onetime Vic landlord made a pass at Sharon. That often-visible jealousy streak also reared its ugly head when Grant's rage helped cause Tiffany's demise.
Somehow women find him irresistible. Indeed, the title of the BBC tie-in book about the character published in the mid-1990s was Blood Ties: The Lives and Loves of Grant Mitchell.
The tender side of Grant is demonstrated by his doting attention to Courtney, clearly the apple of her father's eye, and she returns to Walford as a nine-year-old.
Grant's complexity was perfectly summed up in the BBC book 20 Years in Albert Square.
"Grant was little more than a thug, but somehow he brought out the mothering instinct in otherwise sane women. Perhaps it was that baby face, those big blue eyes... or perhaps it was the fact that he was clearly damaged goods, a latent psycho who had been pushed over the edge by his experiences in the Falklands. Whatever the reason, women flocked to him, and Grant could never resist. But as soon as he married them (Sharon, Tiffany) he started using them as punching bags, and either drove them away or to their deaths."
Kemp told the British Sunday newspaper The Observer: "I don't think of myself as a saviour. The star of the show is the show, not the actors, and that has always been the case."
He left EastEnders for a lucrative ITV contract that resulted in his starring in the action SAS series Ultimate Force, in which he just finished the fourth series. Two years ago, he received good notices from theatre critics for his performance in Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew.
The BBC promised an exciting storyline this fall for Kemp's U.K. return. Let's hope the BBC and the EastEnders creative team doesn't squander this opportunity, as it has done with the return of Leslie Grantham (Den Watts).
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