Big Christmas spoiler

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Schemer Archie murdered in the Vic
EASTENDERS toerag Archie Mitchell - played by Larry Lamb - is to be killed off at Christmas, TV Biz can reveal. The serial schemer will meet his maker after being murdered in the Queen Vic. He will be stretchered out in a body-bag.

The death will spark another soapland whodunnit, with several Albert Square regulars in the frame. The scenes mark the explosive finale to the storyline that has seen Archie plotting with Janine Butcher to buy the legendary pub. His presence has also become more and more irritating to the other Mitchells.

Things finally come to a head on Christmas Day. A show insider said: "Since Archie first arrived in Walford he's managed to lie, cheat and manipulate everyone around him. Over the next few months he is set to get even worse - so it's fair to say he's made enemies of enough people who'll be glad to see the back of him."

Sources say Archie's arch enemy Phil Mitchell will emerge as the No1 suspect. He hates Archie for breaking his mum Peggy's heart. Meanwhile minx Janine has previous killing form - she bumped off hubby Barry - and would love to get her hands on Archie's loot. His daughter Roxy has already disowned him. Roxy's sister Ronnie has never forgiven him for making her give up daughter Danielle for adoption.

Larry, 62 - Gavin's dad in hit comedy Gavin and Stacey - has already filmed his final scenes, but it is not yet clear how he meets his grisly end. A BBC spokesman said: "Fans can expect high drama."

[eefanincan]

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[pirtybirdy]

A typical Eastenders Christmas!

[Skylace]

Happy Christmas!

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Larry Lamb on why his father Ronald is the inspiration for Archie Mitchell
21/10/2009

Soap villains don’t come much nastier than EastEnders’ warped control freak Archie Mitchell. Over the past 18 months he has lied, manipulated people and emotionally tortured his daughters, Roxy and Ronnie. He has left a trail of misery as he tries to grab control of the Queen Vic from estranged wife Peggy. But perhaps the most surprising thing about scheming scoundrel Archie – who meets a grisly end in a gripping whodunnit this Christmas – is that he is based on a real person.

Actor Larry Lamb reveals his inspiration for Archie is his own father, Ronald – a terrifying bully who made his childhood hell. And in an astonishingly frank interview, Larry admits he feared repeating the pattern of psychological abuse he suffered as a boy with his own son.

Speaking exclusively to the Mirror, Larry, 62, says: “From the start I based Archie Mitchell on my father. My dad was a very screwed up man and emotionally damaged from his childhood. He had a terrible relationship with his own father and I imagine it was the same for the generations before that. Just like Archie, my dad was absolutely convinced of his rightness and his sanity and thought he was completely justified in everything he did. Everybody else is at fault, but he’s fine. Archie is the same. As far as he’s concerned, he’s perfectly sane. But the truth is, he’s twisted. That twisted, dark, nasty side of me comes from my father. He was a skilled psychological bully. He would loom over me and threaten, threaten, threaten. I lived in fear of him. He was a crazy man.”

One of Larry’s most disturbing memories is seeing his mother in distress after a row.
He says: “I remember when I was eight or nine, hearing my mum sobbing. I looked through the glass doors of our little house in Harlow and I saw her standing there, weeping. On top of her head was a cone-shaped pile of tea leaves and she had hot tea dripping down her hair, on to her face and mixing in with the tears. I remember the steam coming up from her head and she was just stood there crying. My dad was roaring round the house, like a maniac. All my memories of my father are like that. Vivid.”

Larry’s parents split up when he was nine (“A bloody miracle the marriage lasted that long,” he says). After that, his already fractured relationship with Ronald continued to deteriorate. By the time Ronald died last year, father and son hadn’t spoken to one another for 15 years and Larry didn’t attend the funeral. He says: “Our relationship got worse and worse, year after year. It got to the point where things were never put right between us. I could never take him seriously.”

Larry was desperate to break the cycle of abuse when his own son George, now 30 and a TV and radio presenter, was born. But he admits with a shudder just how close he came to crossing the line. He says: “When George was a toddler, his mum spotted the signs. She told me I was in danger of repeating the behaviour of my dad. The potential was there. Men are very powerful creatures and it’s very easy for them to dominate little boys, which is what it was all about with my father.

“To be told I was starting to do that was enough of a shock to me and I have never, ever dominated my boy. I’m so proud of the honest relationship I have with George. Honesty is the basis of our friendship and he has never been bullied by me. George is a huge part of my life and that’s very special to me, especially because I never had that with my own dad. We snuggle all the time. Even in the street he’ll give me a great smacker right on the chops. We’re very close.”

Larry also has two young daughters, Eloise, 10, and six-year-old Eva-Mathilde, with his actress partner Clare Burt, 42. He says of fatherhood: “I love it, it’s wonderful. Becoming a dad again later in life was no accident, but I hadn’t thought deeply about the responsibility of having kids when you’re older. All the milestones you’re not going to see… The clock has started ticking. My mum always says to me: ‘I can’t believe I’ve got a 62-year-old child!’ Well, I ain’t going to be saying that to my girls. There’s a lot of things I’m going to miss out on. But it makes me want to do everything I can to be around for as long as I possibly can. I keep active and healthy because I want to be here for them. They laugh and joke and call me an old grandad, but I’m not allowed to joke about it. If I say I’m an old man they’ll say: ‘No you’re not! No you’re not!’”

Fortunately for Larry, son George is in no hurry to make him a grandad. He says: “I don’t want George to settle down too soon. That’s where I went wrong and it’s no good. You’ve got to know who you are first. Before settling down he needs to sow his wild oats, have a good time, establish himself and know where he’s going. And I’m in no rush to have grandkids. I’ve got two little kids and George is wonderful with them.”

Larry’s girls are allowed to watch EastEnders occasionally “as a special treat”, but probably not the scenes on Christmas Day in which Archie meets his maker. And not even Larry knows whodunnit. Larry, who finished filming on the soap last week, says: “When the executive producer told me I was getting bumped off, he asked me if I wanted to know who was going to do it. I said no way. If I knew I might blab it and then it spoils it for everyone. I’ll definitely be following it. I can’t wait.”

Larry will barely be off our screens in the run-up to Christmas. As well as EastEnders, he returns as jovial dad Mick in the third series of Gavin & Stacey. “I’m going to be everywhere,” he grins. “I feel very fortunate to play two characters so diametrically opposite. And to play them simultaneously – often the same day. Last year we were filming the Gavin & Stacey Christmas special at the same time as we were filming the Christmas episodes for EastEnders. I was backwards and forwards, sleeping in the dressing room, playing chirpy Mick and then nasty Archie. It was bizarre.”

Larry has a lot of affection for the BBC comedy drama. “It’s the most extraordinary show I’ve ever been in,” he says. “To have been there from the beginning, from the first read-throughs when we knew this thing was amazing, feels great. It’s a love story and everything that happens does so as a result of that. The writers let you experience the ups and downs of that relationship, but there’s this constant positivity running through it. This series rounds everything off and it’s quite wonderful. The fans will go nuts for it. James Corden and Ruth Jones have really pulled this one right out of the bag. They’re not going to write any more series, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they didn’t do the odd Christmas special.”

London-born Larry was a latecomer to acting. He discovered a love of amateur theatre during his 20s which led to spells on Canadian television and Broadway, and then on homegrown TV shows such as Triangle, The Professionals and Spooks. “I went away to Germany in 1968 as an encyclopaedia salesman and came back in 1977 as an actor,” he says. “I’ve been very lucky, touch wood. I’ve had a fortunate, steady career for 30-odd years.”

Now Larry intends to finish writing his autobiography before heading out on the road with his one-man show. “That’s what an actor’s life is all about,” he says. “It’s a series of jobs and experiences and now I’ve got to concentrate on what happens next. Life’s always full of surprises.”

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