Quotes

I live in mortal fear of anyone who takes themselves too seriously.

[on the schedule of Les voisins (1985)] We have six episodes sitting on the desk that we have to prepare and make sure that all the lines work for us and everything, we have six episodes that we're shooting on location, which is for a further week, and then we have six episodes we're shooting in studio, so in any one week there's 18 scripts in the mix, and of course they span almost four weeks of television, so anything can happen.

Can I say at this point how incredibly grateful I am for the support of all my subscribers. You have made my Neighbours journey fun and engaging through your incredible support. Sincerely, thank you for being such a huge part of making Neighbours the legendary programme that it has become.

We need a hero and, maybe, one will come along. In the meantime we have at least 7 months of fantastic Neighbours episodes to look forward to.

The show still has upwards of 1.5 million viewers in the UK on any given day and it seemed to be going strong," he wrote, adding that "it seems that the axing of Neighbours is a financial decision.

Watch it right through to the end of August and get those viewers figures up so that maybe someone out there will say, 'Hey this is a super popular show and maybe it has life in some other aspect.'

The funny this is - and you'll know this Phil being an actor - we work on yearly contracts on a show like Neighbours so for 28 years I've been expecting the phone call to say, "Thanks, you're no longer required".

Jackie and I have been dear dear friends for 40 years and we will miss being on set, and miss feeling we are allies in the making of something really special to us. That will be a great loss to be frank.

So, in a way, we're always steeled for that possibility. Of course, it's very disorientating to get that call to say that everyone's not required anymore! It was a tough day for everyone, I won't downplay that.

But the main thing that leaps into mind, besides jobs of course, is the impact on fans and that's become very, very manifest with fans really speaking out about their love for the show.

It will leave a big hole. But she's just down the street, we won't be strangers. And we've got a lot to talk about.

I've always had this idea that the whole street finds out Karl never qualified as a doctor.

I am absolutely fine. I'm fit and well working on Neighbours and having a great time. But, I can report to you, I do have a disorder called alopecia areata.

So we popped in a little scene where Karl comes out, with almost no hair, saying he's just used some dodgy hair product and he hasn't followed the instructions, and that is how we sort of explained it.

I started to lose hair into my beard and then on my scalp in patches. So eventually I shaved my beard off, and then my hair became so patchy on my head, I had to get rid of most of that as well.

It was starting to get a bit weird. Karl was wearing caps all the time, so I went to the producers and literally said I need to have a little scene, just something wedged in that explains what's going on.

I had to get a level playing field back in my life - I needed to take a breath and think a little bit about where I sat in the world, in order to achieve some proportion.

It was very hard to fight back tears as we were saying the dialogue for what was going to be the last moments of the show.

I wasn't a good person to be around. I became selfish and things became too much about me, me, me. I needed therapy to get through this dark period.

There were hundreds of people in the studio to watch that final piece of filming. We had some speeches, I said a few words. There were some tears. There were some celebrations.

I love photography so much and hadn't wanted to let the business I'd built up go, even after I'd landed the Neighbours job but in the end, I completely blew myself out and needed assistance.