Lucinda Cowden has confirmed that her character, Melanie, will be leaving the show with a permanent exit next month.
Ramsay Street UK recently revealed that Neighbours appeared to be lining up an exit for Mel in spoilers for the middle of November, but it was unclear the nature of the exit. In an interview with Neighbours superfans and social media personalities, the Neighbens (real names Ben Fenlon and Ben Bone) Lucinda confirmed that Mel’s exit from the show is permanent and she will be driving the Drinks Diva van off into the sunset.
In the interview, which you can view HERE, Lucinda revealed that she was informed of the show’s decision to end Melanie’s time on the show just before the Neighbours Christmas Party in December last year and filmed her final scenes just days before she came to the UK for her ScreenStars shows.
In a story straight out of Neighbours, Lucinda was hospitalised whilst filming her final scenes.
Melanie’s farewell party, which is held at the No.82, ended up with Lucinda tripping and smashing her face on a kerb stone in the middle of filming. Rushing off to hospital, the actor discovered that she had broken her nose.
In true showbiz fashion, the show must go on, so whilst Lucinda was in hospital, filming continued with a member of the show’s crew donning a wig and acting as a stand in to complete Melanie’s scenes.
When Lucinda was well enough to resume filming, she returned to the studios at Nunawading to film her very final moments, but co stars Alan Fletcher (Karl), Jackie Woodburn (Susan) and Craig Hall (Vic) were unavailable to film, so once again, they had to use stand-ins to take the place of the actors and scenes were shot showing as little of the missing actors as possible.
Lucinda was clearly emotional at the beginning of the interview, sad at the loss of Mel, but thanked UK fans for the outpouring of love they showed her at the events in Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow. She said that meeting so many fans and feeling so much love just days after filming her final scenes, softened the blow.
Lucinda also lamented at not getting to work with her castmates, particularly some of the younger female cast such as Majella Davis (Krista) and Lucinda Armstrong-Hall (Holly) who Melanie had shared many scenes with over the 18 months since the show returned.
Lucinda did reveal that she will (temporarily) be back on screen and recently returned to the Neighbours studios to shoot a few scenes for a short-term return for Melanie. Based on timings, it would suggest that these scenes will be part of the show’s 40th Anniversary Celebrations which will happen in May next year.
Another revelation from the interview is that the cast have not yet been informed if Amazon have renewed Neighbours beyond the initial 400-episode order. Those initial episodes, across two years, were part of the initial plan to revive Neighbours, announced in November 2022.
If the show is not renewed, filming for the final episode of the series would take place in April 2025, so the clock is ticking for the recommission to be announced.
With appearances across the 5 decades that the show has been on air, Melanie Pearson, originally introduced as a comedic guest character, became an icon of Ramsay Street. In the show’s reboot, she has been central to some of the biggest storylines and the central character in both the flashback week and Outback week. Melanie (and that laugh) will be missed.
Melanie’s final episode will be available on Amazon Freevee and Amazon Prime Video from 7am on November 19th.
