For months, viewers have seen the increasingly self-isolated Phil grow more and more depressed, culminating in a suicide attempt in front of his shocked loved ones – Grant (Ross Kemp), Nigel Bates (Paul Bradley), and Linda Carter (Kellie Bright).
As Grant, Nigel and Linda arrived to find Phil with a gun, his desperate plight was laid bare as he tearfully made it clear he felt the world was a better place without him.
Indeed, after the gun Phil had turned out to be empty – thanks not to Phil, but Cindy Beale (Michelle Collins) – Grant stormed out, leaving his brother behind.
When he is once again challenged over his attitudes and accused of failing Phil, this time by Billy (Perry Fenwick), Grant steps up in anger, the threat of violence in the air.
As the rest of Walford is rocked by the grief of Martin Fowler’s (James Bye) death, the Mitchells are also in the midst of a painful aftermath, with Phil’s (Steve McFadden) desperate battle with mental health now out in the open.
