EastEnders actor Max Bowden has discussed the future of Ballum as he prepares to take centre-stage in a pioneering episode of the soap.
Next Monday's episode is set entirely from Ben's perspective and puts the viewers in his shoes as he negotiates Walford with his hearing impairment.
The episode marks the day of Phil and Ben's big job but things don't quite go as planned - leaving Ben making a shocking discovery before finding himself at the wrong end of a gun.
Ben has increasingly found himself torn between his commitments to his dad and his relationship with Callum (Tony Clay) but Bowden is hopeful that Ballum will survive the events of the episode.
"I think Ben is certainly in a very good place with Callum at the moment," he said. "He's stuck by Ben through all of this and he's a good egg.
"I also think Phil and Callum can both be as bad as each other - they're both fighting to one up each other with Ben and I think it could affect them in the fact that Ben doesn't want to see that.
"Ben will always keep things from Callum cause he doesn't want to hurt him - with Callum being in the police, anything to do with criminal activity has to be treated very lightly now."
The Ben-centric episode of EastEnders airs at the special time of 8.10pm next Monday, June 1, on BBC One.
> Click here to browse pictures from next week's episodes of EastEnders
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