Erinsborough has had a Melanie Pearson-shaped hole in it since Neighbours returned to our screens two months ago. After seeing her marry Toadie in the show’s supposed finale in 2022, fans were shocked to find out that this marriage was over. In the time that we were away, Melanie had gone, Toadie was now in love with his neighbour, Terese, and as we returned to Ramsay Street, he walked down the aisle once again with a new bride.
Aside from a brief scene which was later revealed to be a memory of Toadie’s, we have seen nothing of Melanie Pearson in the new incarnation of the show, that is, until Nell Rebecchi finally tracked her down in Thursday’s episode (November 9th). But Melanie looks and feels very different. The bright colours have gone, the flowing earth-child fashions have been replaced by a baggy sweater and the iconic laugh was nowhere to be heard. Whatever Melanie has been going through since viewers last saw her has clearly taken a huge toll.
We got to sit down and chat with Lucinda Cowden, who has been playing Melanie on-and-off since 1987. Luckily, Lucinda hasn’t been through the same tramuas as Melanie evidently has and she gives us her radiant smile and a joyful giggle as she talks through her return to the show and the upcoming Flashback Week.
Normally providing the comic relief in an episode, we asked her what it was like to be at the heart of the drama for once and get her teeth into some dramatic scenes.
“It was fantastic!” She squealed. “I was really honoured that they thought I could do it, for a start. It was really great to see a totally different side of Mel and not have all of those Mel tropes there, just strip her back and see the heart of her
She still has that enormously big heart, she is still trying to do the right thing by people, but she doesn’t have the energy that she normally has.”
We still don’t know exactly what Melanie’s story is. Over the past few weeks we have learnt little bits about the various characters in the saga, but how does it all come together? This week we have seen that both Melanie and her old friend Sharon Davies know Eden Shaw, someone who seemed to previously have no links to anyone on Ramsay Street apart from Holly and Mackenzie. Melanie seemed very concerned that Holly knew who Eden was, concerned enough that she felt it was time to face the music.
Returning to Ramsay Street, Melanie tells Toadie and Terese, “I think you might want to hear what I have to say”. The Flashback Week of episodes that start on Monday centre around Melanie telling her story, explaining how Eden fits into everything and the events that happened around the time of her wedding to Toadie and also around Paul and Terese’s vow renewal.
Being missing in action for a year, is Melanie relieved to finally be explaining everything to the man she married?
“There’s got to be relief in there, hasn’t there? You’ve got to be happy to not be holding that in any longer.
The consequences are so incredibly enormous that she has got to be absolutely petrified as well. But the initial relief is that there’s now a line drawn under it, that the truth is out there.
And she hasn’t left those kids because she didn’t like them. That is a relief! But it is unfathomable for Toadie and it throws everything into question.”
We will see this all play out in the new episodes of Neighbours which will be available next week on Amazon Freevee and Amazon Prime Video, with a new episode each day Monday to Thursday from 7am.
Keep coming back to RamsayStreet.co.uk for more news and interviews from Flashback Week including another chat with Lucinda Cowden, once the truth is revealed.