Ronnie Mitchell
Ronnie Mitchell is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Samantha Womack. She and her younger sister Roxy Mitchell were introduced by executive producer Diederick Santer in July 2007. Ronnie is described as the "ice" to Roxy's "fire". As an extension to the already established Mitchell family, Ronnie quickly became a prominent character, taking over the square’s local nightclub. She later formed an on-off relationship with her business partner, Jack Branning.
The character is introduced during the episode first broadcast on 24 July 2007. Her first major storyline saw Ronnie clash with her villainous father, Archie Mitchell, after it transpired that he forced his eldest daughter — at the age of 14 — to give up her newborn baby just moments after she gave birth. This escalates in "The Secret Mitchell" and "Who Killed Archie?" scenarios, wherein the former explores Ronnie's friendship with her employee Danielle Jones — who later turns out to be her long-lost daughter — and the latter reveals that Archie had raped Ronnie when she was 13. Soon afterwards, Ronnie becomes the subject of a controversial storyline where she swaps her dead baby with that of Tommy Moon — the son of her close friend Kat Moon. This contributes to the development of Womack leaving the role in 2011, with the character departing in the episode shown on 7 July 2011. In May 2013, show bosses announced that Womack would return to EastEnders as Ronnie for six months. Womack returned on screen for two three-month-long stints, from 9 September 2013 to 1 January 2014 and from 3 March to 23 June 2014. She then returned full-time to screens on 25 September 2014. Womack's second stint on the show saw Ronnie involved in storylines such as killing Carl White in self-defence, marrying Charlie Cotton and having a child with him, having an affair with Vincent Hubbard, attempting to poison Dean Wicks, being stalked by Andy Flynn, and remarrying Jack before drowning along with Roxy in a hotel swimming pool.
In August 2016, it was reported that Ronnie and Roxy would depart together in a "dramatic exit". The sisters were killed-off on 1 January 2017 after Ronnie's second wedding to Jack, although Ronnie appears on-screen for a final time when Jack visits her corpse on 19 January 2017. A younger version of Ronnie,, appeared in a flashback episode broadcast on 5 September 2022, which focuses on the Mitchell family in the 1970s.
Development
Creation and characterisation
Womack and Simons were cast as Ronnie and Roxy respectively. They were the first major signings made by executive producer Diederick Santer, who told the Daily Mirror that the sisters were intended to bring "sexy, dramatic excitement" to the show. He stated, "They may be glamorous young women, but these girls are Mitchells and have all the strength of character and unique moral code the name implies." Simons deemed the two "the next generation" of the Mitchells, "A newer, younger, slightly more modern type". The characters were created by EastEnders story producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins, who always intended for Ronnie to be played by Womack. In the 2009 documentary "The Secret Mitchell", he cited the actress' beauty, toughness and fragility as facets suitable for the character.Ronnie is in her thirties, and the elder of the two sisters. Prior to her début, Womack described Ronnie as the more sensible and intelligent sister, stating that she has a "caustic tongue" and trust issues. She commented that the sisters are loyal to each other to the point that Ronnie would kill for Roxy, and attributed her "darker side" to her troubled childhood. A BBC source described Ronnie as the ice to Roxy's fire, and Simons deemed her "armoured", as well as the "less flamboyant, darker" sister, with a more controlling nature. Womack feels that Ronnie is "deeply damaged", describing her as unable to be honest with herself or others as a result of her guarded personality. She explained that she has been taught to hide her feelings and to be a survivor, which she accomplishes by controlling others, concluding that Ronnie is defined by her childhood trauma. The sisters have been compared to the Kray twins, Ronnie and Reggie. Treadwell-Collins initially intended for Ronnie to appear enigmatic, cool and guarded, hoping to intrigue viewers before introducing elements of her backstory to garner audience sympathy.
Promotion
Both Mitchell sisters featured heavily in a BBC marketing campaign preceding their arrival. Several promotional trailers aired on the BBC network in summer 2007. Using the slogan "The square, under new management", one such trailer depicted both sisters as party girls, dancing, serving tequila in The Queen Victoria public house, shocking the older residents with their raunchy antics and squirting men with a soda syphon to the tune of "The Girls" by Calvin Harris. This scene was recreated for the sisters' final episode in 2017. Two other trailers featured Ronnie and Roxy individually. To the instrumental sound of "Little Green Bag" by George Baker, each sister discussed their sibling, giving snippets of information on their personality and the dynamics of their relationship. Discussing Ronnie, Roxy stated that her sister would go to great lengths to prevent her from getting hurt. In turn, Ronnie said "Roxy will always be my kid sister. Fights, broken hearts, over the years we've had them all. She can be quite a handful, and she's definitely gonna stir things up around here. But remember, wherever Roxy Mitchell is... I'm right behind." The promotion was received favourably by Leigh Holmwood, television journalist for The Guardian, who referred to it as "a very slick marketing campaign indeed." Holmwood observed that the upbeat trailers contrasted EastEnders reputation for depressing storylines, writing "Maybe the arrival of Roxy and Ronnie will herald a new golden age for the soap? Or maybe the BBC marketing department is just very good at putting a trailer together..."In addition to the trailers, the BBC planned a "glitzy" EastEnders BBC Radio 1 competition to promote the sisters' arrival, called "I love R&R". It ran from the end of June 2007, and included online promotion and video via the website Iloverandr.com. The prize consisted of VIP tickets to a special party, which was to be attended by EastEnders actors and Radio 1 DJ Dave Pearce. Despite inviting the winners to attend, Radio 1 cancelled the event due to orders from BBC director general Mark Thompson, who called a halt to all BBC radio, TV and online competitions following a review of its programming, which uncovered scores of editorial breaches. Radio 1 reportedly decided to cancel the promotion as a "precautionary measure". Winners were instead told that they would receive a tour of the EastEnders set, and the website was closed down on 26 July 2007.
Family relationships
Upon her introduction, Ronnie's loss of a child was initially kept a secret. She was depicted reacting with jealousy to Roxy's pregnancy. The secret was linked to a photograph carried in Ronnie's locket, which was revealed in May 2008 to be of the daughter she had lost.The animosity between Ronnie and her father was explored in July 2008, when Lamb made his first appearance as Archie. Womack believes that the introduction of Archie was "fundamental to Ronnie and how she was perceived by the audience. This was the underbelly of why everything had gone wrong in her life, and so these scenes were always going to be really, really important." Archie made a death threat against Ronnie, and told her that Amy had died 13 years previously. He believes Archie's relationship with Ronnie suffered when he realised that he could not control her. In the EastEnders Revealed documentary "The Secret Mitchell", an EastEnders storyliner suggested that Archie views Ronnie as damaged goods, and is somewhat disgusted by her. Santer stated that Archie told Ronnie her daughter had died as a way of controlling her.
In a plot twist, it was revealed to viewers that Archie had lied, and that Amy was alive. She was introduced to the series under her adopted name, Danielle Jones, in August 2008. Danielle arrived in Walford seeking Ronnie, but kept her true identity a secret through fear of rejection. Series writer Simon Ashdown described her as "hurt and broken by her life", and hoping to charm Ronnie into liking her before revealing the truth. Crace observed that Danielle was intrigued by Ronnie and the Mitchells, but also worried that she was too different from them and might be a disappointment to Ronnie. Danielle became pregnant, which was used as a plot-device to bring the two closer together, with Ronnie supporting her when she chose to have an abortion. The writers deliberately played on the tragedy of Ronnie being unaware that she was encouraging the abortion of her own grandchild. Ronnie failed to attend Danielle's second clinic appointment, which Crace stated left her character "hurt and distraught" and less willing to confide the truth in Ronnie than ever. On Ronnie's part, Womack assessed that her character was unaware why she had bonded with Danielle. She deemed her totally unaware of any physical resemblance between herself and Danielle, and stated that she had never entertained the notion that Danielle might be her daughter.
In the aftermath of her abortion, Danielle was depicted as being increasingly emotionally unstable and angry with Ronnie, believing that she deserved to belong to the Mitchell family. The writers had Archie discover her secret as a test of his character, experimenting with whether he would be despicable enough to conceal the truth. Lamb deemed Danielle "a huge threat" to Archie's position as patriarch of the Mitchell family. As such, Archie lied that Ronnie was suffering from depression and convinced Danielle not to reveal the truth for the sake of her mother's mental well-being. Danielle accepted the lie, believing it to explain Ronnie's "hot and cold" reaction to her, and attempted to care for Ronnie and help her recover. Crace explained that despite their turbulent relationship, Ronnie was all Danielle had ever wanted.
The ultimate revelation of Danielle's identity was set at Archie's wedding to Peggy. Santer explained: "Weddings are great because they bring the community together. A wedding gives you a stage, it gives you an event, the context to play things out, so it felt right that these big Mitchell stories would collide at Peggy's wedding." Writer James Payne concurred that setting the reveal at the wedding helped to make the moment "as dramatic and sensational" as it could possibly be. In the episode, Danielle announces that she is Ronnie's daughter in front of the entire wedding reception party. She is met with disbelief, and thrown out by Ronnie. Soon thereafter, however, Ronnie discovers that Danielle has an identical locket to her own. Having given the matching locket to her daughter, Ronnie realises that Danielle was telling the truth. She hurries to find her, but just as they are about to be reunited, Danielle is run down by local resident Janine Butcher, and subsequently dies in Ronnie's arms. Although different outcomes to the storyline were considered, Santer explained that Danielle dying best preserved Ronnie's status as EastEnders "tragic heroine character". Treadwell-Collins felt that to allow Ronnie to have her daughter, the "one thing that is key to her character" would serve to progressively weaken her character, and Santer agreed that while it may initially be touching, ultimately the relationship would become boring. In December 2009, Archie was murdered in a "whodunit" storyline. Santer hoped that his death would bring Ronnie closure, but suggested conversely that it might damage her further.