Jay Mitchell

Jay Brownis a fictional character in the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders. He is played by Jamie Borthwick.

Background
Jay is the grandson of Bert Atkinson and Evie Brown. His mother, Karen, died in 2004 of breast cancer. He was first mentioned on 5 December 2006, when a dying Evie told Bert that he had a grandson.

Storylines
Jay first appeared in EastEnders after his grandmother Evie's funeral, which he did not attend. Evie's friend Beryl took Jay to live with his grandfather Bert, as it was what Evie wanted. Bert reluctantly took Jay in. Jay stole from the local shop and the market. He was intrigued about his grandfather's criminal past, and persistently questioned him about it. Bert warned Jay not to make the same mistakes that he did and that being in prison wasn't as 'cool' as Jay thought he was for having the a criminal past.They moved into 15a Turpin Road together, and Bert decided to get a residency order so Jay could live with him permanently. Jay charmed social worker Derek Evans, who saw no problem with his welfare. Jay later kidnapped Gus Smith's dog, Wellard, demanding £50 and a games console as ransom. He tried to befriend a gang of boys who teased him when Yolande Trueman mothered him in the café. He tried to impress them by calling Yolande a "black cow" in the street. Yolande later asked Bert to make Jay apologise, but he refused, instead mooning Bert outside the shop. A man walked up to Bert and introduced himself as Jay's father Jase.

Not long after Jase arrived, Jay discovered that Bert had left the Square, leaving Jay and Jase to bond. Jay continued getting into trouble, vandalising the The Queen Victoria public house. In November 2007, Jay discovered the reason Jase had been to prison, and was upset with his father. In January 2008, Jay became involved with a gang of older boys, the E20 crew, led by Tegs Teague. Jay helped them shoplift, and they gave him a knife, which was found by Jase's girlfriend Dawn Swann the next day. The gang terrorised Dot Branning every time they saw her. Jay stole Dot's keys and the gang broke into her house, letting out one of her birds and smashing a vase. The gang escaped through the back door but when Dot returned, Jay was left in the house hiding beside her sofa. He realised he had done wrong, stood up and helped to try to find the bird that had escaped through a window. Later, the gang ordered Jay to throw a brick through Dot's window. He refused. and was rejected membership of the gang. Tegs called him a coward, so Jay stood up to him and they left him alone. Later, Tegs joined him in a park and a violent fight broke out. They laughed it off and started to kick a ball to each other, however the rest of the gang then arrived and forced Tegs to choose between them or Jay. He chose the gang and walked off, stabbing Jay in the leg as he left.

Several weeks later, Ian Beale evicted Jase and Jay from the flat, and they moved in with Jase's new girlfriend, Dawn Swann and her family, the Millers. On 25 February, Tegs' mother,Tina ambushed Jay and threatened him out of testifying against her son at the trial later in the week. Several days later Dawn set up a meeting with Tina at Millers', which resulted in Dawn scaring Tina off. The following day, Jay attended the trial with Dawn by his side and gave evidence, and Tegs was sentenced to two years in a Young Offenders Institute. It is not clear what the intention was.

In June 2008, Jay, Jase and the Millers' were offered temporary accommodation at the Masood's following an explosion and a fire caused by May Wright during a hostage situation involving herself, Dawn, Mickey and Dawn's daughter Summer. Several weeks later, they moved into a B&B and eventually 89b George Street. In July, Jay and Jase planned to flee Walford after his dad's past came back to haunt him. However, Dawn stopped them from leaving by setting a date for her and Jase's wedding. A month later, Jase’s old gang held Jay hostage at the flat to get revenge on Jase. Jase was able to save his son, but was killed by the gang, leaving Jay an orphan. Jay accused Dawn of causing his father's death because Dawn kept wanting more and more expensive things and did not care whether Jase got killed in the process, and decided that he wanted to go into care, as he did not want to be anywhere near Dawn. At his father’s funeral, Jay broke down whilst reading an eulogy, and again blamed Dawn for Jase’s death.

Jay was fostered by Billy Mitchell, who felt guilty for not saving Jase from the gang. In October, Jay's behaviour worsened when he planned an arson attack against Dawn, but Billy was able to stop him. Jay later apologised to Dawn and after having a heart to heart with her, realised how much she missed his dad. After staying at The Queen Vic for three months, Jay moved across the square to Lucas Johnson's flat with Billy and Janine Butcher. However Janine decided to get rid of Jay by stealing Peggy Mitchell's credit card, buying a game console and games, then hiding the credit card in Jay's bag and blaming it on him. Jay caught on to Janine's game and vowed to get rid of her before she got rid of him, but after an argument with Billy Jay packed his bags and planned on doing a runner. However just before he left he threw Janine's stuffed cat model bequeathed to her by her late husband David across the floor, resulting in him discovering lots of money inside it. Jay bought a car with the money with blacked out windows. He met a girl called Marissa Moore who works at the new Gilly's Massage Parlour on Turpin Road. When Billy finds him in the car Jay speeds away. Jay later stood up for Marissa when Peggy launched a campaign to try and get rid of the massage parlour and bought a sandwich when Peggy ordered Patrick Trueman not to serve her.

Eventually Janine's crime was brought to light when she was caught for stealing Peggy's purse from her handbag. Jay was ashamed of Billy for blaming him for her crime and Billy felt guilty of this.

On 22 January 2009, Jay contacted Marissa's workplace and decided to pay her to sit with him in the flat. At first Marissa wasn't keen, but agreed to do the job as there is money involved. Billy arrived home early and threw Marissa out of the flat, leaving Jay furious. He planned to run away with Marissa on 27th January 2009 but was caught stealing money by Janine, who told Billy. After having a talk with Billy about running away, Jay left the flat and waited for Marissa. Marissa told him she didn't want to run away with him which left Jay devastated. He was last seen walking away from the square with his bag.

He returned in March and roped Billy into a scam to sell all the out of date food from the Minute Mart. He made Billy face it that Honey wil never come back. It was revealed on the 12th March 200 that he was sleeping rough. He will be at Peggy's wedding to Archie Mitchell on 2 April 2009