As a child of the eighties and teen of the nineties, it is hard to describe to the YouTube generation just quite how big a cultural sensation the Australian soap opera Neighbours was, believe me, a friend and I tried after revealing we were off to catch this show.
Full disclosure, I had given up watching Neighbours years ago, but had been briefly tempted back last year by the ‘final’ episodes, featuring all the stars who had used the popular long-running daytime drama as a springboard to a glittering career on stage and screen – Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Guy Pierce and Natalie Imbruglia to name but a few.
Actor’s decades in Erinsborough
But for some actors, Neighbours wasn’t just a staging point on the way to something else – it WAS the thing, and this was the case for Alan Fletcher – aka Dr Karl Kennedy, who has spent 28 years starring in the soap set in the fictional Melbourne suburb of Erinsborough.
Beaten only by his on-screen wife, Susan (played by Jackie Woodburne) Alan Fletcher holds the number-two spot for episode appearances on Neighbours which ran for 37 years before its supposed final curtain came down last year.
The soap has since been picked up by Amazon and will be back on our screens later this year. But in the meantime, the actor has been touring the UK with his show The Doctor Will See You Now.
With the help of his former news-anchor wife Jennifer Hansen, Alan takes to the stage to share anecdotes and insights about his experiences on the small screen phenomenon that is Neighbours across the years.
Ramsay Street memory lane
Even as a non die-hard fan, the clip-driven trip down memory lane is fun, with a good few laughs along the way.
“Fletch” (as his wife styles him) is visibly brimming with enthusiasm for his subject matter, and generous with his portraits of his co-stars, while Hansen is slick and professional, steering the show with a light hand and keeping the man also known as Dr Karl Kennedy on track when he looks set to take a detour.
The pair deal admirably with interruptions from some over-enthusiastic audience members (questions are invited over social media and should probably not be shouted at the stage) and obviously enjoy indulging their shared passion for musical performance with a tongue-in-cheek duet about married life.
Leaving the theatre to echoes of a Neighbours theme tune singalong, my friend and I conclude that the night has offered an interesting insight not only into the actor’s world, but also into the important place he holds in the hearts of the true fans, who will undoubtedly be tuning in to see his return to Ramsay Street later this year.
