Does Ben ever speak without a scrunched up face shouting and spitting ?

How the heck did that 'cowboy-legged demented zombie walk' get passed the producers? Then there was the horrific facial expressions which were obviously contagious because Paul then copied the faux overreaction!

EE is normally good at dealing with the bigger issues & this week they've paid lots of attention to 'bad acting by younger cast members', I'm sure they'll put a help number out at the end of the next episode.

I haven't watched tonight's Ep but I've never rated him much. I didn't really get why people were praising him in the past.

Still-he's better than some of the previous Ben actors.

It's when you get this stuff on screen you have to acknowledge how good the likes of Lacey Turner / Jesse Wallace and of course Steve are. Linda as ever raised the bar in her scenes. Folks may not like the characters but the actors can act dramatic storylines.

I two actors that played Ben before were much better in my opinion.

I do.

The way he spoke and walking around like CP3-O with glasses (or a bloke who had just crapped himself) means that he is obviously a robot.

I found the scene outside the Vic absolutely hilarious which I suspect was not TPTB's intention.

Both father and son overacted, as required by the people running the show, but Steve's way over the top performance gets praised to high heaven, and Harry's gets slagged off.

The Ben character is a far more complicated one than the Phil one, and maakes pretty heavy demands on the actor, who does pretty well most of the time, including this week I'd say. Acting a drunk Phil is pretty straightforward by comparison.

I'm sorry the actor playing Ben has shown he just isn't up to playing the stuff he's been given. They need to rethink what they do with his character. It's not the first time with a young actor. Last year Cindy was given some dramatic stuff that was woeful as well. Both of the actors aren't terrible but just not ready/capable of acting what they were given.

Steve is in another league as an actor.

Paul doing his best corpsing Bradley Walsh impression there.

It was dreadful, but it's not just down to him. Badly directed, too, I think. Harry Reid's not a bad actor generally and there are far worse actors on EE.

Yes, I'm inclined to agree with this. The scene between him and Paul in particular desperately needed a reshoot. Just really, really bad. Perhaps the director was trying to capture some 'raw' energy between the two of them but as the two actors lack any sort of chemistry, that was never going to happen. A few takes should have been done and better guidance on facial expressions and choreography for the hug needed to be given so that we as the audience weren't subjected to what was a really embarrassing, cringey moment.

Another beyond shocking performance tonight.

He's getting worse by the day............

I totally disagree. I was disturbed by him

I cringed at the scenes of the last week. He is such a poor actor, I think EE are paying the price for going for looks over acting ability when they cast certain characters because they feel he has to resemble the previous Ben's.

I get the feeling the actor perhaps now can't handle the material and the stress is getting to him and making it difficult to carry out the scenes. He wasn't too bad to start but then he wasn't getting that many storylines to begin with. However the last 3-4 months have been very poor, even by soap standards.

He's a bit inconsistent at times he can be good but theres no doubt he overdid it in Mondays ep, also he can be a bit shouty

I think he's far superior to Joshua pascoe who played Ben previously.

The only "acting" he can do is shout out all his lines and scrunch his face up grotesquely. Makes you wish for the Joey Tribbiani "I just smelt a fart" school of acting

With all due respect, Sorcha, the bar was not set very high by Joshua!!

As another poster said, they made a mistake by casting on looks rather than acting ability.

I don't think they cast on looks. I don't think harry is that good looking.

I think he's quite good myself but that's just my view

I don't think they meant good looking wise, I think they meant they cast him in the role as he looks like previous Ben's.

Catering for the twatterati. Look at the obsession with Jonny casting. Nothing about acting ability just what he looks like. I didn't mind new Ben but they've pushed him too far with this recent storyline. He's just not got the acting ability. Doesn't help that the story involves Paul and Abi who are just as bad. EE need to stop pushing dramatic stuff onto actors who just aren't up to it.

I think hes the best Ben we have had by a mile but last night wasnt his best performance

Gawd no, I don't think Harry is good looking at all - I meant that he had a passing resemblance to Joshua, who was another non-looker, and that's why he was cast.

Looks aside, I just wish they had cast someone who could act.

We'll have to agree to disagree because I think he's perfectly acceptable as a soap actor