Stars of the Australian soap opera Neighbours broke down in tears upon learning of its impending cancellation.
Neighbours would no longer air on Channel 5, the network revealed in February 2022. The discontinuation of the programme was verified the following month. But in September of this year, it made a comeback to television on the streaming platform Amazon Freevee, featuring familiar faces, fresh characters, and lots of drama.
The most recent celebrities to announce their spectacular Ramsay Street comeback and share their motivations for going back to Erinsbrough are Takaya Jonda and Matt Wilson, who portray David Tanka and Aaron Brennan, respectively.
Takaya gave an interview to Daily Star and other media outlets explaining their decision to return to the soap opera. “We were pitched the storylines beyond the flashback week and it gave us a really fun thing to come back and play with,” she said. This plot truly gets off to a great start, and we needed a compelling reason to return rather than just characters in the background.”
Matt concurred, saying, “We were really enthusiastic about this concept that Jason Herbison pitched us. He has such a wonderful knack for telling stories. We aimed to accurately portray our personalities. It was a huge journey for all of us to go back on that because we had broken up with the programme, said goodbye, and grieved its loss. We had to take it into consideration because we all had different circumstances, but in the end, we returned.”
“It was psychologically intense because we had to grieve the show and grieve our characters and the fact we wouldn’t have the opportunity to play them again so it is a big deal for us to be given the opportunity to do that again and then have the possibility of that being taken away and having to go through that whole process again, it effects you more than what we thought,” Takaya continued, elaborating on the impact the end of Neighbours had on him.
“There’s more to it than just answering the question, ‘Do you want to be on TV again?’ Before the show ended last year, the aftermath was much more impactful than we realised. While it may seem obvious to say ‘yes’ when someone asks you back, there is a reluctance in your body because you just went through something that was extremely exhausting and impactful.
“Everyone in the building started crying, so we had no idea the show would return—especially not so soon. We didn’t believe it to be true. We were taken by surprise, which makes sense from a production perspective as there wasn’t really a need for us to know. Still, it was a huge shock to us, and the conversation felt a bit like a PTSD reaction because we had just been through a very big thing, even after Covid, so I don’t think anyone saw it coming back so quickly.
“Though it’s amazing, the business would have suffered without Neighbours before. The industry values all the starts that people receive on this programme greatly.”
