Former Neighbours star Nicola Charles has slammed the soap’s star-studded final episode as “unwatchable” amid claims she wasn’t invited back due to her stance on Covid-19 vaccinations.
The British-Australian actress, 52, weighed in on the emotional last episode of Neighbours, which aired on Friday, July 29 at 9pm on Channel 5 in a one-hour special called Neighbours: The Finale, reports the Mirror.
Nicola Charles played the controversial character Sarah Beaumont on the soap from 1996 to 1999, and then reprised her role as a guest in 2005, 2013, and 2016.
Sarah’s biggest plot line on the show centred around her illicit affair with Dr Karl Kennedy, played by Alan Fletcher. Following the final episode of the soap, Nicola has called the 90-minute special “unwatchable”.
“There was zero suspension of disbelief and no attempt to round off storylines or drag even theatre school level performances from the ‘actors',’” she told The Herald Sun in Australia.
She added: “Guy Pearce excepted. Without his appearance it would have been unwatchable. As it were, Kylie [Minogue] may as well have bounced around and grinned on Zoom and it was heartbreaking to see Terry Donovan, a true gent and character of old, stuck on a BBQ chain only in a wide shot.”
The actress also claimed she was not invited to be part of the finale hurrah due to her stance on the coronavirus vaccine.
Nicola added that she believes she’s been “universally cancelled for speaking her truth” about the Covid-19 pandemic and vaccines.
However, she added that she was ultimately relieved not to be invited back, because she was not impressed with the finale.
“In the end I felt relief that Sarah Beaumont had not been part of the shambles offered up as the last episode of Neighbours,” she told The Daily Telegraph.
Channel 5 said this was the highest outing for the popular show on the channel since it moved over in 2008.
The finale episode of Neighbours on Channel 5 attracted an average audience of 2.5 million, the broadcaster has said.
The closing episode featured a host of favourite characters returning to the cul-de-sac community of Ramsay Street to see off the soap opera.
Singers Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan, who starred as couple Scott Robinson and Charlene Mitchell in the 1980s, made their long-awaited return, with Minogue donning her classic denim overalls once again.
Also among the cameo appearances was Oscar-nominated Margot Robbie, who previously played Donna Freedman, who delivered a fond message describing her years living on Ramsay Street as “some of the best of my entire life”.
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