How Kylie’s Neighbours return inspired all-in reunion

As Neighbours ends after its epic 37 year run, its former and current stars reveal the inside and behind-the-scenes stories, characters, plot lines and moments that will stay forever in their memories.

The music, the hair, the clothes, the attitudes, and oh, those delicious storylines. When youth-driven Network 10 acquired the fledgling drama series Neighbours in the mid-1980s, they introduced the world to major pop stars, Oscar-nominated actors, and the constant comfort of highly relatable – if also very over-the-top – characters. As Ramsay Street alum Natalie Bassingthwaighte revisits the famous cul-de-sac in a tongue-in-cheek cover shoot for Stellar, we pay tribute to the end of the series this month with an oral history of its 37-year run.

On a franchise secrecy scale between Bachelor final-rose spoilers and the Baby Yoda (er, Grogu) reveal on The Mandalorian, stalwart drama Neighbours soared past Star Wars to guard the details behind the last few days on set for the longest-running drama in Australia television history.

Annie Jones, who first brought to life Jane “Plain Jane Superbrain” Harris in 1986, had what she thought was an inside track on the reunions that would surprise fans the most since she was scheduled to film scenes with Kylie Minogue (her BFF Charlene Mitchell Robinson) and Guy Pearce (erstwhile flame Mike Young).

But throwing the public, and even other cast and crew, off the scent, the producers distributed fake scripts so convincing that Jones – who was certainly on the need-to-know list – found herself learning some unneeded lines by mistake.

Even so, Jones says she experienced such a strong sense of deja vu because “so many of the crew had also been there since the ’80s”. As she and her cast mates noted, “It was a bit of a time warp sort of thing where I looked around and saw all the same people, only we are all older.”

Stefan Dennis, who has played resident villain Paul Robinson on Neighbours since its March 18, 1985 debut, confides that he and Jones may have gotten an inkling that Minogue, Pearce, and Jason Donovan (Scott Robinson) would return to the series at some point when they met up during a 2019 UK publicity tour.

“I remember Jason saying, ‘I’ll do it if Kylie does,’ and Guy said, ‘And I would do it if you do it,’ and Annie and I just looked at each other [knowingly],” Dennis recalls as Jones nods in enthusiastic agreement during a star-studded Zoom chat with Stellar.

A flurry of emails and text messages between Neighbours alumni resulted, each volleying between “Would you go back?” and “If you do it, I will too.”

Natalie Bassingthwaighte returns to Ramsay Street for a Stellar photoshoot farewelling Neighbours. Picture: Sam Bisso.

And so, before Bonnie Anderson (who played apprentice mechanic-turned-singer Bea Nilsson) croons the iconic theme song for the last time on July 28, the Melbourne-based series that helped to launch the careers of stars like Margot Robbie, Natalie Imbruglia, Liam Hemsworth, Delta Goodrem, Russell Crowe and Dichen Lachman, will welcome back home some of its luminaries.

So vast was the number of actors returning that Dennis says the production team had set aside 30 minutes for the cast to catch up before the cameras started rolling. That time, however, blew out to more than an hour.

Going even further back in time, “I remember Kylie and I were just chatting and she was very excited because she was about to release a song called ‘Locomotion’,” recalls Alan Fletcher, who had a three-week stint on the series as mechanic Greg Cooper in 1987 before he joined full-time as Dr Karl Kennedy in 1994.

“But at the time, I had no idea [how big the show or Minogue would become].”

Dennis likens the hysteria of the 1980s to Beatlemania with the young cast unable to go anywhere without being mobbed. In this Stellar special celebrating 37 years of Neighbours, some of its most beloved stars spill their secrets and explain how the series changed Aussie pop culture forever.

FROM REJECT TO RARITY

The brainchild of TV powerbroker Reg Watson to follow up his hit series Sons And Daughters, Neighbours started on the Seven Network and was axed four months later because the Melbourne-set drama failed to captivate Sydney viewers.

Actor Peter O’Brien recalls how this was particularly inconvenient because, having relocated to play bad boy Shane Ramsay, he’d been staying under the tarpaulin of his ute in the studio lot until he found a place to live.

“The security guards used to wake me up in the morning,” O’Brien says with a laugh.

“I was horrified when it was cancelled because I had to find a new car park!”

Thankfully for O’Brien, Network 10 picked up the show and, with hype and shrewd casting decisions such as adding Minogue and Donovan as star-crossed lovers, the series came roaring back on January 20, 1986.

Even so, O’Brien says he only realised he’d hit the big time when he saw his likeness screened onto t-shirts.

The laid-back actor purchased one and says he still has the collector’s item to this day in a drawer at the Los Angeles house he shares with his wife Miranda Otto.

MORE THAN FRIENDS

Long before meeting Otto, O’Brien secretly dated his Neighbours romantic interest Elaine Smith, who played original character Daphne Clarke. Their on-screen love triangle with Des Clarke (Paul Keane) became one of Neighbours’ juiciest early storylines, and Daphne’s fatal 1988 car crash became one of TV’s most memorable scenes.

Memorable for everyone, that is, except O’Brien.

“Was I affected by it? So much so that I asked whether Elaine was coming back [for the finale] and had to be reminded she was dead,” he says wryly.

Love also spilled over into real life for Dennis, who dated Gayle Blakeney while she and twin sister Gillian were on the soap as the Alessi twins in the 1990s.

“Because of my relationship with Gayle and later, in a well-kept secret, I was also going out with Natalie Imbruglia, there was a rumour that I was making my way through the female cast,” Dennis admits.

Natalie Bassingthwaighte: ‘ I didn’t want to be labelled the soapie pop star’. Picture: Sam Bisso.

SUBURBAN SINGING SUPERSTARS

Minogue, Donovan, Imbruglia, Goodrem, Holly Valance. The way Neighbours bred pop-star success became something of an in-joke to the cast, yet Dennis insists there’s a simple explanation.

“Back in the day, Australian entertainers were hat-trickers because there wasn’t a lot [of work] going around,” he explains.

“You had to be able to sing, you had to be able to act and juggle these different things.”

But it was because of pioneer Minogue that so many were approached to record albums. Some, like O’Brien, declined (politely) because he wanted to “save the world from hearing it”.

Others, like Dennis, thought, why not? Dennis recorded his first single, ‘Don’t It Make You Feel Good’, on a whim and saw it reach No. 16 on the UK charts.

“I should say I never really liked ‘Don’t It Make You Feel Good’, but it was successful, so I just run with it to this day,” he says with a chuckle as O’Brien adds, cheekily, that he still has the CD that Dennis gave him.

Of course, Neighbours notoriety can only get you so far. The hit makers who penned minogue’s ‘I Should Be So Lucky’ in just 40 minutes didn’t hit gold with the Blakeney twins’ ‘All Mixed Up’.

And to succeed on her own merit as a recording artist with her band Rogue Traders, Natalie Bassingthwaighte wore a dark wig so fans wouldn’t spot her as Izzy Hoyland.

Bassingthwaighte admits she was more nervous that if she mixed Neighbours with singing, “that I would then be labelled the soapie pop star and I didn’t want that label, even though it’s been very successful for so many,” she reflects.

These days, our Stellar cover star blends acting and music with ease on stage in the musical Jagged Little Pill, currently playing in Sydney.

SETTING TRENDS ACROSS SUBURBIA

From ’80s perms and mullets to the lanky ’90s ponytail sported by Ryan Moloney (Jarrod “Toadfish” Rebecchi), Neighbours has gifted viewers with some hair-raising examples of Aussie style.

“I think every kid at my age had that hairstyle. Mine just looked incredibly sh*t,” Moloney quips about the dodgy ’do that pretty much forced producers to cast him.

“They rang up and asked, ‘Is your hair still the same?’” he recalls fondly. “I said, ‘Yes.’ They said, ‘Great, you got the job. Don’t cut it.’”

It took Moloney four years to convince his TV bosses to let him get a chop; his famous ponytail was auctioned off for charity, and his long-awaited shearing was ultimately written into the show as well.

RIDICULOUSLY OVER-THE-TOP PLOTS

Getting a haircut is one of Toadie’s tamer stories. Over the years, Moloney’s character has lost two wives tragically; one died in his arms after a battle with cancer, while the other drove off a cliff on their wedding day.

Residents of the fictional suburb of Erinsborough have also endured plane crashes, bushfires, hotel explosions, and evil twins (and triplets) terrorising suburbia.

In one particularly unforgettable storyline from 2002, Jackie Woodburne’s character, principal Susan Kennedy, believed she was a teenager after slipping on a puddle of milk.

“That’s one of the stories that, when you first hear about it, you go, ‘OK, that sounds like a bit of a stretch,’” Woodburne says with a smile.

“Having said that, then of course you’ve got the challenge. Who was this character when she was 16? How do I find the truth of who this woman was when she was a girl? So, I really enjoyed that.”

Alan Fletcher: “any person who was approach to return, who was available, said yes”. Picute: Sam Bisso.

BREAKING NEW GROUND

While the same-sex screen kiss between actors Stephanie McIntosh (as Sky Mangel) and Bridget Neval (as Lana Crawford) copped criticism for being gratuitously titillating back in 2004, Neighbours has since been heralded for its groundbreaking LGBTQIA+ storylines.

Soon after Australia legalised marriage equality, Neighbours became the first Aussie drama to feature a same-sex wedding ceremony with Magda Szubanski tapped to play the celebrant.

And in 2019, Georgie Stone became the show’s first trans cast member as Mackenzie Hargreaves.

“I knew that it was a big thing for Australia because there hadn’t been a trans actor playing a trans character on a show like Neighbours before,” Stone reflects.

“But I couldn’t have predicted the personal impact it had. So many people have reached out to me personally to talk about how my character has given them the confidence to talk to their parents or come out to their friends, or to even sort of accept themselves.”

DEALING WITH FAN FERVOUR

Vivean Gray may have enjoyed playing busybody Mrs Mangel, but after constant abuse for her character’s antics, Gray refused to give interviews or even talk to fans and departed Australia to live out the rest of her days in an isolated farmhouse in Sussex, England.

That still saddens Jones, her screen granddaughter, who saw the toll the vitriol took on the naturally shy older actor.

“Unfortunately, the fans at the time couldn’t differentiate between fiction and reality. People used to throw rocks at her house and she used to get abused all the time,” she says.

And while Fletcher concedes Karl’s many dalliances drew mostly approval, Bassingthwaighte, by comparison, felt the heat for those same storylines.

“To this day, it surprises me that some people can’t recognise that you’re an actor playing a role,” she says.

Natalie Bassingthwaighte stars on the cover of this Sunday’s Stellar to farewell Neighbours. Picture: Sam Bisso.

AND SO, THE LONG GOODBYE BEGINS

Fletcher says “any person who was approached to return, who was available, said yes”.

Those who couldn’t physically be on set shot their scenes via Zoom or, in the case of Robbie, who was filming the movie Barbie with Ryan Gosling, sent well wishes (and a crate of champagne) to the old crew.

“The fact that these actors who are now actually very, very famous, still just say how much they owe to Neighbours, how much they love Neighbours and appreciate what it has done for them, is a real testament to the program,” he adds.

While the cast is reluctant to say farewell, at least the return of Minogue and Donovan suggests that – in true soap finale style – Neighbours will enjoy a fairytale ending.