Emotional EastEnders scenes as Nigel receives support from Walford legends

Michael Adams

Published April 24, 2025 7:55pm

Nigel looks pensive in EastEnders — Nigel Bates has had an emotional week (Picture: BBC/Kieron McCarron)

Walford’s finest have gathered to support Nigel Bates (Paul Bradley) in EastEnders.

As viewers of the BBC One soap know, Nige is living with a young-onset dementia diagnosis.

Earlier this week, he made the decision to decision to leave Walford, after best pal and housemate Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) had learned of his plan to take his own life, should his memory worsen.

This came as a result of an explosive outburst he made at Easter, branding Harvey Monroe (Ross Boatman) a paedophile and accusing him of taking his adoptive daughter Clare.

The child he was referring to was in fact Hope Fowler.

After an explosive row with Phil, Nigel packed his bags. A short time later, Phil discovered that, Nigel was missing.

In shocking scenes, a group of youths targeted ailing Nige, knocking him to the ground and leaving him to die.

After Phil and Linda Carter (Kellie Bright) formed a search effort, they tracked him down to the hospital.

Phil and Nigel talk about his decision in EastEnders — Phil Mitchell has agreed to be Nige’s carer (Picture: BBC/Kieron McCarron)

Jean chats to Nigel on the sofa in EastEnders — Nige has struck up a friendship with Jean (Picture: BBC/Kieron McCarron)

The men continued to bicker, with Phil convinced that having Nigel sectioned under the mental health act would be the best way to combat his suicidal thoughts.

However, once home, a huge sacrifice was made.

Phil agreed to be Nigel’s full time carer – until the end. Nigel was blown away by such a big gesture, and told his friend that it was too much to ask, but Phil wouldn’t take no for an answer.

In tonight’s episode, Nige was overwhelmed to see that the Walford hard man had spent the morning undertaking extensive research into living someone with dementia.

He’d even cut Nigel’s toast into tiny pieces – something which didn’t go down very well.

Phil holds Nigel back from shouting at Harvey in EastEnders — Harvey apologised for his behaviour – but Nigel couldn’t remember the incident (Picture: BBC/Kieron McCarron)

Statistics and facts about young-onset dementia

The charity offers support for those living with, or caring for people with dementia (Picture: Dementia UK)

According to Dementia UK:

An estimated 7.5%, 70,800 of the estimated 944,000 people living with dementia in the UK have young onset dementia.
Someone develops dementia every three minutes in the UK.
One in two of us will be affected by dementia in our lifetime, whether that be through caring for a loved one with the condition, developing it ourselves, or both.
53% of people in the UK know someone who has dementia.

Young-onset dementia support groups and help can be found on the Dementia UK website.

Phil also took it upon himself to tell Kathy Cotton (Gillian Taylforth) that Nigel wouldn’t be able to work at the cafe moving forward. This was effectively stripping him of any remaining independence.

Nigel became distressed at how overbearing Phil was, but didn’t want to cause any further upset.

Across the road, Jean Slater (Gillian Wright) had made some biscuits for him, and Harvey asked to deliver them so that he could apologise for the outburst during Nigel’s moment of confusion.

However, when Harvey arrived at his door, Nigel had no recollection of the incident and became more upset knowing that he’d forgotten.

Later, after another difficult conversation, Phil apologised for his approach and said he would let Nigel take the lead in how his care plan will work.