EastEnders star on the mental health story 'for everyone'

EastEnders' writers sought advice from mental health charities Samaritans, Mind and Rethink Mental Illness. And while it is a sensitive topic which required "months and months of preparation", there was also a question of keeping the audience engaged.

"How do we delicately tell this story in our way?" asks Aaron.

"[But] in an entertaining way, because we also need to entertain our audience."

Aaron admits feeling a big responsibility, but says he didn't want it to become "a great pressure" and take away from the story.

"The responsibility is just to be in a place where I can spiritually, mentally, emotionally give myself to the story in service of Ravi's illness," he says.

Aaron says he avoided learning too much about Ravi's illness, allowing him to mirror the character's confusion and portray the role more "organically".

"I haven't experienced the illness, I didn't know much about it," he says.

"Not only is Ravi not knowing what's happening, I don't know what's happening.

"So I can allow myself to just go moment to moment," he says.

However, Aaron says more planning did go into some of the key moments, such as a series of events depicting Ravi's decline.

Viewers saw him hold people hostage in a pharmacy while trying to obtain medication for his son, admit to being a police informant and look to end his life after a car crash.

"It was important for me to map those out because we wanted each [part] to feel different," says Aaron.

EastEnders has a long history of tackling difficult issues, and Aaron tells Newsbeat the work of portraying mental health struggles on screen doesn't end with a single storyline.

He says examples such as Mark Fowler's HIV diagnosis, Stacy Slater's experience of bipolar disorder and Phil Mitchell's psychosis, are where "EastEnders shines for the last 40 years".

In his view "[tackling] those things in different ways with different characters and finding different angles of mental health illnesses for people to resonate with," is one of the soap's big strengths.

And if there is one thing he wants the audience to take from the story, it's about looking beyond someone's past.

"Given what Ravi had done previously on the Square, his history has been one that's probably not the best," he says.

"The hope that I had from it was that people can look beyond and just see the human being.

"As people we can grow from that in terms of empathy and love."

You can catch up with EastEnders on BBC iPlayer.

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