Mitchells axed

EastEnders' infamous Mitchell family could be facing the chop, top TV sources have revealed.

10:57 08 November 2004

EastEnders' infamous Mitchell family could be facing the chop, top TV sources have revealed.

A few years back the antics of Grant, Phil and Peggy Mitchell were the show's lifeblood - and brought numerous ratings hits with the "sex lies and audiotape", "Grant drives into a canal" and "who shot Phil" storylines.

But just days after Mitchell queen Barbara Windsor announced that she was fighting fit again after being struck down with the debilitating Epstein-Barr virus, news has broken that she will not be returning.

"We have been in talks with Babs about the future, but we are concentrating on new characters," an Albert Square spokeswoman told the Daily Star.

Windsor looked like the last piece in the jigsaw for a triumphal Mitchell return.

With ratings in Walford plummeting, her recovery coincided with the golden handcuffs deal that ITV had on Ross Kemp (Grant) ending and Steve McFadden (Phil) coming to the end of his year-long break. Many experts predicted that the Mitchells would be parachuted into Albert Square to revive the ailing series.

But a highly placed source told the Daily Star that this was not going to happen.

"The show has to move on," the source said.

"Sadly, it will be moving on without the Mitchells for the foreseeable future."

Billy and Sam Mitchell - the last of the family still among the cast - have their places on the soap safe for now, the source revealed, but a cloud is now hanging over their futures.