Benjamin 'Ben' Stewart
| Benjamin 'Ben' Stewart | |||||||||
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| Blue Heelers character | |||||||||
| Portrayed by | Paul Bishop | ||||||||
| Duration | 253 episodes | ||||||||
| First appearance |
Nine Lives Ep. 198, 26/8/1998 | ||||||||
| Last appearance |
Away Games Ep. 451, 6/10/2004 | ||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||
| Occupation |
Detective Acting Sergeant -> (demoted) Senior Constable -> Acting Sergeant -> Sergeant | ||||||||
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Benjamin 'Ben' Stewart was a fictional character in the long-running Australian police series Blue Heelers. He was portrayed by Paul Bishop.
His first appearance on the series took place in the middle of season 5 as a guest, before returning to the series as a full-time cast member from later in season 5 until season 11. Initially, he was a visiting Detective Acting Sergeant from the Organised Crime Squad, but was accused of the murder of a suspect by another visitor, Detective Sergeant Pepi Romano of the Homicide Squad. After it was discovered that Romano himself was responsible for the murder, as well as the attempted framing of Ben Stewart, Ben assaulted Pepi while Pepi was handcuffed. This led to Pepi being dismissed from the force and charged, and Ben was demoted back into uniform as a Senior Constable. Shortly after he was then posted to Mount Thomas permanently.
In the series, he fell for Maggie Doyle upon arriving and the two had a brief relationship, but later on in the series, Maggie chose P.J. Hasham instead.
Ben is divorced from his wife Rachael, and has three children, Madeline, Emma and Josh. While they live with their mother, Emma also spent a short amount of time living with Ben. At the start of the 8th season, Ben learned that Rachael and her husband Frank planned to move with his children over to Perth, where Ben would be less likely to see them, and for a short while he planned to sue Rachael for custody, but due to a similar case at the time that ended badly for all concerned, he had a change of heart and did not fight the move to Perth.
Ben was depicted as having a problem with alcoholism towards the end of season 9, and the first half of season 10, suspected to be fuelled by both being passed over for promotion, and that fact that his children had been moved to the other side of the country. This was a short-lived character trait[citation needed] . When he met a woman in the Salvation Army named Marrissa Caddrock, they began a relationship together, leading to Ben eventually joining the Salvation Army. Later in the series, the two became engaged.
Despite personal vows of chastity, a scandal ensued when accusations of sexual relations were put forward by police colleague Susie Raynor. Once again, Ben was cleared of the charges, having the full trust from all members of the cast. Despite the seemingly resolved issues, Marrissa eventually broke off their engagement because of irreconcilable problems in episode 424 of season 11.
At the end of season 10, Ben shot and killed Susie Raynor's paralyzed husband, in order to protect her. Ben and Susie later had a brief relationship, but like Maggie, she had feelings for another man (Evan 'Jonesy' Jones) and she broke up with Ben.
Soon after, Ben left the police force and moved to Perth to be closer to his kids. Around that time, Susie left him and got to a familiar situation where Ben had to shoot someone in order to save a colleague. In this case, he couldn't find the courage to do so, and he avoided the situation. The colleague was left alone, and Ben, while disobeying and walking away from dangerous situations led to a bout of depression. This depression led Ben to the breaking point, causing conflict and leading to his leaving the force in episode 451 of season 11, only 5 episodes short of finishing the season. This gave him the distinction of being the 5th longest serving character of the series, behind Tom Croydon, Chris Riley, P.J. Hasham and Maggie Doyle.
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