ALAN Fletcher has revealed that he felt “quite nervous” about the return of ‘Neighbours’ on Amazon’s freevee as the show returned to UK television screens on Monday.
The 66-year-old actor – who has starred as Dr Karl Kennedy since 1994 – is thrilled that the long-running soap is making its much-anticipated return, but Alan has also confessed to feeling quite anxious about the comeback.
He told Politicalite: “Everywhere you go in the UK, people just want to talk ‘Neighbours’, talk excitement levels about ‘Neighbours’ coming back. It’s quite a phenomenon.
“In the script there’s been a two-year break, so the writing team have very cleverly been able to craft a story that teases out what happens in those two years.”
The show was axed in 2022, only to be revived a few months later amid a clamour from fans.
Alan is aware that the cast and crew are now under pressure to deliver something good.
He shared: “I was quite nervous going back because, you know, ‘Neighbours’ was kind of like wearing old clothes for most of us – a very familiar work environment, you go to work, you know everybody, it was very relaxed and we had a great time making our TV show. Coming back, the stakes are suddenly way up here because the show has been saved and we really needed to pay homage to that.”
Alan has teased details of the show’s comeback, promising that it’ll feature some “delicious comedy”.
He said: “There’s some delicious comedy to come. We’ve got wonderful returnees like Harold coming in to be a guest character. We’ve got these fabulous new characters as well.
“So there’s a lot going on … and it has been revealed that there’s something going on with [Karl’s wife] Susan, some sort of secret she’s holding on to. And that plays out really interestingly. It’s a bit of a shock to Karl.”
Neighbours is available from 7am Monday-Friday on Amazon’s Freevee service in the UK.
