Farewell to Neighbours : “With 28 years of working together, it is like a marriage.”
Karl & Susan Kennedy became the heart of Ramsay Street, with chemistry that was irreplaceable. Jackie Woodburne speaks to an amazing television bond.
- Published by David Knox
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In a final Farewell to Neighbours interview,
Ramsay Street matriarch Jackie Woodburne shares her thoughts on the enduring partnership
with actor Alan Fletcher,
and reveals a favourite storyline.
Over 28 years Jackie Woodburne and Alan Fletcher grew to embody the heart and soul of Ramsay Street.
Susan and Karl Kennedy were soulmates, devoted parents, fallible partners, wise guardians and mentors .
Woodburne and Fletcher were also drama virtuosos. Scenes between the pair were often described as ‘one take wonders’ because the chemistry between the two, so evident to viewers, meant each could read the other in the moment.
“There was the trust. The dynamic was perfect from day one,” Jackie Woodburne tells TV Tonight.
“We get each other, and with 28 years of working together, it is like a marriage.
“We saw each other on our best days and on our worst days, and we loved each other through it all, so the work never suffered.
“The work was always our happy place”
“And the work was always our happy place. We would arrive, we would come onto the Kennedy set and everything else went away. It was just about just doing the work, and having so much fun doing it.
“I mean, ‘Fletch’ for me is the biggest part of the recipe. It’s the thing I’ll miss the most, spending time working with him. He’s one of a kind. I love him.”
The Kennedys arrived on the street in 1994 with children Malcolm (Benjamin McNair), Libby (Kym Valentine) and Billy (Jesse Spencer).
Susan and Karl’s storylines were endless, much like the show itself, spanning infidelity, amnesia, multiple sclerosis, divorce, surrogacy, cyber-bullying, and more. Powerhouse scenes saw Susan in a fit of rage slapping Karl, or tearing strips off him in the street. No surprises Woodburne was nominated for a prestigious Rose D’Or Award in Switzerland.
“Look at the stories that we tell today”
Over the decades, she says the 10 soap also adapted to the world around them.
“If you go back to the beginning of Neighbours, the stories were arguments about ‘Who’s putting their rubbish in my wheelie bin?’ Very much simple stories which were very successful,” she continues.
“But if you look at the stories that we tell today: the first same sex marriage on Australian television, introducing a lot of diversity, actors with hearing impairment, actors with physical impairment. (Producer) Jason Herbison is responsible for breaking the ceiling on this show, really taking risks and telling relevant, important stories and I think the audience responded to that.”
But the heart of the show was always its sense of community and cross-generational empathy.
“It was always implicit that someone had your back. The young people go out and do young people things, make mistakes, have experiences, be fearful, be in danger. But we knew as an audience, because of the characters, that someone would have their back, so they could go out and make mistakes and have those life experiences,” she explains.
“Mum or dad or whoever was in that parenting role would be there for them.”
Despite her screen union with Alan Fletcher, Woodburne nominates a 2020 storyline as one of her favourites, in which she and Rob Mills performed the entire episode together.
“Soap opera has an imperative to keep moving”
“I really enjoyed the Finn Kelly storyline. Jason wrote a two-hander episode that was just Rob Mills playing Finn and myself. One episode, just the two of us. The style was different. Soap opera has an imperative to keep moving, keep thethe plot unfolding, keep the story moving. You don’t often get time for the characters to just sit in their situation and allow it to happen around them. But in the Finn Kelly story, there were a couple of scenes with gaps and silences, things were happening without dialogue. It was just so different, I loved it.”
But as the world takes its leave from Ramsay Street, where will viewers see Woodburne perform next? She isn’t sure just yet.
“After today, I’ll have time to just sit with it and reflect and think about what’s next,” she reveals.
“Honestly, I don’t know. I’m so overwhelmed with all things Neighbours at the moment, these wonderful people and this place that I’ve loved to come to.
“It’s going to take some time to kind of wean myself off it, I guess.”
Neighbours Finale Week:
Thursday July 28 7.30pm – 9pm on 10 and 10 Peach
Attention British fans: TV Tonight will be filing a finale story following the Australian broadcast.
23 Responses
I of course watched the final 3 episodes very disappointed- and I’m not a fan haven’t watched any full episodes for years- I don’t get everyone was selling up and moving out then all of sudden they are all staying but the show isn’t must be disappointing for fans. I have one major question if David or someone can answer for me please? What and how did Dr Karl lose his hair? How long has he been bald?
I’ve been a fan since Day 1 and I was extremely happy with the finale. I’m beyond disappointed that the show has been “rested” (in Jason Herbison’s words), but I think they produced a wonderful tribute to the show and the feedback online from fans has been overwhelmingly positive. It’s more the casual (or non) viewers that have expressed disappointment. I loved seeing the old characters return and loved the fact that the current characters were given plenty of airtime right up to the end. Everyone did an amazing job.
As for Alan Fletcher (Karl Kennedy), he has been diagnosed with Alopecia Areata, an autoimmune disease that causes hair loss. The loss is patchy, so he decided to shave it all off, hence the bald head. This only happened about 6 weeks ago on the show.
Jackie Woodburne is brilliant and deserves to be praised to the moon and back…! What a classy, talented lady. Thanks for the interview, David!
Thanks for all your features this week David – they’ve been a pleasure to read.
“Attention British fans: TV Tonight will be filing a finale story following the Australian broadcast.”
How come UK fans get the courtesy of a spoiler free zone yet as soon as a US Survivor winner is crowned it’s put on the front page of the website with no spoiler warnings?
I write for Australian viewers so once something has aired it’s news. But British Neighbours fans (quite a few who visit this site) are on a different timeline. I don’t think I have filed on a US Survivor winner in about a decade, but it would have been in line with AU broadcast.
I remember when Susan and Karl did that video introducing a new cast member to the show and we’re showing then around, but were freaking out that he/she was walking through walls and etc., such troopers to the show.
It really is sad that Neighbours is ending. I’d love to see freemantle/10/paramount plus / and /or ITV join forces and bring neighbours back to life over the next year or two. Seemingly there will be a lot of characters leaving Ramsay street, so with the right cast including dr Karl and Susan, Neighbours or a new title could be a winning formula. Especially if 10 actually supported it.
I watched the last half hour (out of interest), and I felt that the door was pretty much left open in case it comes back in the future.
David , do you know why they aren’t showing the replay of tonight that I can see or why they haven’t gone back to the start of the series on Peach ,I gather it’s to do with the ownership rights. Is anyone taking a guess on the finals numbers ,I’ll take a stab and say 770K
No but sometimes they add later, to deter people from waiting and drive numbers to the premiere.
Ok many thanks,I’ve never been a fan but I have to watch the final episode.😁
I still can’t believe that tonight is the last night where we will ever see a new episode of neighbours.
The finale is going to be so emotional, like this past week has been.
Jackie and Alan are excellent actors. The chemistry and dynamic between them is so real. I agree with Eddie Redmayne the 2015 Oscar winner, ‘I think they’re amazing. I’m a huge fan of them from old. I’ve learnt a lot from them from watching them daily.’ I see ‘diversity’ in Neighbours mentioned in comments. It depends what lense is used to view diversity. The show has a male same sex marriage, trans actor in a lead role, openly lesbian lead character, and other characters past and present with various sexualities. Also, a deaf actor, another in a wheelchair, the wonderful Henrietta Graham etc. All truly diverse actors and characters.
Been loving the story lines this week in particular with Susan Karl Izzy and Malcolm with a great twist to the story been a great watch.Seeing old cast mates return and still more to come making it a must watch.Jackie and Alan i always felt no matter what story lines were thrown at them over the years you could tell the chemistry between them was always strong and they were never going to go there seperate ways.You hardly get many couples on a TV program that have that strong connection like they do.Huge credit to both of them.I have been watching since it began through and highs and lows,and being in the country in the early years only having two channels to watch.Neighbours was always a must watch.I’m certainly going to miss it 37 years is a huge achievement in television.Hardly any shows have had the staying power to last that long.Hey Hey It’s Saturday is probably the only other one.You may find the logies will do something next year instead since the program was still running.
Same for me. I replay the scenes between Susan, Karl, Izzy and Malcolm over and over because of Jackie’s reactions. Just when you think it can’t get any worse for her, it goes up another notch.
The incredible Jackie Woodburne and Alan Fletcher. Their partnership has been a huge part of Neighbours’ success and I’m going to miss Karl and Susan – the drama, the emotion and the comedy. They could do it all.
I do not understand how Jackie in particularly has been overlooked by the Logies for so long. She continuously turns in remarkable performances. You only need to watch the episodes following Hendrix’s death recently to know that.
It’s significant that Neighbours is ending. It’ll definitely leave a void to be filled. There could be a replacement. A new title and cast would do well for the marketing aspect. There’s still UK’s Coronation Street, New Zealand’s Shortland Street, South Africa’s 7de Laan and more. It’s a universal format.
Marieke Hardy, from ABC’s The Book Club and former writer for Neighbours, mentions that the show wasn’t diverse for too long. The show was also relegated to a multichannel. Nowadays UK TV is incredibly diverse in casting, and may have had an impact on Channel 5 in not renewing the import. Sam Pang on HYBPA? also noted that Neighbours wasn’t known for casting Asians. It had its run and may be too little, too late.
I think see what other countries are doing, what works, what doesn’t and come up with a replacement drama that’s even better. It might even be that just the brand needs changing.
Sam Pang must not have seen the show in recent years, where two of Paul’s long lost sons are Asian. There was a family of South Asian decent living in the street and the newest neighbours are a mixed race couple, white husband, Asian wife and their daughter.
The show did have some cast from different heritages or backgrounds in the last decade or so that reflected more modern Australia. It has been mentioned that there were also financial constraints. It could also be the branding, reputation etc. Which is why I think there should be a replacement drama as the format itself is still viable. That would also save jobs in the industry as well.
The abc recently did a soap that ticked all those boxes. It was set in Perth and went for two seasons. A new soap would be good, but they don’t seem to make new ones any more in commercial tv.
That was The Heights on the ABC and agree the cast was quite diverse and storylines intertwined many characters plus had the sense of family and community. Shame it didn’t continue for a third series.
Neighbours is only critised for not being diverse because it survived long enough to become diverse and subject to hindsight. Viacom cancelled Neighbours because they aren’t interested in a declining Daytime market anymore, and Neighbours viewership over 2 screenings day plus streaming fell to less than 1m. They want to compete in primetime with dramas that can be distributed and streamed globally. Neigbours and Home & Away worked as daytime soaps because they were different and cheap. Just as Day Of Our Lives, The Young and The Restless, The Bold and The Beautiful, Coronation St, Shortland Street, East Enders and now Emmadale fill up slots on secondary channels and cable channels here.
Thanks David for such a wonderful tribute to Neighbours of the past weeks.
(Who needs the Logies?)
I just know it’s going to be an emotional night and I hope Australian viewers tune in to give it the farewell it deserves.