Billy Mitchell

This article's content is marked as Mature
The page contains mature content that may include coarse language, sexual references, and/or graphic violent images which may be disturbing to some. Mature pages are recommended for those who are 18 years of age and older.

If you are 18 years or older or are comfortable with graphic material, you are free to view this page. Otherwise, you should close this page and view another page.

Villain Overview

Gallery

Billy Mitchell is the deuteragonist of the British soap opera EastEnders.

In his characterisation, Billy is a member of the Mitchell Family and the cousin of the Mitchell Brothers - Phil and Grant respectively. He originally started out as an antagonist who debuted as the estranged uncle and abusive legal guardian of Jamie Mitchell. Over the years, however, Billy has developed into a more heroic and lighthearted character to the point of being involved in numerous high-profile storylines that frequently revolve on his personal flaws in both romantic and family relationships.

He is portrayed by Perry Fenwick.

Biography[]

Billy Mitchell first came to Albert Square in Walford, a fictional borough in East London, from November 1998 following the death of his brother Charlie. Since then Billy has become the legal guardian of his nephew and Charlie's son Jamie. However, their relationship has grown estranged to the point where Billy has ended up mistreating Jamie with physical abuse and threats of violence. This is soon discovered by Billy's cousin Phil Mitchell, who subsequently confronts Billy for his actions before taking Jamie under his own wing.

In 1999, Billy reappears to seek out Phil and his brother Grant Mitchell on a problem that affects them all - Billy owes money to a crew of notorious loan sharks led by their leader Kim Brooks, with whom the Mitchell Brothers have been planning to rip off at that stage. The brothers initially refuse to help Billy when they see him giving Jamie a hard time again, but eventually they relent after Brooks orders his crew to firebomb Phil and Grant's car lot. Billy later informs their sister Sam and her policeman boyfriend Beppe Di Marco about what Phil and Grant are doing. In the end, the brothers plunge their getaway car into a canal - both survive, though Grant is presumed dead after only Phil resurfaces from the wreckage.

Billy, still owing some money to Brooks, begins to hassle Jamie once again in order to repay his debt to Brooks. When Billy hassles Jamie one night, this culminates in Jamie angrily beating Billy up, finally lashing out over Billy’s many years of abuse towards him. Billy decides to leave Jamie alone, later seeking for his forgiveness for the abuse he gave him. Jamie later reluctantly agrees to forgive Billy for his abuse after discovering that Billy himself had been abused and neglected in an orphanage when he was a child. As such, Billy finds himself reacquainted with his abuser Ernie Johnson and confronts him over their past.

By then, Billy has begun working for nightclub owner Steve Owen and is occasionally menaced by the latter. He and Jamie soon find themselves involved in Phil's rivalry with Steve along with both of their respective feuds against fellow hardman Dan Sullivan. Later on when Phil is shot by an unknown assailant, Billy suspects that his estranged stepson Ian Beale and love rival Mark Fowler are the culprits - though it is later revealed that Phil's shooter is actually his ex-girlfriend Lisa Shaw. Months later, Dan forces Billy to collaborate in his revenge scheme against Phil and Steve after they framed him for Phil's shooting. This involves Billy being forced to reveal to Dan that Phil had a one-night stand with Steve's wife Mel Healy, which indirectly leads to the events of Dan kidnapping Mel and holding her ransom for three days in order to successfully blackmail Phil and Steve into giving him £200,000 in exchange for her safety - thus exacting his revenge on the pair before departing the square forever.

Afterwards, Steve forces Billy to accompany him and his old gang on a criminal job. This works successfully and Steve gives Billy his share of the money to renovate the E20 nightclub. In 2002, Phil forces Billy to reveal Steve ripped off his old partner-in-crime Graeme and their criminal accomplices on the job. This results in Phil grassing up Graeme to Steve as part of their feud. Steve is later killed in a high-speed car chase with Phil.

Coincidentally, Billy has begun a relationship with local resident Little Mo Slater. He falls in love with her and embarks on a lenghtly fued against her estranged husband Trevor Morgan due to the latter's history of abusing and controlling her with his domestic violence; Billy and Trevor become sworn archenemies as a result of the former's discovery of the latter's nature. Billy also comforts Little Mo's sister, Kat, after finding out that her uncle Harry Slater had raped and sexually molested Kat when she was 13 - which resulted in the birth of their illegitimate daughter Zoe.

By 2002, Billy's rivalry with Trevor continues to develop when Little Mo is wrongfully imprisoned for trying to kill her husband - she had attacked Treovr with an iron in self-defense after he tried to rape her in the same manner that he did to her weeks ago in December 2001. Billy works together with Kat to bring Trevor to justice by getting his mistress, Donna Andrews, to testify against him due to the fact that Trevor has been mistreating her as well. This initially fails after Trevor gets Donna pregnant and she later gives birth to their son Sean, but eventually she agrees to help when Trevor beats her up at one point.

Eventually, Little Mo is exonerated after Kat gets Trevor arrested for attacking her and he is forced to make a deal with her in exchange for getting Little Mo released from prison. It is then Billy proposes to Little Mo and they get engaged. On Halloween 2002, however, Trevor kidnaps Little Mo and threatens to kill her along with Sean in order to prevent her from leaving him. He sets fire to the house where they are being held captive; Little Mo and Sean escape, but Trevor is killed along with firefighter Tom Banks when the house explodes with both men inside the building.

Following Trevor's funeral, Billy helps Little Mo move forward from her ordeal by going through with their wedding plans. They eventually on Christmas Day 2002, the same day of Jamie's death, but their marriage soon gets into trouble nearly a year later when Little Mo is raped by her friend Gray Foster and she becomes pregnant with their child - Freddie. While their ordeal appears to be over when Gray is sent to prison for Little Mo's rape, she ultimately breaks up with Billy and they get seperated in 2006.

Soon enough, Billy befriends Phil's associate Minty Peterson and the two find themselves clashing with mobsman Andy Hunter over his relationship with Sam - as they correctly deduce that Andy plans to fleece Sam for her family's empire; earlier on Andy became the square's new crime kingpin following the death of his gangland boss Jack Dalton. At the same time, Billy becomes involved in his family's rivalry with Phil's top-dog predecessor Den Watts and later clashes with his wife Chrissie Watts after she frames Sam for Den's murder. The Mitchells are able to successfully exonerate Sam with help from Den's illegitimate son Dennis Rickman and his adopted sister-turned-wife Sharon Watts, who had earlier resented Billy for starting a fire that nearly killed her half-sister Vicki Fowler. As such, Billy is employed by crime lord Johnny Allen after he murders Andy and later hires Billy to replace his henchmen Jake Moon and his brother Danny. Eventually Johnny fires Billy after the latter conspires with his family against him.

Over the next few years, Billy becomes romantically involved with a woman named Honey Edwards and they end up getting married. Soon they give birth to a daughter named Janet, who later has Down syndrome to the point where Billy is faced with criticism for having such a daughter in that way. He eventually stands up to everyone, including his aunt Peggy, and shames them for judging his daughter. They soon learn to accept it and Honey is proud of Billy for what he did.

In 2008, Billy befriends reformed criminal Jase Dyer and his wayward son Jay Brown. Later on Billy helps Jase with his plans to rip off his old gang leader Terry Bates, but this fails when Terry kidnaps Jase and plans to kill them all. Jase causes an incident to allow Jay to escape and urges Billy to get him to safety. Billy succeeds and later plans on rescuing Jase from Terry. However, after seeing Jase being brutally attacked and pleading Billy for help, Billy becomes too scared and ultimately decides to hide as Jase is beaten to death and ultimately stabbed by Terry. In the end Jay assumes that Billy tried to save his father and thanks him for it. However, Billy later confines the truth to Honey and she dumps him for his lies.

In 2009, Billy continues to have a hard time keeping the secret from Jay and is soon blackmailed by local villain Nick Cotton when he discovers his secret. Billy urges Phil to deal with Nick once and for all. Phil kidnaps Nick and gives Billy a chance to kill him, but Billy doesn't go through with it in the end. Later on Billy finally reveals to Jay the truth about his role in Jase's death. It is then Billy is shunned by everyone for letting Jase die, but he redeems himself after saving Jay from getting hurt by Terry's gang; because of Billy's heroic efforts, he is able to testify against Terry to the point where Terry is found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment for his crimes. Soon afterwards, Billy and Jay form a surrogate father-son relationship and they end up starting a funeral parlour business together.

In 2010, Billy gets romantically involved with his old friend Janine Butcher and learns that she is suspected in the murder of Peggy's villainous ex-husband Archie Mitchell. In 2011, Billy gets reacquainted with his long-lost relative Lola Pearce. In 2012, Billy helps Lola win a prolonging custody battle for her daughter Lexi as a result of Lola's one-night stand with Phil's wayward son Ben Mitchell earlier on. The following years see Billy being wrongfully accused for the murder of Ben's former babysitter Heather Trott, whom Ben himself had killed; stopping Phil from attacking his business rival Max Branning over the inquiries as to who killed Ian's daughter Lucy Beale; nearly getting evicted by businessman James Willmott-Brown; and being threatened by Phil's old partner-in-crime Aidan Maguire.

In 2022, Billy is threatened with being wrongfully jailed for Phil's criminal activities when police official Samantha Keeble plans to bring the Mitchell Family to justice for their involvement in the death of her late father Malcolm decades ago; back in 1979, Malcolm was killed by Phil's father Eric Mitchell back when he was leading the family in an armed robbery. At first Keeble blackmails Phil into grassing up Billy to the authorities, which results in Billy getting arrested for murder; however, Phil eventually foils Keeble's plan and manages to exonerate Billy in the process. In 2023, Billy supports Lola when she reveals to be suffering from terminal cancer and has months to live.

Navigation[]

Trivia[]

Perry Fenwick (the actor who currently plays Billy Mitchell) filmed his 1000th episode on 6 August 2010.
Perry Fenwick stated he disliked how Billy was another violent Mitchell due to his abuse to Jamie, and would have most likely quit the role had Billy not mended his “wicked ways”. He also said that he initially received backlash from fans for Billy’s abuse to Jamie, usually from female fans who were attracted to Jack Ryder, the actor who plays Jamie. After that storyline ended and Billy mended his ways, he quickly became one of the soap’s most likeable characters.

Villains Wiki

Billy Mitchell

Biography[]

Navigation[]

Trivia[]

Fan Feed