Big V: Stefan Dennis talks Neighbours’ end and new beginnings
As Neighbours approaches its final curtain after 40 years, Stefan Dennis, the iconic soap’s enduring super villain, contemplates life beyond Ramsay Street.
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What started out as a reluctant six month stint on Neighbours turned into an adventure of a lifetime over nearly three decades for Stefan Dennis and his alter ego as one of Australian TV’s most enduring super villains, Paul Robinson.
Over 28 years Dennis has navigated endless outrageous storylines as the scheming, devious Paul on the soap and in doing so worked with the likes of Kylie Minogue, Guy Pearce and Margot Robbie and won fans around the world including Princess Diana, the Queen Mother, Adele, Chris Martin and even David Bowie.
Along the way he has been a pin-up, a pop star, a film producer and stage performer.
But now, after defying the odds twice before, the end is nigh for Neighbours and Dennis is contemplating life after Ramsay Street - again.
Production will cease on the iconic Melbourne-made, globally loved soap after 40 years on Friday, July 11.
“Three quarters of my career has been involved with Neighbours,” Dennis, 66, the only current cast member to have appeared in the first episode of Neighbours in 1985, said.
“I love to spout the fact that Neighbours, I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, is the only show in the world that’s ever been axed three times.”
Dennis started his tenure on Ramsay Street in 1985 and left seven years later in 1992 to explore opportunities in the UK.
After a 12 year absence he returned in 2004 for a guest appearance.
“The show invited me back to play Paul for two weeks for Neighbours’ 20th anniversary and 21 years later I’m still here,” he said.
It’s a heck of an innings with a program he did not want to be part of, believing it was a corny soap doomed to flame out in a couple of months.
“I didn’t want to get on Neighbours full stop because I was young and stupid back then and I thought that if you were a real actor you didn’t do soaps,” Dennis said.
“I soon learned that was a fallacy.”
After auditioning for the roles of Shane Ramsay and Des Clarke, Dennis was told “you’ve got the part.”
“I assumed I had the part of Des Clarke and then some scripts arrived at my place and it said Paul Robinson. I had absolutely no idea what or who Paul Robinson was,” he said.
Asking for a three month contract, Dennis was told he had to sign for at least six months.
Seven months after Neighbours launched on Channel 7 it was axed, but was quickly picked up by Channel 10 in 1986 and became a phenomenon.
In 2022, the show was cancelled by 10 when UK broadcaster Channel 5 pulled its funding.
However, in a plot twist that could have been ripped from the pages of a soap script, Amazon appeared like a white knight and joined with 10 to rescue the show for its Freevee service. Filming started again in April 2023 with Dennis among the retained cast.
Earlier this year, Amazon opted not to renew its deal and with 10 not able to fund the show on its own, Neighbours was assigned, once again, to the TV graveyard.
The likelihood of it rising like a phoenix for a third time is slim.
“People keep saying to me, ‘Oh, you must be really sad with it ending’ and I’m like, ‘No, not really’,” Dennis said.
“I’m kind of ready now and wanting to move on to other things, but in saying that it is bringing to a close a very, very large part of my career and my life.”
Born in Tawonga in northeast Victoria, Dennis grew up on the Gold Coast and set his sights on being an actor from an early age.
He left school aged 16 and on his father’s advice became an apprentice chef.
“Dad’s advice was if I wanted to be an actor I had better learn a trade to back myself up,” he said.
In 1978 he moved to Melbourne and appeared on Skyways, The Sullivans, Prisoner, The Henderson Kids, Cop Shop and Carson’s Law before Neighbours landed in his lap.
As Paul, Neighbours’ agent of chaos, Dennis has had no shortage of classic soap storylines and by 2006 the character had grown so big producers decided to cancel him.
“The producers told me Paul had almost become a caricature within the show and so I was fired,” Dennis said.
“Then three days later, Rick (producer) came up to me on set and said, ‘I think we have found a way to keep Paul. We’re going to cut your foot off.’
“So for three days I was sacked, but no one knew about it. Paul’s not your average black and white villain, he’s a villain of many, many layers.”
Neighbours found a fan base in the most unlikely of places including among the Royal Family.
“For many years I was under the impression that it was Princess Diana and the Queen Mum who were the fans, they both loved Neighbours to the point where if they were ever away doing royal duties and they missed the show they used to get the BBC to send tapes to the Palace so that they could catch up with it,” Dennis said.
“Then when we were invited to the Palace in 2023, when we were over there doing the Neighbours’ Celebration Tour, not only did we discover that practically all the staff at the Palace were avid fans, but I discovered that almost the entire royal family were fans. Even the Queen (Queen Elizabeth II) was a fan.”
Music chameleon David Bowie was also among the Neighbours viewers.
“He invited the cast to his Glass Spider concert at Kooyong many, many years ago (1987) because he was such a big fan.”
In what was almost a rite of passage in the early years of the show, Dennis dabbled in pop stardom and released a single, Don’t It Make You Feel Good, that hit number 16 on the UK charts.
“That’s a period in my life I’d like to redo,” he said.
“This was when Kylie and Jason (Donovan) had started their recording careers and the trend at that time was if you are on a soap you must make a record.
“I’m going to be absolutely honest with you, the reason I didn’t become a successful singing entertainer is because I just didn’t take it seriously. I was having way too much fun and I was meeting too many girls. I look back on it now and I am like I should have looked at that more as the multi-billion dollar business it is.”
It is not lost on Dennis the gift that Neighbours has been and just how many opportunities have come his way thanks to the power of the charming little show that could.
“I get annoyed when certain people have left the show and snubbed Neighbours to a degree and refuse to talk about it in interviews,” he said.
“I just think ‘pull your head in, you would not be where you are today if it was not for Neighbours’, and I, for one, am very, very well aware of that.
“When I left Neighbours in 1992, I went over to the UK for what was supposed to be two weeks and 12 years later I moved back to Australia.
“In that 12 years, even including the time I was living in America for a little while, doors were open to me because of Neighbours.”
Neighbours has become a family affair for Dennis with his wife, daughter, two sons and his sister appearing on the show.
“My wife, Gail, played Julie Quill. She was Paul’s arch-nemesis and sent him bankrupt and had him sent to jail,” he said.
The axing of Neighbours, Dennis said, was a great loss to fans and the Australian TV industry.
“In hindsight it’s a show that shouldn’t be ending,” he said.
“You know everybody’s kind of scratching their heads about why a show which has got an audience in the millions around the world each day, is being axed. Only the folk at Amazon know why it’s no longer going on and that information is not being shared with anyone.
“We’re all just baffled. It is a show that really shouldn’t be ending because it’s got so much life still in it.”
He added that in Australia the show “could have had a bit more love behind it and a bit more promotion.”
“It would have been nice for a lot of Australians out there to know that the show is actually still on,” he said.
“We are the only dramatic show in Australian television history that has ever hit the 40 year mark,
“For that absolutely incredible piece of history to be overshadowed by the fact that we’ve been axed, I think it’s really awful.
“Home and Away, hopefully they’ll now carry the banner and take the accolade as the longest running show in Australian television history.”
Life after Neighbours is shaping up to be a combination of work and travel for Dennis.
“People keep saying, ‘What’s it going to be like when you retire?’, well, I’m not retiring, I’m going to semi-retire,” he said.
“I always say actors don’t retire, they die, so I certainly hope that I’m going to be doing work until that time comes.
“But in the meantime, I’m not going to be pushing so hard. I’m in that very, very enviable position of being able to live my life and have a career where I can be a bit more fussy and a bit picky and choosy about what I do now.”
Dennis said the magic of Neighbours was that it gave viewers a slice of sunny, simple Australian suburbia.
“I get asked all the time ‘What is the secret of neighbours?,” Dennis said.
“It became such an absolute Beatlemania phenomenon back in the ‘80s. I mean, it was just ludicrous the attention that we and the show got, and not just in the UK.
“In Sydney we appeared at a shopping centre and they’d made preparations for about 500 people to turn up. Well, 10,000 people ended up turning up. It was mayhem, but that was a common thing.
“A lot of soaps, particularly in the UK could be quite dark and drab and along came little bright-eyed Neighbours that showed sunshine and lollipops and lovely beach scenes, swimsuits and sun while each episode had a thread of a storyline that was quite serious.
“And I think that’s the secret; the legacy that Neighbours has left behind is pure entertainment.”
FAST FACTS:
What was your first job?
My first job was with my brother when we found an old push lawnmower in the tip and we decided we’d go into the lawn mowing business. We rocked up to the first house and said, ‘We will mow your lawn for 10 cents.’ We mowed a couple of square feet and went, ‘Bugger that’. My first real job was in a hamburger store on Cavill Avenue (Gold Coast).
If you weren’t acting, what would you be doing?
Probably cooking. I did my chef training in probably the blandest period of cuisine in cooking history, the ‘70s was just vile. It was so boring.
Who are five people, alive or dead, that you would invite to a dinner party?
My mum, my dad, my brother, my stepfather and my ex-wife. None of them are with me anymore and it would be lovely to see them all again.
What book should everyone read?
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy by Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, but just the first two
First concert?
Uriah Heep
Who inspires you?
My wife, Gail.
What advice would you give your 18-year-old self?
Pay attention, listen to people, have fun, but also take some things seriously - and invest in gold.
First car?
It was a 1965 AP5 Valiant.
Current car?
I’ve got four registered in my name. A Prius that I bought for my in-laws so they have a little car to run around in. My wife drives an electric Jag, I drive a Lexus SUV and I have a sports car, a Jaguar.
Dream car?
My dream cars are 1959 to 1961 Corvette convertible, a ‘60 - ‘61 Mercedes 300 Gullwing, a 930 Turbo Porsche 1985 model, and a 1965 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud Series 3.
Do you have a career regret?
Not taking music more seriously. The other one was I when I was living in America it was before the Australian invasion in Hollywood, so we were sort of novelties over there. I didn’t learn how to overcome that and therefore I didn’t get the work that I could have and should have got when I was in America.
What are you most looking forward to this year?
This year I’m most looking forward to …. travel. This is the beginning of my travel period.
I’ve got a couple of jobs, a film that I’m supposed to be doing and I’m waiting on another job overseas, and then Gail and I are going to jump on my motorcycle and head west.
What’s one thing you’d change about Victoria?
The one thing I’d love to change about Victoria …..the cold weather.
What do you love most about Melbourne?
The one thing I love most about Melbourne is … coffee. It has got the best coffee in the world, absolutely hands down.
Originally published as Big V: Stefan Dennis talks Neighbours’ end and new beginnings
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