Get Johnny Week
Encyclopedia
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
, which occurred at the end of March 2006. The storyline involved the characters of Johnny
Johnny Allen (EastEnders)
Jonathan "Johnny" Allen is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Billy Murray.-Storylines:Johnny Allen was a businessman and retired gangster, who grew up in Walford but moved away to start up an empire of his own which he named J.A. Enterprises...
and Ruby Allen
Ruby Allen
Ruby Allen is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Louisa Lytton. Her first appearance was on 18 March 2005 and her last was on 23 November 2006....
, Grant
Grant Mitchell (EastEnders)
Grant Anthony Mitchell is a fictional character from the British soap opera EastEnders, played by Ross Kemp. Grant first appeared in 1990, introduced by producer Michael Ferguson to revamp the show. Kemp remained until 1999 when he opted to leave...
and Phil Mitchell
Phil Mitchell
Philip James "Phil" Mitchell is a long-running fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Steve McFadden.Phil first arrived in Albert Square on 20 February 1990, and was soon joined by his brother, Grant, sister Sam and mother Peggy...
, and Jake
Jake Moon
Jacob "Jake" Moon is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Joel Beckett, who appeared from 30 December 2004 as a regular character.-Storylines:...
and Danny Moon
Danny Moon
Daniel "Danny" Moon is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Jake Maskall. He made his first appearance on 30 December 2004...
.
Storyline development
"Get Johnny Week" was an EastEnders storyline that reunited the popular characters Phil and Grant Mitchell (aka the Mitchell brothers) in 2006. Actor Ross KempRoss Kemp
Ross James Kemp is a BAFTA award-winning British actor, author and journalist, who rose to prominence in the role of Grant Mitchell in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders...
who played Grant continuously from 1990-1999 was persuaded to return to EastEnders for a three month period in the Spring of 2006 and "Get Johnny Week" was the storyline that marked his return.
The storyline saw the Mitchell brothers embroiled in a revenge bid against the gangster Johnny Allen (Billy Murray
Billy Murray (actor)
Billy Murray is an English actor, best known for playing Don Beech in The Bill from 1995 to 2004, Johnny Allen in the BBC soap opera EastEnders from 2005 to 2006, Captain John Price in the video games Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare...
). It was dubbed "Get Johnny Week" by the programme makers, and the storyline was featured heavily in a BBC advertising campaign before and during the airing of the storyline.
The beginning of the storyline saw a stark personality change in the character of Grant. Typically the more volatile and aggressive of the two brothers, in his absence from the show Grant had become a more diplomatic "peacemaker"; traits that were previously seen more commonly in the character Phil (Steve McFadden
Steve McFadden
Steve McFadden is an English actor, known for his role as Phil Mitchell in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, which he has played since1990.-Early life:...
). Actor Ross Kemp has commented on his character's personality change: "Grant tells Phil that, while he was in Brazil, he had therapy, so he becomes an amateur psychiatrist for a couple of episodes. Then, he reverts to his true form of thumping everyone!...Grant's like Phil and Phil's like Grant this week. Grant becomes the more careful and meticulous one, while Phil's the hot-headed brother for a change."
Grant's personality change prompted criticism, with one reviewer branding the character's "new touchy feely attitude to life" as "implausible". Another commented "This new unimproved family-friendly "come on give me a hug" Grant gives me the creeps. In just one crazed week the demented EastEnders scriptwriters undermined TV's top tough guy to such a profound extent that I can't see how he'll ever recover. With Phil and Grant reunited for the first time in six months, we were all looking forward to some classic Mitchell mayhem. In fact we had a right to expect carnage from the terrible twins. But what did we get? Grant's nauseating revelation that he underwent therapy to stop being so violent and antisocial."
Plot
The day begins with Phil waking up from a nightmare in which he has blood on his hands, and soon realises that he is seeing images of the recent murder of Dennis RickmanDennis Rickman
Dennis Rickman is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Nigel Harman. He entered the show on 14 April 2003 and made his last appearance on 30 December 2005, when he was fatally stabbed as the midnight fireworks began. He is part of the Watts family, though his...
. Phil and his brother Grant decide to go and play a round of golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
, but stop at a roadside café in Essex where they sit and discuss their problems, namely Phil's struggle to avoid a relapse in his alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
, over lunch. A strange man walks into the café and makes a sarcastic joke about Phil and Grant's bald heads, remarking: "Right Said Fred
Right Said Fred
Right Said Fred is an English pop band, formed in 1989 by brothers Richard Fairbrass and Fred Fairbrass, later joined by their friend Rob Manzoli. The group is named after a song of the same name which was a hit for Bernard Cribbins in 1962...
have reformed." The stranger follows Phil into the toilets and starts singing "I'm Too Sexy
I'm Too Sexy
"I'm Too Sexy" is a song by English trio Right Said Fred from their album Up. The single topped the American charts for three weeks in early 1992, after having peaked at number two in Britain less than six months earlier....
". Phil reacts by punching the stranger and knocking him out. When they leave the café, Grant tells Phil that he has been seeing a therapist in a bid to confront his demons. They pass a large house in the countryside and Phil orders Grant to stop. Phil announces that he is ready to confront his demons and that they have arrived at Johnny Allen's house.
Phil scours Johnny's house in a bid to break in, while Grant begs him to stop being stupid. Phil explains that he is keeping the promise that he made with Dennis's wife Sharon
Sharon Rickman
Sharon Anne Rickman is a fictional character from the popular BBC1 soap opera EastEnders, played by Letitia Dean, who was a regular cast member for the first 10 years after the programme began on 19 February 1985. She returned in May 2001, and appeared on and off, having most recently appeared in...
to avenge Johnny Allen for Dennis's murder, which Johnny had ordered. Johnny spots Phil on his CCTV
Closed-circuit television
Closed-circuit television is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors....
system and quickly finds him before beating him up. Grant soon arrives on the scene and finds Phil being threatened by Johnny and his accomplice, Danny Moon. Grant beats up Danny, while Johnny re-enters his office and starts arguing with his daughter Ruby, who is angry with him for being an alcoholic. Phil finally intimidates Johnny into admitting his involvement in Dennis's death, and begins to throttle him.
Armed with a gun, Johnny frogmarches Phil and Grant to a soundproofed cell back at his house. Grant soon establishes that Johnny is intent on killing them both. His fears are confirmed when Johnny orders Danny to lead them away into the nearby woods to kill them both and then bury their bodies. Phil hears a gunshot and opens his eyes to see Danny lying dead on the floor. Phil turns his head to see Jake (Danny's brother) standing there with a gun. Jake is devastated at killing his brother, as he only wanted to stop him from killing someone. After the Mitchells leave, Jake buries Danny's body in the woods.
Meanwhile, Ruby discovers mobile phone footage of Dennis's murder. She announces that she has informed the police about Johnny's crimes and that they are on their way to the house. Johnny is arrested and immediately confesses to the police that he murdered Andy Hunter and ordered Danny to kill Dennis. Johnny is eventually convicted of killing Andy and ordering the murder of Dennis. He receives a sentence of life imprisonment and the judge recommends that he should spend at least 27 years behind bars before being considered for release, but six months into his sentence, he suffers a heart attack in prison and dies in hospital the next day, after taunts from Sean Slater
Sean Slater
Sean Slater is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Robert Kazinsky. Sean left the Square temporarily on 27 March 2007, as Kazinsky was suspended from work for two months. He returned on 28 May 2007...
.