Ben: Andrew Smith

Ben first appeared around episode 16 of the 1996 series. He was introduced as Terry's younger brother who lived with their grandfather after they mother died and their father was sent to prison.

Terry and Ben became re-united after their dad was released from Prison, (it had been a year since Terry had seen Ben last). However the family reunion soon fell apart after it became obvious that their father's intentions were still criminal and that he only wanted Ben to come with him to set up the bar in Spain.

Ben was rescued by Terry who had the burden of reporting his father to the police. Ben later came to live with his brother at Lou Gallagher's foster home.

In 1997, Ben unintentionally caused problems between Terry and Karen after they became rivals in the pool competition.

Ben also angered Terry by shadowing him everywhere as he had no friends of his own age. Eventually though, after Terry's outburst Ben made friends with Jack and Phillip and also worked quite hard to attract Terraise attention.

Ben also made friends with Ollie who he met in school. However, Ollie wasn't actually a good influence on Ben and at Ollie's first visit to the Grove they broke into the attic where Ben's arm went through the rotten floorboards.

Ben, under pressure from Ollie, claimed to Lou that the Attic hadn't been locked and that Geoff had been negligent as he and Ollie believed they would be awarded compensation. Lou later found out their claim was false after Ollie required first aid of Sian after an accident when he was climbing over the fence.

Ben was led into Ollie's Network O: secret society for boys after all out was declared between the younger boys and girls. Ben was later expelled by Ollie after he sided with Jack who believed that Trooper John was in fact concocted by the girls.

Ben supported his brother through his time of woe during Flora's illness and death and we can probably look forward to seeing more from Ben in the next series.