I see DS published this article and I've also seen "Ben Mitchell" trending on Facebook due to the supposed error on Eastenders part that they "forgot" Ben was already deaf.

Ben said to his captors that as long as he went *blind, deaf and stupid" and couldn't give evidence in court they would let him go.

People became genuinely perplexed that he said this when he was already deaf? Is this a joke lol

Clearly he was being dramatic and not literal and he is only partially deaf anyway.

Certain people take things far to literally these days it seems.

I don't think he forgot he was deaf cos he isn't. he is hard of hearing or partially deaf and can hear to a degree.

way I took it was deaf as in not able to hear anything at all.

he clearly can hear things!

He has cochlear implants

he doesn't?

he has an in the ear hearing aid

Yes which can be seen on some scenes.

I don't think Ben forgot he was deaf at all he actually said something along the lines of "I suppose you expect me to go Deaf, Blind and stupid" meaning that Ben thinks Paul's killers want him to keep quiet so they won't go to jail i.e Convenient deafness. In fact the bigger mistake in the episode came later on in the scene between Courtney and Ronnie and Ronnie saying she heard Courtney's concern at Grant going after 4 blokes but Ronnie wasn't actually there when Courtney said that, she and Jack came a few seconds later so Ronnie wouldn't of heard that part of the conversation.

That's nothing. Kathy forgot that she's dead.

Well Ben has always been denial in some way so his denial of being deaf is another day for the hero that is Benjamin Mitchell.

true


he isn't deaf tho, so he isn't in denial

He was left 80% deaf in one ear due to meningitis as a baby. It was a huge storyline in the 90s and one of the reasons what aided Phil becoming an alcoholic.

doesn't make him deaf. It makes him partially deaf or hard of hearing.

he can still hear

She also forgot how to act.

Ben can hear with the use of a hearing aid which is always visible as he always uses it.

So you were wrong about him 'not being deaf'.

he has a hearing aid in one ear to assist the ear with hearing loss.

his other ear is fine

profoundly deaf people don't tend to have hearing aids cos they work by amplifying sounds if you cannot hear anything at all there is no point amplifying it

there are varying levels of deafness and being hard of hearing and its pretty insulting to say its one size fits all

This is a silly thread. Ben isn't deaf. He has severe hearing loss in one ear, which is at least in part corrected by his hearing aid, which is clearly visible in the show. People like Ben - and myself - who have hearing loss in one ear, provided they can successfully use a corrective hearing aid, would not consider themselves deaf.

Ben isn't deaf. He is partially deaf/hard of hearing.

If a person is completely deaf then no hearing aid is going to restore their hearing

I agree with all the posters- clearly Ben was not being literal and why the press (DS, Metro etc) are writing articles about this baffles me.

Wasn't he just using a turn of phrase??

Clickbait.

Ben is only partially deaf and wasn't being literal here, it's a figure of speech.

Clickbait for their websites.

They scour the likes of twitter to see what's being talked about and then make up an "article" about it, in the hope that it'll get people to click on their story and therefore rack up website hits and keep their advertising sponsors happy.



Welcome to the new world of social media news

Yes, he was.

Ah I see, lol how sad for the media business to resort to reporting such "news"

Totally agree, a complete non-story pounced upon by the newspapers, and if people cannot see that it was simply a dramatic turn of phrase (not to be taken literally) then I despair.

he only wears 1 hearing aid - in his left ear

Daily Fail printed an article along the same lines with photos of Ben showing his right ear and asking where the hearing aid was

The comment he made re:

"Ben said to his captors that as long as he went *blind, deaf and stupid" and couldn't give evidence in court they would let him go. "

is about defiance rather than him being blind or deaf .. I think at that point he realised that going after No direction was in the end not the way to deal with it