Jamie Borthwick is an uncommonly fine young actor who, frankly, is far too good for the increasingly strained and schlocky scripts that are churned out to him and the other residents of Albert Square. If you haven’t heard of him, then all you need to know is that he’s been a major character in EastEnders for the last two decades, playing Jay Brown, until very recently the manager of a (much in demand) funeral home in Walford. But no longer: Borthwick has been axed from the show after he used a slur once commonly used against disabled people, but in this occasion aimed at the people of Blackpool in general. The video, filmed backstage in the seaside town earlier this year, shows Borthwick using the term ‘mongoloids’. I’m disabled – and I’m appalled. Not by Borthwick’s language, bad though that is, but by the decision to give him the boot.
I just roll my malfunctioning eyes and gently explain that these terms aren’t really used anymore
Borthwick apologised once it became clear that his remarks had been filmed on someone’s phone and released online. A suspension from EastEnders ensued. It wasn’t enough. ‘We can confirm that Jamie Borthwick will not be returning to EastEnders,’ a BBC spokesman said this week.
