The following article contains spoilers from an episode of EastEnders that hasn’t aired on BBC One yet, but is available to view on BBC iPlayer.
Nigel Bates (Paul Bradley) in EastEnders has confirmed to Yolande Trueman (Angela Wynter) that he has dementia.
Nigel returned to Albert Square over Christmas, much to Phil Mitchell’s (Steve McFadden) surprise. The character, who was pals with the likes of Phil and Grant (Ross Kemp) back in the day, was thought to be homeless.
It has been suggested that Nigel isn’t being completely honest about the circumstances which led him back to Walford though, as he claims that wife Julie kicked him out. Julie, however, has been leaving him text messages, concerned about his whereabouts as she begs him to return home.
At the start of the week, Nigel headed off for his first shift at the café. The bumbling character spent a lot of time chatting to Billy Mitchell (Perry Fenwick) and Jay Brown (Jamie Borthwick) about his life in Albert Square, and they were more than happy to listen.
The trio were then treated (is that the word?) to a visit from Phil. He handed Nigel his house keys and explained he needed to pop out, as he wanted to start the process of selling his shares of The Boxing Den to his friend.
This left Nigel, Billy and Jay shocked. Nigel tried to say no, but Phil didn’t really give him a choice over accepting the offer.
Concern began to grow for Nigel at the start of tonight’s episode, when he gave Junior Knight (Micah Balfour) the wrong change after making him a coffee.
Focus then turned back to Phil, as Sharon discovered his plan to sell his shares over to Nigel. With the character already worried about Phil and his loneliness, she decided to try and stage an intervention.
In the café, Nigel listened in as Sharon spoke to Billy, Teddy (Roland Manookian), Billy and Jay about Phil. They all came to an agreement that something was wrong, so they headed over to the Mitchell household.
There, Phil’s loved ones gently tried to get an answer out of him. They pointed out handing the business to Nigel was out of character, and that there might be something wrong with his mental health.
While this was happening, the group failed to notice Nigel had slipped out of the house. In a panic, Nigel stumbled through the Square and headed into the laundrette, with Yolande witnessing the entire thing.
There, Yolande sat down and got Nigel to open up. He said he returned to Albert Square because he wanted to see some familiar faces, but now feels that was a mistake.
Asking Yolande for her silence, Nigel then confirmed to her that he has dementia.
Just how will Phil react if he finds out?
