Gillian Taylforth: Kathy could help Phil
Former EastEnders star Gillian Taylforth has said that her Walford counterpart could help Phil Mitchell.
A recent storyline on the BBC soap saw Phil – as a result of an addiction to crack cocaine – burn down his mother’s pub. Phil’s ex-wife Kathy (Taylforth) previously helped him with his alcoholism in the 1990s.
Taylforth has opined to Inside Soap that Kathy could prove a stable influence in Phil’s life once more.
“It sounds as though everything is going downhill for Phil again, doesn’t it? If Kathy was still alive, I think she’d get in there and sort it all out – she was always like that, wasn’t she?
“Good old Kathy, always someone to rely on. She was really a very strong character and I did like that about her. Kathy would do anything for her family and she’d easily sort all those problems out for Phil!”
However, viewers are unlikely to see salt-of-the-earth and dab hand at bread buttering Kath back in Albert Square any time soon after the character was killed off-screen in a car crash in 2006, to the dismay of fans.
“A producer phoned to tell me, and my first response was, ‘Oh! Do you have to?’ I didn’t think it was the wisest move to have made because there was a lot more that could have been done with Kathy. It was the show’s choice though, and that’s just the way it goes.” – Taylforth noted of the ludicrous decision