[1] During his time on the programme, Jamie's story arc mostly revolved on his close relationships with his godfather Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) and on-off former girlfriend Sonia Jackson (Natalie Cassidy).

At the same time, however, Jamie's relationship with Phil deteriorates after he helps his former girlfriend Lisa Shaw (Lucy Benjamin) escape to Portugal with their daughter Louise.

When Ryder decided to quit his role, executive producer John Yorke said that the 'door would be left open' for Jamie to return.

After moving into the square, Jamie gradually builds his potential among the Mitchell family when Phil takes him under his wing at The Arches car lot.

In August 1999, Billy comes to the square and begins hassling Jamie over money he needs to pay back to loan sharks.

However, Grant soon requests for Billy's assistance and arranges to borrow some money through his contacts known as Milligan & Frater, subsequently they commit arson at The Arches when their renewed terms of the loan are not met and Jamie is presumed dead when the explosion takes place until Beppe tells Phil and Grant that he saw him safe in the cafe moments ago.

Jamie and Billy rush to Phil's hospital bedside, where the trio ponder on whether Grant survived and the loan sharks will continue to hunt them down.

He soon begins a romantic friendship with local teenager Sonia Jackson (Natalie Cassidy), who had initially rejected his efforts after Jamie ends up losing his virginity to Frank's spoiled daughter Janine (Charlie Brooks); she later changed her mind after Janine humiliates Jamie by spreading rumours about his inadequate prowess in bed.

This appears to not be the case when Jamie begins dating her neighbour Zoe Slater (Michelle Ryan) in light of the situation, which later prompts Sonia to become close with Martin's colleague Gus Smith (Mohammed George).

In March 2001, Phil gets shot by an unseen assailant and Jamie resolves to take care of his business empire until he recovers.

Moreover, Jamie ends up sharing his theory with Steve's wife and Dan's former girlfriend Mel Healy (Tamzin Outhwaite).

By the time Phil has recovered, it is revealed that the shooter was in fact his ex-girlfriend and Mel's best-friend Lisa Shaw (Lucy Benjamin).

He doesn't tell Jamie about this, however, and the two resolve to implicate Dan and Steve behind the shooting in order to rid them out of the square for good.

Afterwards, Phil summons his lawyer Marcus Christie (Stephen Churchett) and the two advice Jamie to testify against Dan to ensure he gets sent down.

Feeling betrayed, Phil confronts Jamie outside Sonia's house and disowns him, without giving his godson a chance to explain himself.

This quickly catches the attention of Steve, who he attempts to groom Jamie into working for him against Phil and pays him to smash the Queen Vic's windows as an example of this.

This impact extends to the point where Trevor enrages Little Mo's family, including her father Charlie (Derek Martin) and grandmother Mo Harris (Laila Morse), by exposing a shocking revelation in public; Kat is not Zoe's older sister as it originally appeared to be, but in fact her mother, who got raped at the age of 13 by her perverted uncle Harry (Michael Elphick) – who also turns out to be Zoe's father and not Charlie himself.

In response, Phil brutally attacks Jamie and beats him up until Sonia is forced to tell him that Lisa has taken Louise to Portugal.

As Christmas 2002 draws closer, Jamie witnesses Peggy being mugged during the episode aired on 17 December and rushes to her aid.

Martin accidentally runs over Jamie outside Walford East tube station and he is left in critical condition and gets hospitalised.

First when Phil is requested by Kat's future husband, Alfie Moon (Shane Richie), to prevent his little brother Spencer (Christopher Parker) from getting in trouble with the square's gangland boss Jack Dalton (Hywel Bennett) over forged currency, with Phil initially refusing, until seeing a photo of Jamie makes him think otherwise; this impact leads to Phil saving Kate Morton (Jill Halfpenny) from being killed by Dalton's hitman George Peters (Andy Beckwith), before later conspiring with Sharon's half-brother Dennis Rickman (Nigel Harman) to kill Dalton himself.

On the first anniversary of Jamie's death, Phil is forced to leave the square until 2005 after he is set up for armed robbery by Sharon and Dennis' illegitimate father Den (Leslie Grantham).

Nine years later, in 2017, Jamie's death is mentioned again by Martin (now played by James Bye) during his conversation with his and Sonia's daughter Rebecca (Jasmine Armfield), now called Bex.

In their conversation, Martin tells Bex that killing Jamie was the biggest mistake of his life because of all of the negative gossip he endured during his adolescence.

Following Lola's death from a brain tumour, Billy explains to Phil and Jay how everybody he loves either leaves him or dies and that he wishes he could take their pain away from them.

[1] The EastEnders website describes Jamie as vulnerable, gorgeous, beautiful, a stud, and "the Square's ultimate bit of cockney totty in the late nineties", with "floppy, David Beckham styled locks".

The possibilities were Sonia carrying Jamie's baby, Kat Slater (Jessie Wallace) being pregnant by Anthony Trueman (Nicholas Bailey) or Sam Mitchell (Danniella Westbrook), having Trevor Morgan's (Alex Ferns) child.

[5] Ryder's decision to quit was announced in March 2002, on which he stated, "I have decided to leave EastEnders after four fantastic years to pursue other projects.

Yorke wanted Ryder to be able to return, but when he was succeeded by Louise Berridge, the decision was made to kill Jamie off and that a Christmas death would be "gripping".

[4] In 2020, Sara Wallis and Ian Hyland from The Daily Mirror placed Jamie 68th on their ranked list of the best EastEnders characters of all time, writing that when he arrived in 1998 he was "full of boyband good looks and youthful energy".