Honey Mitchell - Reception

Reception

In September 2006, Steve Frost, head producer of EastEnders' rival soap Coronation Street, publicly branded Honey and the Down's syndrome storyline as "Painful to watch wooden and emotionless - crap." EastEnders' executive producer, Kate Harwood, defended the storyline, saying "We had incredible feedback on our Down's storyline. Fans were moved."

Grace Dent, television critic for The Guardian, described the trio of "doomed weddings" between Billy and Honey in 2006 as an excuse to watch other television programmes "without ever feeling adrift from the Walford gossip It was like Groundhog Day in a Pronuptia showroom. After a series of unfortunate events, the wedding would be scuppered. Honey would sob, Billy would do one of his "I try so hard to do the right thing" soliloquys and everyone in the Vic would be forcing down marzipan-coated fruit cake for weeks." Referencing the surprise third wedding when Honey was heavily pregnant, Dent said, "No one said that springing acute stress on Honey, a heavily pregnant woman, was plainly daft each 30-minute episode spent with Honey and Billy now felt like an endurance test." She has also described the coupling of Billy and Honey as akin to Billy and his former wife in the serial Little Mo Mitchell, saying "It's Billy and Little Mo all over again. Two dim-witted people, week-in, week-out, making lots of mistakes and getting the wrong end of the stick with farcical consequences. Everyone else is doing Brecht-lite, they're doing Terry & June They're what the fast-forward 30x option on the Sky+ was made for."

The scenes in which Honey was attacked were subject to heavy criticism in 2007, with Ofcom receiving 78 complaints from viewers about the level of violence displayed, and concerns for the safety of her baby. The media regulatory body stated that: "In Ofcom's view the violence was not appropriately limited for this time of the evening when many children are available to view television." EastEnders was found to have breached the broadcasting code on this occasion, though the BBC defended itself by stating that there had been a gradual build up to the event over several episodes, and that a content warning was aired prior to the episode's broadcast.