Blakeney twins returning to Ramsay Street
27 years later, Gayle & Gillian Blakeney will film Neighbours episodes.
- Published by David Knox
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Neighbours is nostalgically bringing back twin sisters Gayle and Gillian Blakeney, 27 years after their run ended on the iconic soap.
They played Christina and Caroline Alessi from 1990 – 1992, with Christina as the wife of Paul Robinson (Stefan Dennis) and Caroline, awkwardly as his lover.
Both went to England in 1991 to record with Stock Aitken Waterman, releasing “All Mixed Up” but only peaked at #74 in Australia. They also co-hosted UK game show Take Your Pick, before moving to the United States with acting roles in Silk Stalkings. Both made an appearance in 1995 doco Neighbours: A 10th Anniversary Celebration.
“We were tickled pink to be asked back and we knew if they wanted to reprise the characters after nearly 30 years, it had to be for a great story line which it is. We’re really looking forward to filming it,” said Gayle.
Gillian added: “Strangely enough it feels just so comfortable and familiar despite the obvious changes, the cast and crew have been so welcoming.”
Their return is expected to be for three episodes and will air in September.
6:30pm weeknights on 10 Peach.
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- Tagged with Neighbours, Silk Stalkings, Take Your Pick
7 Responses
I’m really enjoying the Neighbours’ producers’ recent penchant for bringing back characters from decades ago and incorporating them into current story lines. I’d say the only thing stopping them from bringing Scott and Charlene back is the hefty price tag that this would entail. It’s also great that so many of those actors have agreed to return. It must be about time for Harold to drop in, actually (I’m surprised they didn’t bring him back in conjunction with Sonya’s cancer battle). There’s a reason why Australia’s longest running drama is receiving recognition from its peers for the first time…
Think it’s more about a willingness (or lack thereof) rather than fees.
For many years I thought Gayle and Gillian were in Kiss Makeup in The Buggles: Video Killed The Radio Star and could never understand why on rage they weren’t in the video. Of course they were in The Monitors: What Will We Be Singing In The 80s and it turned out my memory was faulty.
I also remember Gayle and Gillian being on the Seven TV Show Wombat as reporters and sometimes hosts, which when it ended entered splintered out into Totally Wild and Agro’s Cartoon Connection (Wombat won a few Logies as well by memory). Which when they went on to Neighbours and played the roles they did caused a few gasps from some of the public as people remember them more as those young people from those days.
… ah yes, for my sins I used to direct the twins in Wombat. The combination of those two and Jamie Dunn (Agro) was, shall we say, “an experience”!!!
I bet you’d have some stories CJ. I sometimes wonder how far Jamie pushed it with his co-stars and how often he sailed over the line?
Now that’s a blooper reel that hasn’t made it to Youtube!
I’ve been hoping we’d see them return. I had expected it when the Paul’s son Andrew arrived, but it never happened. Hopefully their three episodes takes advantage of their time and they’re not in the background like when people returned for Sonya’s funeral.