Billy Mitchell (EastEnders) revealed in 2006 that the role was extended by "coincidence and chance": "I was offered four episodes and here I am, about 800 later. [...] Ross Kemp (Grant) said that he was leaving, and there was a gap in the Mitchell family, so they brought me back to do stuff towards his leaving. After that they offered me a year." Billy was reintroduced in 1999, making recurring appearances. He was involved in the leaving storyline of Grant Mitchell in October 1999, before returning later in the year as a regular character. When Billy was first introduced, he was depicted as
Ross Kemp in Afghanistan Reports in September 2008 that filming of a follow-up series in Afghanistan was underway, and indicated that it as to be a two-part series of 60 minutes each, to be provisionally titled "Ross Kemp: Return To Afghanistan". It was later confirmed that the second series like the first was to be a five-part programme, and was to premiere on Sunday 1 February 2009. In the follow-up series, Kemp is embedded within Delta company of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (5 SCOTS), the 5th battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, deployed to Afghanistan as part of 16th Air Assault Brigade.