Sam Mitchell - The Return
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Danniella Westbrook
Zooropa_93 — 17 years ago(April 07, 2009 09:13 PM)
It has been nine years since Danniella played the character Sam Mitchell and during that time, she managed to turn her life around.
She played Sam Mitchell at various stages between 1990 and 2000 whilst also battling drug addiction which she started when she was just fourteen in 1987 and she took the brave decision to go into re-hab in 2002 to successfully kick her drug addition.
Daniella is also a mother of two and married to a successful millionaire businessman since 2001, her eldest son Kai was born in 1996 (with a different partner) and her daughter Jody B was born in 2002 and it must have been pressure from her husband which brought about her stint in re-hab to kick the drug addition, unfortunately by 2002/2003, she had made a pact with her husband not to go back to acting.
Until now that is when it was confirmed by the BBC in April 2009 that Danniella is to return to the role of Sam Mitchell, I am hoping that in the nine years that Danniella has been away she'll bring a different interpretation on Sam Mitchell character she played in 2000, of course Danniella will no longer be under the influence of drugs and the audiences will definitely see a different Sam Mitchell - I hope that Danniella will pick up the mantle from Kim Medcalfe who, when she left in November 2005, had given the character a different dimension.
When Kim left, the Sam Mitchell character was totally different than the one who was found by Peggy (Barbara Windsor) in 2002, Kim's acting5b4 was excellent, she took the character through the loss of her mother and brother in 2003, the loss of the Mitchell empire and marital breakdown in 2004, the killing of Den Watts in February 2005 and digging the body up in September 2005 and fleeing to Brazil to escape a four year prison sentence, Kim had ensured that Sam was a strong willed and business minded Sam Mitchell than the one Danniella had played between 1990 to 2000.
The Sam Mitchell character will be returning just at the time when the Mitchells will need her most, what with Ronnie losing her beloved daughter (Danielle) on the 2nd April and breaking down at the funeral parlour a day later, not mention Peggy finding out what Archie is really like, the Mitchells have had a tough time recently so the return of Sam to Albert Square will help Peggy and Ronnie through a very tough time.
At the moment, there are seven Mitchell characters in Albert Square with Billy's two children down as recurring characters making it nine altogether. I would love to see Billy's wife Honey back in the show and for the writers to state that the character had run her course and they didn't have anymore storylines for her is just utter rubbish - they could still do a lot with the Honey Mitchell character and I'm hoping that they'll bring her back before too long.