Taking him in a different direction hopefully means he's no longer a psychotic yet whimpering wet blanket.

I still just don't get the Pascoe haters. I mean he pretty much singlehandedly made the show interesting again with the Heather murder stuff and had great chemistry with everyone he interacted with (especially Phil).

I mean look at Jay, who people find mindblowingly good. He's been so quiet since the Ben storyline ended that he might as well not be in the show. It's obvious that Ben was elevating him into a better character.

He could come back as a bible thumping Homophobe! LOL

Love it!

I hope the new Ben brings his Spanner of Doom with him.

Disagree with pretty much all that

I didn't find joshua convincing at all and he didn't single handedly make the show interesting IMO

He will slaap you down though

Ben? Is that you?!
Nooooo! Stay away!

Do you mean Joey Branning

Ha ha . Nah, he's currently busy filming Star Wars 7 as the new Chewbacca .

not really happy as I dont have much hope they will get it right this time. The show is great at the mo and Ben could ruin it very easily. Johnny and Ben is too obvious...the only two gay boys so stick them together?! No...I hope Ben already has a bf when he joins.

Ugh. Oh dear!

Ehh. Eeeeeh! I'm really not sure about this. Seems too early, and I can't say I'm a big fan of Ben either. He was very annoying, especially during his last stint with the mini villian route that he took. Can't say I'm looking forward to this. I'm also a bit sceptical about the recast, can you imagine it being even worse than the last two?

Gah, I'm not sure if this is a good idea.

Agreed. Not sure when or how it would happen, though.

Maybe with Ben returning - they'll be an inclination to bring Louise back, too.

Hopefully anyway, at some point.

hopefully with Ben back it gives Jay some screen time & some story lines too, i almost forgot he was still in the show until he made a brief appearance in the archers the other night :/

What a ridiculous thing to say. Your sexuality should not cone into it.

I am just really hoping they don't pair him up with Johnny.

Johnny deserves someone lovely, like himself! Ben is not lovely! Ben's a tit.

SAY NO TO BOHNNY/JEN!

Some of the slapping dahhhn jokes on here recently have been priceless

Have a little bit of an obsession with Ben slapping people dahn if I'm being honest...

So we will have a phil/shirley affair, sharon will find out and dump phil. Just as phil and shirley get together ben will come back and throw a spanner in the works.

I can't say I'm overly enthusiastic about this if I'm being perfectly honest. Mainly because his character heavily reminds me off the dark years of 2011-2012 where the show was at an absolute low point, and I was never really interested in his character prior to that either.

However, characterisation for the most part seems to be DTC and his crew's strong points, so I'll reserve judgement when the character returns with a new head .

As long as that gives Sharon a reason to take Philth to the cleaners, I'll be happy with that. Though I suspect the Almighty King Mitchell will emerge unscatched as usual.

Yes, this should be good for Jay, but also for Lola. I liked it when those three were friends...I hope Ben is going to be a good dad.

I liked little charlie jones as Ben really didn't like josh pascoes portrayal at all. Hope the new Ben is better cast

A big loud No from me. The character's had more head changes than Doctor frickin Who. It's all getting a bit silly now. Get the last actor back again (he wasn't that bad) or just leave it.

But it might just work if the new actor is a dead ringer though...Maybe.

Another Ben recast? Its getting beyond the joke now realism isn't Eastenders strong point. That's the main reason nobody cares about Lucy getting killed off because the current actress playing her was cast for her looks and couldn't act for toffee.