Neighbours shock death: “It felt like a true ending for the character.”

EXCLUSIVE:

Warning: Don’t read until you have seen Neighbours episode Thursday February 1.

Fans of Neighbours have today witnessed one of tbe show’s favourite characters meet their demise.

Actor Takaya Honda has departed Ramsay Street after playing the character of David Tanaka since 2016.

Honda had initially contemplated departing the long-running soap, to explore new acting opportunities, as far back as 2021, and expressed those desires to producers well before the show’s highly-publicised ending in 2022.

But he was invited back for the latest chapter in 2023.

“They said to me, ‘We know you don’t want to come back long term, but would you be interested in coming back just to help finish off the character of David?'” he tells TV Tonight.

“I was very keen for that because whilst I loved the ending of that first chapter of the show I’d always wanted and felt like David had deserved his own ending. I guess, it gives me a bit of closure too on the character so I was very keen to come back.

“Once I heard what the storyline was, I thought they’d done an amazing job of finishing off what is David’s arc as a character, from when he started to where he ends. From being the conservative, somewhat withdrawn, closeted man who lacked self confidence, to then dying a hero for his brother and atoning himself for what happened with Gareth (Jack Pearson).

“I thought it was so well tied in with what David’s been through, but who he is as a person that it felt like a true ending for the character.”

Jason Herbison, Neighbours Executive Producer said the love between David and husband Aaron (Matt Wilson) meant that death was the only way the character could feasibly depart.

“Takaya is a valued member of the Neighbours cast and a friend to many of us on the show. Even prior to our big ‘finale’, Takaya had given us plenty of notice that he was planning to leave,” he told TV Tonight.

“In creating this new chapter, we felt it was crucial to see David, Aaron and Nicolette together as a modern family unit once more, before we formulated a story that would allow the others to stay if David left. In soap tradition, that meant a tragic death.”

In the soapie death scene, Eden (Costa D’Angelo) about to potentially kill brother Leo (Tim Kano) by smashing his head with the rock. Aaron and David have have heard the scuffle, run over to intervene with David tackling Eden off a cliff (a cliffhanger moment!).

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Takaya (@takayah)

As Honda explains, David later made a selfless gesture.

“Eden’s in a bad way and I’m trying to help him out. When Aaron and Leo come down, I convinced them to take Eden first because I know that he’ll die if he doesn’t get treatment,” he explains.

“When they return to get David, he’s passed away. So then we have to see Aaron and Leo carry him back up the cliff and take the body to the hospital. The episode atually ends with Aaron being given David’s phone with a voice memo that David’s left for him.

“When they first pitched the idea to me, I said ‘You’ve got to let me film the phone call!’ Even when the scripts came to me it wasn’t written that you could see David doing the call, but I pushed. The director was really keen on it so we ended up filming it which I’ll put on my Instagram, because the final scene on screen cuts between different things.”

For Honda, some scenes was very emotional given his own mother had passed away, having lived with Alzheimer’s disease, during the filming.

“I got a call from my dad. I had to fly up to Brisbane but she passed away while I was on the plane on the way there. So both mum’s death and David’s death are kind of like forever intertwined now. I was back on set two days later, being David’s dead body on a slab for three hours, just staying perfectly still,” he continues.

“It was a surreal experience.”

However his final scene was actually for an earlier episode in which he was acting alongside TV father, Stefan Dennis. That scene in Harold’s cafe required a “fourth wall” which makes the set look more realistic.

“Once they completed the scene, they opened the fourth wall and the cast, crew and production staff poured in which was really sweet, because everyone knew the situation I was in. I think they would have done it anyway, but especially so because of the circumstances.”

Takaya Honda said he was looking forward to seeing the final result on air so he could watch the other cast acting over his body, something he couldn’t watch on the day.

“I’m so excited to see everybody around me. Obviously Matt and Tim do a lot of -literal- heavy lifting, but also Stefan and pretty much the whole cast, have quite a strong response to the character’s death,” he said.

Jason Herbison added, “We are so proud of Takaya’s performance and especially the way he held himself on set at a time that was also difficult for him personally, with the very sad loss of his mother. Takaya and David are true Ramsay Street legends and we have loved every minute of his time on the show.”

NB: TV Tonight discusses further the legacy of Aaron & David in an upcoming article.