It’s been an eventful three and a bit months on Ramsay Street, so much so that you’d be forgiven if you’ve forgotten everyone who reappeared in Erinsborough during the short 2023 season.
Amongst the weddings, protests, near deaths, epic flashback sequences, mistaken identities plus Haz and Holly’s matching koala Christmas jumpers; we saw a whopping 50 returnees, made up of 23 regulars, 7 of which were recasts, plus 25 returnees in a guest capacity and 2 supporting artists. On top of that, there was 7 new characters who moved onto Ramsay Street full time or made their impact elsewhere in Erinsborough.
To help us remember who’s returned, and who’s visited, let’s go around the houses and see who lives where and which stories have dominated their lives this year…
22 Ramsay Street
Episode one cemented the biggest storyline for Neighbours this year – the marriage between Terese Willis (Rebekah Elmaloglou) and Toadie Rebecchi (Ryan Moloney). The celebration brought many familiar faces back to Erinsborough, including Terese’s former sister-in-law Lucy Robinson (Melissa Bell), her daughter Imogen Willis (Ariel Kaplan) with husband Daniel Robinson (Tim Phillipps) in tow, plus Toadie’s mum Angie (Lesley Baker) and son Callum (Morgan Baker).
The marriage hasn’t gone exactly to plan, with Toadie’s younger kids, Nell and Hugo (now played by Ayisha Salem-Towner and Tanner Ellis-Anderson) not approving of the nuptials.
24 Ramsay Street
Now the home of the Harris-Young-Stone-Tanaka-Brennan family, the newly refurbished No. 24 had fewer occupants back in September when just Jane Harris (Annie Jones), her boyfriend Mike Young (Guy Pearce) and his daughter Sam (Henrietta Graham) were living there. With Mike taking an extended break working in the UK, Jane needed support from her friend Curtis Perkins (Nathan Borg) and old neighbour Hilary Robinson (Anne Scott-Pendlebury) when news hit the street that Erinsborough High was under closure threat, with Terese Willis planning on demolishing the mid-century building and building a retirement ‘experience’ in its place.
Terese’s plans were met with much anger amongst former staff and pupils, with a protest organised by Jane’s daughter Nicolette Stone (now portrayed by Hannah Monson) sparking the returns of Summer Hoyland (Jordy Lucas), Melissa Jarrett (Jade Amenta), Brett Stark (Brett Blewitt), Michelle Scully (Kate Keltie), Sue Parker (Kate Gorman), Tess Bell (Krista Vendy), Richie Amblin (Lach Millar) and Marty Muggleton (Nikolai Egel) earlier this month.
Following the protest, Nicolette decided to move back to Erinsborough with her daughter Isla Tanaka-Brennan (now played by Hana Abe-Tucker) and Isla’s fathers Aaron Brennan (Matt Wilson) and David Tanaka (Takaya Honda), though not after much-deliberation between the trio. More on that later.
26 Ramsay Street
When we caught back up with the Rodwell family back in September, they’d well and truly settled into Erinsborough life with Andrew (Lloyd Will) becoming besties with Toadie, and his wife Wendy (Candice Leask) fixing herself at the heart of the Lassiters complex as the Waterhole bar manager. Daughter Sadie (Emerald Chan) has now thoroughly repaired her friendship with Mackenzie Hargreaves (Georgie Stone) and has played cupid for the last few months, trying to set her up with every bloke that’s stepped foot in Melbourne.
Things haven’t quite gone to plan for the family however, with Andrew arresting his wife following the school protest and Wendy finding out that Andrew had donated a… sample, to an old friend fifteen years ago. More on this when we head over to No. 30…
28 Ramsay Street
No. 28 wouldn’t be the same without Karl and Susan Kennedy (Alan Fletcher and Jackie Woodburne), and its been great to see a new family dynamic within the household with Karl’s mischievous daughter Holly Hoyland (Lucinda Armstrong-Hall) moving in with the iconic duo. Like mother like daughter, it wasn’t long before Holly started causing problems for the couple, including various run ins at her new Lassiters Hotel job, and clashes with her step-mum Susan. But Susan has had her own problems, and in the wake of leaving her job as headmistress of Erinsborough High, went on a spending spree – hiding the expensive jewellery from Karl.
The revolving guest bedroom door has been firmly in operation over the last few months, first occupied by a visiting Harold Bishop (Ian Smith), and more recently by an injured Melanie Pearson (Lucinda Cowden) who is staying after surviving a nasty fall down a flight of stairs in the school protests. Melanie’s return story brought it’s own twists and tangles… which we’ll unravel a little later.
30 Ramsay Street
When Toadie moved in with Terese, he sold up to the Varga-Murphy family who had been staying with Jane briefly until they organised a permanent home after relocating from Werribee. Little did mums Cara (Sara West) and Remi (Naomi Rukavina) know, their arrival in the street had been orchestrated by eldest son JJ (Riley Bryant), who was convinced that he was conceived as a result of a donated semen sample from Andrew Rodwell, also a former resident of Werribee, fifteen years ago.
Despite brother Dex’s (Marley Williams) concerns that the revelation could rip the family apart, JJ continued to investigate Andrew’s past which caused a huge rift between the Varga-Murphy and Rodwell families. Wendy accused JJ of stealing her watch and accidentally led some dangerous criminals from Cara’s past to the street after infiltrating her résumé.
32 Ramsay Street
The share-house has seen its fair share of action since September too, now home to Mackenzie Hargreaves, coffee shop manager Haz Devkar (Shiv Palekar) and Byron Stone (with Xavier Molyneux now playing the role). Haz has moved from woman to woman during his time living at No. 32, blissfully unaware of Mackenzie’s feelings for him and breaking her heart in the process. Meanwhile Byron fell madly in love with Reece Sinclair (Mischa Barton), a businesswoman whose family have invested in Lassiters. Reece’s intentions for staying in Erinsborough were largely unclear until it was discovered she was in search of her sister Krista (Majella Davis). Which brings us nicely on to…
The Penthouse, Lassiters Hotel
Paul Robinson (Stefan Dennis) had kept the presumed death of Krista Sinclair under his hat for two years – alongside David, Aaron and Nicolette they stayed quiet that Krista had been pushed into the rooftop pool by Melanie, her former nanny, after blackmailing her out of thousands of pounds. Paul was further blackmailed by Eden Shaw (Costa D’Angelo), an acquaintance of Krista, under the belief that she was dead. During Neighbours‘ incredible flashback week it was revealed that Eden was in fact Holly Hoyland’s controlling ex-boyfriend, Melanie had been protected from him by her good friend Sharon Davies (Jessica Muschamp), oh… and that Krista was very much alive!
There were a plethora of returns during flashback week, during scenes set across the last two years, with the following characters returning to the show: Amy Greenwood (Jacinta Stapleton) and her baby daddy Lance Wilkinson (Andrew Bibby), Yashvi Rebecchi (Oliver Junkeer), Malcolm Kennedy (Benji McNair), Bea Nilsson (Bonnie Anderson), Philip Martin (Ian Rawlings) plus Chloe Brennan (April-Rose Pengilly) and Elly Conway (Jodi Gordon) who were wed in the show earlier this week, joined by Elly’s daughter Aster (Amelia Gavin.)
Who’ve we missed?
One man who’s weaved his way through storylines this year is Paul’s son Leo Tanaka (Tim Kano), who lives in the penthouse with daughter Abigail (Nikita Kato). Rest assured, whilst we haven’t seen much of Leo in 2023, things are set to change in 2024 as it seems like sparks will begin to fly between him and another resident.
We’ve got to give an honourable mention to two of Lassiters’ most dedicated staff members, Tom Nguyen (Enzo Nazario) who is still propping up the bar at The Waterhole despite having to serve the whole drinks menu to Reece Sinclair, and Katrina Marshall (Farah Mak), the Lassiters receptionist who has no limitations when it comes to breaking GDPR rules. (In 2018 Farah also had played the voice of Lyra, the Alexa-like virtual assistant that Toadie and Sonya had in their home). Despite only being named supporting artists, both actors have returned to the roles they previously portrayed before the show was cruelly axed in 2022.
Which brings us to the biggest return in 2023. The show itself! Whilst those fourteen months off air brought us great sadness and a long time waiting around clock-watching, we hope you’ll agree with us that it’s been well and truly worth it. Neighbours is back with a bang, and if you’re reading this Jeff Bezos, please give us news of a recommission in 2024.
Happy New Year from all the team here at RamsayStreet.co.uk!