Neighbours stars Alan Fletcher and Ryan Maloney have joked that Russell Crowe was desperate to rejoin the cast of the soap for its 30th anniversary.
The Australian series will celebrate 30 years on screen next week, and Alan, who plays Dr Karl Kennedy, and Ryan, who plays Toadie, spoke to What’s On TV about their returning former co-stars who will be making guest appearances.
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Ryan said of* Gladiator* star Russell, who appeared in four episodes in 1987: “Russell Crowe’s coming back as a gladiator."
Alan added: “He wanted to – we rejected him and said, ‘No, sorry, you can’t.'”
The actor who has starred as Dr Karl for more than 20 years, went on: “Erinsborough is overtaken by a massive event, which is a reason to bring everybody back. I worked primarily with Harold (Ian Smith) and Madge (Anne Charleston), and with Delta Goodrem (who played Nina Tucker), which was lovely.”
He added: “Paul Keane (Des Clarke) was in the dressing room, amazing to see him. Andrew Williams (Guy Carpenter), Gary Files, an old mate of mine, played Tom Ramsay. What would happen is they didn’t tell us they were going to be there, we’d just walk into the green room and go, ‘What the…?’”
Alan also teased that Karl would be getting involved in another musical storyline with singer Delta: “There is some music, I can’t promise you a duet. The one thing that you can be sure of is that any opportunity to sing, Karl will take it up. He is instrumental in getting Nina Tucker to sing.”
Ryan said of what it meant to him to be a part of the anniversary: “I suppose it’s something to look back on when you’re older and say, ‘Wow, that show lasted that long and I was on there for that long.’
“Because no other show will do it – Home And Away will shortly, but it won’t happen again in this current TV climate. I don’t imagine another show ever doing it.”
Alan agreed: “For me, being in the 30th anniversary of Neighbours and having been there so long, it’s almost like you’ve been selected to play in the team that’s going to win the FA Cup.
“It’s the pinnacle really, and for all the personal achievements we’ve had along the way it’s the combination of all that being brought together in one package.
“The fact that so many characters are coming back shows we work somewhere with a really strong history of ensemble performance and that’s the biggest thing to celebrate, I think.”