Amusing Neighbours story

[roverman]

On the back of the story being released today that the racism storm has been quietly shelved, possibly because the show is being axed. Another story caught my eye.

Back in the 90s, British actress Nicola Charles joined the show as Sarah Beaumont. They actively wrote the character to suit Charles’ heritage and the storyline where Sarah and Karl embark on an affair, which Charles wrote, boosted Neighbours ratings.

Clearly this may have caused ripples amongst the domestic cast and crew but to find out two of them wrote to Immigration to try and get her deported (and therefore off the show) was frankly shocking.


www.perthnow.com.au/entertainment/celebrity/former-neighbours-star-nicola-charles-claims-her-co-stars-tried-to-have-her-deported-ng-b881846479z

Who do we think wrote in? Susan and Libby 🤣

[CAEF]

Shareena Clanton also suffered racism on the Neighbours set.

Similar to the Emmerdale scandal where Isobel Hodgins and Matthew Wolfenden were suspended.

[Teeks]

Oh yes, I remember hearing about this story a few years ago. It is unbelievably malicious and petty what they tried to do to Nicola Charles. Seems like some of the cast members were jealous of a British actor coming over to Australia and achieving success on an Australian soap opera. The Aussies do have a bit of an inferiority complex when it comes to us Brits...

I don't have the foggiest idea who it could've been to be honest with you. Could've been anyone. I don't know much about the personalities of the Neighbours cast in real life, so it would be hard for me to guess who was behind it. But if I had to hazard a guess, it was probably some bitter ex-cast members who left the show a long time ago. 

I will say this though... Neighbours have an appalling track record in relation to racism, xenophobia and unruly cast members through the years. The cast basically say and do whatever they want from what I gather. The lack of discipline given to actors has fostered a toxic work culture and continues to this day. They have normalised racism on set where any actor feels comfortable enough to spew racist slurs against foreign or non-white actors and will face no punishment whatsoever. It's a sorry state of affairs.

How convenient for them that they get to quietly sweep all the racism under the carpet now that the show has been cancelled. I think it's scandalous that they never disciplined or sacked a single cast member implicated in racially abusing Sharon Johal, Meyne Wyatt and Shareena Clanton. That speaks volumes about what TPTB think about actors who come from a different culture or background.

One could make the argument that the cancellation of Neighbours is karma coming back to bite them...

[CAEF]

Oh yes I had forgotten about the racism towards Sharon Johal as well as Nicola and Shareena. I have heard that Alan Fletcher is not a very sociable person in real life, and a friend in Australia said they met him once and he was standoffish.

A lot of the Yanks and the Aussies have very tunnel visioned views about us Brits.

I think the racism scandal at Emmerdale was also brushed under the carpet.

[Teeks]

Roverman mentioned Libby and Susan... could it really be them who wrote to immigration?!

Would be pretty funny if it was them.

My gut tells me the culprits were lesser known cast members who banded together against Nicola in jealousy because they were bitter about their own careers.

[CAEF]

It is the same as casual ageism towards younger people from older people. Older people suffer ageism but they can be the worst offenders of it.

They see people in their 40s as "Younguns" when they are so wrong, a 40 year old is old enough to be a grandparent. I hate it when older people infantise people who are well past the age of becoming an adult.

All it means is, we have longer to live than them, it does not make a 40 year old a "youngster".