Even veteran actor Alan Fletcher struggled to hold back tears as he filmed the final scenes of Neighbours.
After playing Dr Karl Kennedy on the Aussie soap for 28 years, the emotion was overwhelming.
Karl – the show’s longest-serving star – says he blubbed when the last “cut” was called on June 10.
He said: “It was very hard to fight back tears as we were saying the dialogue for what was going to be the last moments of the show.
“There were hundreds of people in the studio to watch that final piece of filming. We had some speeches, I said a few words. There were some tears. There were some celebrations.”
While Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan are thought to feature in the finale as Charlene and Scott, their scenes were filmed away from the rest of the cast due to pop princess Kylie’s busy schedule.
But Alan says of former stars returning for the last episode, to be shown on August 1: “One of my favourites was Guy Pearce. There wasn’t a single person who was asked to do something for the end, who was available, who said no.
“Everybody wanted to help out.”
Alan, 65, warns that if TV bosses aren’t careful, British soaps could soon face the same fate as Neighbours.
Shows such as EastEnders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale have huge casts and crews and cost a fortune to produce.
At the same times, viewers are switching off in droves.
For example on Christmas Day 2021 just 2.9 million viewers saw EastEnders. In 1986 it was over 30 million.
Alan warns: “Sometimes when soap operas start to fail, producers would try rather extreme storylines.
“But in many cases, it has a negative effect. You need to trust your audience and respect what your audience wants and needs.” Thanks to Neighbours, Alan has a huge fan base in the UK and treasures spending time here as a musician.
Tomorrow and Tuesday the singer/songwriter plays music from his new Americana EP dispatches in London.
Fans might not recognise him though as, unlike soap character Dr Karl, Alan has alopecia and is totally bald. He says: “What hair I did have, I’ve shaved off. I’ve got used to it.”
A specialist doctor is helping Alan try to recover his hair but he’s sanguine about being bald. He says: “I’m old enough to say, I probably would have gone bald anyway. I need to accept it and will probably be able to pick up a lot of roles from it because suddenly I look like Sir Patrick Stewart.”
Now Neighbours is finished, Alan has ambitions to work in comedy. He added: “I’m a huge admirer of Ricky Gervais and that style of dry comedy.”
But first he has his UK tour, then he must keep a promise he made decades ago to his daughter and take her on a Disney cruise.
Alan, who has two adult children, Veronica and Tom, with newsreader wife Jennifer, said: “She’s 27. We’ve been promising her one since she was little and she still wants to do it.”
*Alan is playing Americana in London tomorrow and Tuesday. Tickets from eventbrite.com.
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