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Neighbours to ‘kill off’ former character

Spoiler: Ramsay St. will get bad news about a much-loved character from the 1980s. Warning!

Warning: Spoiler!

Neighbours writers are about to bump off a former character who departed the show decades ago.

Mrs. Mangel, played so memorably by actress Vivean Gray, is related to returning character ‘Plain Jane Superbrain’ (Annie Jones).

She left in 1988 to settle in the UK (where Gray was born) but has occasionally kept in touch “via letters” sent to Erinsborough.

As Radio Times reports:

Opening up to old boss Paul Robinson, spiky Jane softens as she confesses her resentment at having to put her life on hold for decades while she’s cared for her grandmother in the UK.

It’s then she hears that gossip-loving legend Mrs Mangel has passed away, leaving Jane riddled with guilt that it happened while she was on the other side of the world. In a touching gesture, Paul gives Jane the famous Helen Daniels portrait of Mrs M currently hanging in the hotel lobby as a gift, and as it’s being taken out of the frame to be transported the elusive stamps fall out – they were hidden in the painting the whole time!

Gray, who also played Sullivans neighbour Mrs. Jessup, sadly passed away in 2016.

9 Responses

  1. On a similar note, and I don’t understand why they haven’t killed her off some 11 years after the death of Darlene Conley, but Bold’s Sally Spectra is (at least the last that I was aware) still alive off-screen.

    When it comes to off-screen deaths or returns of characters who have long left the show, I wish that they would at least dig out a few clips from the archives. With such a long history to draw from, it seems so wasteful to not utilise old footage when the situation would warrant it.

    I don’t know about most, but I get a real kick out of seeing old footage been used in long-running series years after the fact.

    1. Agree re: using old clips. It’s something rarely done and I like to see them too.

      BTW: I see by the article pic that Plain Jane Superbrain has had another make-over since returning to Ramsay Street!! Last weeks article pic had her looking particularly dowdy!

  2. It’s nice that they’ve found a way to incorporate her character (in name only) back into the show after 30 years, and give her an off-screen send off. We occasionally here updates of what former residents are doing when they leave Erinsborough through other former residents visiting or phone calls and emails to current residents, but you don’t often hear of them passing away.

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