Bonkers, bizarre: Neighbours stars reveal the wildest storylines
From infamous identity swaps to outrageous romantic twists, Neighbours stars share the bonkers plot lines that made the show a global cult favourite, proving nothing was ever too far-fetched on Ramsay Street.
Bonkers, bizarre and downright baffling, iconic TV show Neighbours has been a hotbed of wild and crazy storylines throughout its 40 year run.
With the final episode of the Aussie super soap airing on December 11, stars of the long-running series have reflected on the far out and fanciful storylines they have acted out on Ramsay Street, a place where anything could happen and nothing was too over the top.
“The wonderful thing about soap is you can be very heightened one day and then you can do social realism the next,” Neighbours executive producer, Jason Herbison, said.
Herbison named the “Fake Dee” storyline, played by Madeleine West, as one of his favourites.
“That was pretty wild and she came back numerous times and even I got lost in the continuity of it all,” he said.
“Let’s face it, it was ridiculous, but it was really great television and people enjoyed it.
“The Finn Kelly (played by Rob Mills) story was bonkers. I don’t know what we were thinking.”
Stefan Dennis found himself in numerous mind boggling situations as Neighbours villain Paul Robinson.
“One of the craziest storylines was Paul losing his leg because that went on for another 18 years,” he said.
“It was always an element of, ‘Okay, what are we going to do here? Paul’s only got one leg’ and occasionally directors would forget. They would go, ‘Okay, Paul’s running down the stairs,’ and I’d go, ‘No he’s not.’
“Another crazy story was the re-emergence of five of Paul’s wives. That was just kooky craziness.
“One of the craziest things my character ever did, only because I’m a car person, is when he had the audacity to blow up a 1966 E-type roadster, a convertible roadster. That made me cry.”
Tim Kano, who played Leo Tanaka, said his first big storyline on Neighbours was off the wall.
“Leo fell in love with this girl and was looking for who his father was, which happened to be Paul Robinson, but it was an incest storyline because the girl (Amy Williams played by Zoe Cramond) was Paul’s daughter and they did not know they were half-brother and half-sister,” he said.
“Leo and Amy went out to stay at this beach house and there is this big build up, then Paul runs in with Leo’s brother (David, played by Takaya Honda) and says, ‘Stop, she’s your sister and he’s your brother’.”
Alan Fletcher, who played Dr Karl Kennedy, said he loved when his character was presented with an over the top storyline as it was an acting challenge.
“There was the time that Karl was sort of sacked from medicine so he was selling pharmaceuticals and found out that the company he was working for was illegally trading expired pharmaceuticals to the third world,” Fletcher said.
“Karl became a spy and broke into the company headquarters. That didn’t really feel very much like a Dr Karl story, I’ll be honest, but I embraced it.
“I think the craziest time really was when Susan (Jackie Woodburne) and Izzy (Natalie Bassingthwaighte) and Karl were in a triangle and there were all Izzy’s incredible antics like when she broke into the hospital to falsify medical records to make it look like Karl was the father, and not someone else, of her unborn child.
“Then later Izzy came back and stole Karl’s sperm from the hospital — it was nuts.
“The thing about Neighbours is all this crazy stuff you get thrown, people go, ‘Oh, that was just absurd,’ but in fact a lot of the stuff actually happens in real life but it’s just exacerbated in a show like Neighbours because it happens to the same people over and over again, so, it seems really weird.”
Here are six of Neighbours wildest storylines:
Hot-air balloon love rival revenge horror:
Crazed criminal Jacka Hills, played by Brad McMurray, decided to exact revenge on love rival Ned Willis (Ben Hall), who slept with his wife, by trying to wipe out a hot-air balloon ride filled with Neighbours characters in 2016. Jacka sabotaged the gas canisters of the hot-air balloon that had been chartered for Lauren Turner’s (played by Kate Kendall) hens party. The balloon crashed leaving Lauren and four other characters fighting for their lives.
Annalise dumped at the altar:
There was heartbreak for Neighbours’ bombshell Annalise Hartman (Kimberley Davies) in 1994 when she was dumped at the altar by her fiance Mark Gottlieb (played by Bruce Samazan). Mark had an epiphany as he was standing before the altar and decided he wanted to be a priest at the very moment Annalise was walking down the church aisle.
Finn Kelly tries to wipe out Ramsay St residents who try to expose his criminal ways:
Finn Kelly’s (played by Rob Mills) time on Neighbours from 2018 to 2020 was flat out bonkers. Finn, a schoolteacher, altered grades on essays, swapped Susan’s (Jackie Woodburne) medication, manipulated Xanthe (Lilly Van der Meer), stole medical records, spied on his girlfriend’s family by gifting them a tea chest with a hidden camera inside, tried to run over Xanthe, gets pushed off a cliff by Susan, tries to sabotage a school graduation, suffers from amnesia, booby traps a wedding present, shoots Gary (Damian Richardson), and attempts to knock off Bea (Bonnie Anderson), Toadie (Ryan Moloney), Harlow (Jemma Donovan) and Susan. As he is trying to bury Susan alive he hits his head on a rock and falls into the makeshift grave he had dug, which fills with water and he drowns.
Tornado terror hits Ramsay Street:
A tornado tore through Erinsborough in 2014 collapsing the coffee shop’s roof. A beam landed on top of Lou Carpenter (played by Tom Oliver) and Susan Kennedy (Jackie Woodburne) performed an emergency tracheotomy as her estranged love rat husband Dr Karl (Alan Fletcher) gave her instructions over the phone.
Toadie and Dee’s wedding day disaster:
A car carrying newlyweds Toadie (Ryan Moloney) and Dee (Madeleine West) drives off a cliff and plunges into the sea on the way to their wedding reception in 2003. Toadie survived the disaster but Dee’s body could not be found. Fifteen years later Dee returned to Erinsborough claiming to have suffered from amnesia, but it is later revealed that it is not Dee but a lookalike ‘Fake Dee’ called Andrea who was trying to scam Toadie.
Bizarre puppy love episode:
Puppy love was taken to bizarre lengths on Neighbours in 1991 when the show’s canine star Bouncer the Golden Labrador had a dream in which he married a Border Collie named Rosie who lived next door.
Originally published as Bonkers, bizarre: Neighbours stars reveal the wildest storylines
