Did you know that Dr Karl Kennedy (aka Alan "Fletch" Fletcher) from Neighbours is the third most popular doctor EVER? It's true, a poll was done and everything. The only doctors more popular than him are Doctor Who and Doc from Back To The Future! With credentials like these - and the fact that he's a total silver fox - how could we not invite the lovely Dr Karl for a cuppa here at heat Towers yesterday? He's very modest about his legendary status, though, telling us, "Harold Bishop is a bigger legend than me – he’s the biggest of the legends and he's got about 20 kilos on me, he’s definitely bigger!" When we asked why he's stayed at Neighbours for so long (over 15 years now) he told us, "What you want as a soap actor is either to be really comical or get lots of high drama – Karl gets both which is why I’ve been there so long."
Dr Karl was in the UK to announce that Gabriella Darlington and Jennifer Hall are the two lucky finalists in the Be A Star On Neighbours comp, and they will soon be jetting over to Australia for the final auditions. Neighbours is celebrating it’s 25th anniversary this year and in October the UK will air the 6,000th episode. And what can we expect from this momentous episode? "It will be a beautiful occasion," Fletch tells us. "There’ll be high drama - and you’ll see the ‘high’ in that is very important... Oo and er indeed. Are you a Neighbours fan? Or maybe you're just a fan of Dr Karl (like all the female heat staff!).