It’s the final week of Neighbours (for the second time), and the soap’s boss has been reflecting on the Amazon era of the show and bringing things to a conclusion once again. In doing so, he revealed that one of 2025’s most controversial storylines for the show had a return for one classic character planned, but it sadly didn’t go ahead.
This year saw Holly Hoyland and Andrew Rodwell embark on a clandestine affair, which riled up fans not only because they liked both characters in the relationships they were in, but they was also a 20ish-year age gap between them.
It all blew up when Andrew confessed to the affair last month, and his wife Wendy turned ruthless. Holly, facing a lot of judgement from people and pregnant with Andrew’s baby, called up her mum Izzy to see if she could go stay with her, but Izzy wasn’t exactly supportive.
But as Herbison told Radio Times, there was hope that Izzy would do a lot more than pick up the phone.
“I do regret we were unable to secure Natalie Bassingthwaighte to reprise her role as Izzy,” he said. “There was a return planned but the story arc still played without it.”
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Of course, Izzy was quite the homewrecker herself back in the day. She famously played a role in breaking up Karl and Susan Kennedy’s marriage over 20 years ago (with Karl being Holly’s father) so her return would have added more texture to the recent storyline.
Still, Herbison is really pleased with the storyline, stating that he “loved the way Holly and Andrew’s affair dovetailed into Cara and Greg’s story”.
When asked if he was worried about the audience reception to Holly and Andrew’s affair, he replied: “No more than I would be for any controversial story. Soaps aren’t meant to please audiences all the time, you have to take risks.
“Characters need to be flawed and there has to be conflict, drama and shocks along the way. If there’s not, you are rightly criticised for being boring and predictable.”
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“Lucinda Armstrong-Hall did an incredible job bringing Holly back to life in the reboot, complete with the character’s glorious imperfections,” he continued. “I loved how she was a chip off the Izzy block and trying to be herself, yet her worst instincts kept getting the better of her.
“We had the Andrew affair storyline planned a while ago and started to chip away at Holly’s self-esteem to get her in the right emotional place. The story was meant to launch in the 40th anniversary week but we had to delay it. Holly’s a great soap character – trouble finds her and Lucinda played the role in a very real, multi-dimensional way.”
Neighbours’ last episode drops this Thursday on Prime Video in the UK and US. In Australia, the show airs from Mondays to Thursdays at 4pm on Channel 10, with a 6.30pm repeat screening on 10 Peach Comedy.