British soaps such as EastEnders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale could soon be axed just like Neighbours, warns star Alan Fletcher.
The actor plays Doctor Karl Kennedy on the Australian soap, which will air for the final time on August 1.
Speaking of the fate of the show which he starred on for 28 years, Alan warned that if TV bosses aren’t careful our homegrown soaps could face the same fate as Neighbours and disappear from screens.
The 65-year-old tells The Mirror: “Soaps are important and they are very important in the UK because there's a lot of people who are restricted in their movements who really rely on shows that go on eternally.
“Shows survive if they're authentic. Sometimes when soap operas start to fail producers would try rather extreme storylines to get people back to the show, but in many cases, it has a negative effect.
“You need to trust your audience and respect what your audience wants and needs.”
Shows like EastEnders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale have huge casts and crews and cost a fortune to produce.
At the same time, viewers are switching off. For example on Christmas Day 2021 just 2.9 million viewers tuned into EastEnders.
In 1986 when soaps were at the height of their powers more than 30 million watched the BBC soap’s festive offer.
Alan also wants bosses to make sure that the actors they cast have potential, not just popular social media accounts.
He said: “People want to see very good actors. New talent, young talent is fine. But you need to make sure you are getting the best person for the role.”
Alan– the show’s longest serving star – told The Mirror how he blubbed when the last “cut” was called on the Neighbours' set.
He said: “It was important to not be emotional for the final scene because you've still got to honour the script.
"It was very hard to fight back tears as we were saying the dialogue for what was going to be the last moments of the show - but we got through it.
"There were hundreds of people in the studio to watch that final piece of filming. We had some speeches, I said a few words. There were some tears. There were some celebrations.”
While Kylie and Jason Donovan are rumoured to close the show with their return as Charlene and Scott, their scenes were filmed away from the rest of the cast due to Kylie’s busy schedule.
However, he was thrilled when Hollywood star Guy Pearce returned for the epic finale.
Alan said: “Kylie and Jason both had very strict time limits on their availability but we’ve had some wonderful returnees. One of my favourites was Guy Pearce.
"There wasn't a single person who was asked to do something for the end, who was available, who said no. Everybody want to help out, which is just fabulous.”
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