The Full Mitchell
The Story Behind 'Naked Truth'
By Larry Jaffee
The ultimate "two-hander" (EastEnders episodes that feature only two characters), The Mitchells: Naked Truth finds Grant and Phil in the Queen Vic after closing, saying the things that the brothers have always wanted to say to each other.
Ostensibly an excuse to make some ancillary money for the corporation, the hour-long video has enough revelatory moments to keep any EastEnders fan’s attention as the bruvvers look back through flashbacks at the nine years they have graced (more like menaced) Albert Square.
A few of the memorable tidbits that spout from the boys who are obviously just looking to wind each up:
from Phil: their mum and dad really wanted Grant to be a girl
- from Grant: he wanted to join The Old Bill (police) if he hadn’t enlisted in the Army
- from Phil: he thought to enlist in the armed forces" for a second
- from Grant: he’s the better dancer of the two; Phil says he looked like a "deranged pigeon" on the dance floor
- from Phil: both he and Sharon made the first move
- from Grant: Phil hasn’t paid his bar tab.
The latter two points may be intrinsically linked. Phil never really has been the same since Grant found that cassette of Sharon talking to Michelle about her affair with Phil while Grant was locked up, and played it for the entire Vic crowd on the night of Kathy & Phil’s engagement party.
But then again Phil had always been a moody sod, obviously lonely, perhaps explaining why he hooked up with the likes of Nadia for some companionship. But it doesn’t explain why he’s doing his best to destroy his marriage to Kathy.
Thoreau’s line about "men lead lives of quiet desperation," despite the radical change of scenery (austere New England vs. cockney East End), certainly describes Phil’s downward spiral as a drunk. Sure, domestic life (i.e., married with children) is not a piece of cake. There are always diapers to change, meals to feed, mortgages and bills to be paid, kids to take to school, garbage to be taken out, laundry to be done, etc. But that all obviously goes with the territory.
Since in the regular storyline Phil never is given the chance to explain what’s eating at him, the video provides that opportunity, but we’re still left wondering if Sharon really meant that much to Phil. She certainly meant that much to Grant, who has been so desperate to be a father and have a real relationship with a woman that after his brief period of mourning he decides to spread his brute cheer (and sperm?) around.
In any case, personally, I always thought the "I married the wrong brother" storyline was a trite device worthy of American soaps.
Grant is quite aware that his brother is an alcoholic, and he reluctantly pours him drink after drink because he figure he’s safer at the Vic than some other pub.
Beware that the programme’s flashbacks and montages flash some "spoilers," in which we find Grant in particular having sexual rendezvous with several female characters unfamiliar to us (the U.K. is two years ahead), but I won’t ruin it for anyone.
The video climaxes with Grant and Phil’s already infamous stripping a la The Full Monty to the 1970s disco tune "Kung Fu Fighting," reprising the duo’s act one inebriated night (they reminisce) in some pub before they arrived in Walford.
At just the moment that they drop their drawers, in walks an aghast mum Peggy, who wants to know what all the racket is. She thinks what they doing is plain silly, but realizes that it’s been such a time since they’ve both been so gleeful.
For me, the stripping was humourous, but what really sent me laughing was Grant’s request for Phil to hit him following Grant’s admission of lusting after Kathy. Phil, already on at least his third drink, hits him hard. Grant, dazed, says "I can’t believe you hit me." Phil reminds him that he asked for it. "But I can’t believe you hit me," Grant replies, adding that his older brother shouldn’t be thinking that he knocked him out or anything, that it was a lucky punch. Phil’s like, "Yeah, whatever." It’s a testament to these two actors, Ross Kemp and Steve McFadden, that they’re as believable as brothers.
In a serial like EastEnders, characters are usually able to develop only as far as the scriptwriters allow. We’ve always figured that Grant and Phil to be carrying some mental baggage, but rarely find out how they evolved into their current states.
The Mitchells: Naked Truth was released only in the U.K., meaning that it will be unwatchable on American TV sets. But resourceful online fans will be able to purchase the tape from various British Web sites and then have it transferred to the U.S. NTSC transmission standard. It’s also interesting to note that The Mitchells: Naked Truth is only the second official EastEnders video to be packaged by the BBC. (The first dealt with the Den & Angie Years and was reissued under a different name a few years ago.)
A final editorial comment: The Walford Gazette on several occasions has pleaded to the BBC’s video and licensing executives to consider an EastEnders home video series for North America, only to be pretty much ignored, which is a shame considering that there’s obviously a market for such material.
Why haven’t more videos been available for EastEnders, which is the BBC’s most popular, longest-running programme in its history, especially given the BBC’s marketing acumen of recent years (e.g., Absolutely Fabulous, Keeping Up Appearances, Are You Being Served?, Red Dwarf, Teletubbies, et. al.)?
Sure a soap opera requires some tinkering and repurposing of previous material, but Granada never has had a problem coming with videos for Coronation Street.
