Neighbors veteran Alan Fletcher is the third longest serving actor in Australian soap opera history, having starred on the iconic soap for almost three decades.
And after the long-running show’s emotional finale last week, which saw viewers say farewell to the residents of Ramsay Street after 37 years on-air, the 65-year-old actor is considering a major career change.
Fletcher, who had played Dr Karl Kennedy since 1994, told Magic Radio’s breakfast-show: “Now that I’ve finished neighborsI’m thinking about actually going into medicine.”
The Perth-born TV star added he had always tried to keep his personal life separate from his on-screen persona, but was now having a change of heart.
“While I’ve been on neighborsI religiously don’t give medical advice, because I’m really worried about the authorities tracking me down,” he joked.
It comes after Fletcher’s co-star Ryan Moloney, who had played Jarrod “Toadie” Rebecchi on the show since 1995, revealed his own big career move away from the small screen.
The 42-year-old actor said he was planning to settle into post-neighbors life as a humble tradition.
“I’m not ruling anything out,” Moloney told The Daily Telegraph. “I’m doing civil construction course which is about driving excavators and building roads.”
Moloney added: “I like playing with those kinds of machines. I like doing earthworks, all that kind of manual labor stuff.
“That’s where I’m at, but who knows where it’s all going to end up?”
After 37 years and 8903 episodes, neighbors finally drew to a close in a tear-jerking finale last week.
The nostalgia-filled episode saw the return of Australia’s brightest names who got their big break on the soap opera, including Kylie Minogue, Guy Pearce, Holly Valance, Natalie Imbruglia, Delta Goodrem, and the show’s most famous alumna, Margot Robbie.
Up to 3 million people tuned into the finale in the UK, while almost 900,000 viewers watched in Australia.
It was announced in March that neighbors was being axed after Australian production company Fremantle media failed to find a new broadcast partner, following UK network Channel 5’s decision to withdraw its partnership.
Channel 5 had been covering the majority of the production bill.
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