I like Ben but that was funny.

I feel a bit like that about Abby Branning! 

Don't you dare.

Aw come on Darlo.... she has to be the most annoying kid character on telly...   

Worse than Holly on Hollyoaks?

Yep!  Way way worse than Holly on Hollyoaks.   Holly has had to odd redeeming moment...  she's stitched Cindy up a few times (not the running away thing...  lesser and much funnier incidents)...

Abbys only redeeming quality is her insistence on living with her dad (that is me looking at it from a mothers perspective)

Personally although I'm not a fan of Ben Mitchell ...............that was so bloody wrong. Phil Mitchell should be strung up ..........no one should ever hit their child like that. WRONG WRONG WRONG!

I don't watch eastenders, however I agree with your comment.

You don't seriously think anyone in this thread would think differently do you?

Of course if a child was hit like that...  hit in the face in any fashion its wrong.

But... it didn't really happen...  no little Bens were hurt in the making of the programme.

Probably not but ...............I can't even joke about it. It was horrible ..........much as we joke about the nerdy/geeky kids etc. I found it horrible to watch - can't even bring myself to joke about it.

eastenders is so far fetched for me that I can't relate it to reality.

Although.. I do admit when I saw Phil punch him like that I did gasp...  and hubby said "he slapped him?" ... and I said "no.. he proper punched him"

 But... as I said... the holes in the storylines undermine any serious issue Eastenders may be trying to portray... 

I have been saying all week that if there were suspicions of any kind about Ben & the little girl (can;t even remember her name)... then surely the first thing you'd do is keep a close but discreet eye on them.

It was bloody hilarious!
No I don't like seeing or hearing about little kids or animals getting bashed about by adults. But when Ben Mitchell is concerned, and with him being a made up character and a character that I cannot stand, I thought it was fantastic.

But aren't soaps expected (loosely) to represent real life? It takes on isseues like - sexual abuse, homosexual relationships, marriage breakdown, infidelity, health scares (eg. cancer, strokes etc.).........although we all know it's not real we all from time to time empathise with it don't we? I know the character of Ben Mitchell has been created but if we are to suspend our disbelief - he (although intensely irritating) has had a hard time of it. I thought that scene was shocking TBH. Joke figure he may be but that was wrong!

I love this forum sometimes

I agree, you could drive Roxi's new jeep through the plot holes in your average EE storyline

I think it's an absolute disgrace that Hollyoaks have had a murder storyline this week. It's just wrong!!!

I can't remember what the main storyline was once, in Eastenders... but it warrented the end of programme "if you or anyone you know was affected by any of the issues in tonights episode ring this helpline blah de blah"...

hubby & I both wanted to ring the helpline cos of the minor side story that Wellard had been locked in the shed!  

I jumped up and shouted "YES!"when it happened... just check out the reaction on the DS thread


Theres gonna be alot of complaints mostly from women...

I don't watch Eastenders...so potato head Phil,mashed up his sprog?

he proper punched him in the face...   having just discovered it was Ben (his sprog) had been torturing his little half sister (his other sprog) - locking her in a shed, burning her arms, psychological mind games... 

normal Thursday night family viewing kinda stuff

Ar well .......I guess I'm on my own.I know it's not real but ......... I found it disturbing.

Ahh ..Ditty,more happy days in Walford it seems.
I hate that show...

serves him right for trying to spoon Lucy

What if a kid - say 16 - hits you first?  

Had his voice broken?

I agree with Soozywoo that Soaps can reflect many real life situations which thankfully most won't experience but so many do. Over the years from whichever Soap I've seen storylines which have related to either me or family members and although it's been painful to be reminded I've also thought it's been cathartic.

In real life there are children severely damaged for one reason or another, usually adult related of course. Ben's storyline represents one aspect of it because of past history and what he experienced through Stella, he's doing what has been done to him in the past, it doesn't make it right of course that he then passes that on to his sister, and when Phil hit him that's definitely not right either it just adds to the physical abuse he received from Stella. All Soaps have ridiculous and unbelievable scripts at times, just sometimes they hit on something that many in real life will relate to and feel affected by whereas for others it's a joke. Re the comment above about DS, doesn't surprise me as from what I observed in the past that place seems to attract too many saddo's, and why should just women complain if they do, why don't men???? 

But it feels so right.

good to see your back VS

Hi Rellow Rose (forever Scooby Doo now )....

But the storyline is so transparent.... it almost undermines the issue it thinks it is portraying.

I quickly realised (with a sinking feeling of disappointment)... that this storyline was going to be an example of how, very often, victims of abuse go on to be abusers themselves.   But they have done this is such a shallow unrealistic way...  if it were the first time any viewer had heard of such a thing, they would have a warped & not at all correctly informed idea of how & why this happens.

What Yellow Rose said ^^^^^ I  watch EE v v rarely, but how anyone can find it funny when a child, under any circumstances, (even if it's not rl,) is punched by an adult is completely beyond me. It seems to me that there is a sense, among some, of him having deserved it 'cos he's disliked ....a v v thin line to walk between drama and what often happens/is justified in rl imo

Aw Soops...   its not a thin line.. I promise!     I didn't laugh at it... but I can understand where those that did are coming from...   and that is a planet away from me condoning hurting a child in real life.

Its a type of humour that in no way reflects thinking it would be ok in rl.

Its like... when my boy is gobbing off (something he is doing a lot of at the moment).... & hubby & I chunter about him when we get a minute alone...  Earlier in the week I remember saying to hubby "the little sod...  you should have drop kicked him to school"...  that in no way meant I really think we should have physically propelled my son 12 miles up the road to his school.  At the time though... imagining it in a comic way helped us to vent a little... and lighten the tension he had inflicted on us! 

....  tis probably one of them things that people will just have to agree to disagree on.  So long as people understand that having a banter about what happened on Eastenders does not mean those people feel its ok to bash a child. 

Anyways... long time no see Soops...  how are you?

i spat me tea out then

its ok to slap a kid-knock a bit of sense into 'em
but to BEAT a kid is quite different and sooooooooo very wrong

but that ben has got a face that looks like it needs a punch

The Ben story has a major development tonight which will continue throughot next week. I will not say what happens.

Not in my opinion, nor many others

Exactly - You hated him even when he was a nice boy!

Anyway, I did find it shocking and, hopefully, Phil will get his comeuppance for his abusive behaviour. Maybe he will lose custody of Louise, because of this.
He's hardly been a good role model for fatherhood.