Natalie

Dropping a bombshell
Stephen Downie
14th March, 2007

EVERYBODY needs good Neighbours. Which is why the residents of Ramsay Street breathed a collective sigh of relief when conniving Isabelle "Izzy" Hoyland high-tailed it out of suburban Erinsborough last year. Not so viewers. For while she may have been trouble with a capital T for residents, the ever-bitchy Izzy (played by Natalie Bassingthwaighte) was undoubtedly a favourite with fans of the long-running soap.

And so it is that viewers will be getting themselves in a lather with the knowledge Izzy is rejoining the cast. Albeit for two weeks only.

Interestingly, it didn't take much coaxing for Bassingthwaighte, who left the show to concentrate on her pop career with chart-topping act Rogue Traders, to agree to play Izzy once again. Still, she admits she was a little nervous about it.

"I thought, 'Am I going to remember how to play Izzy'," she recalls.

"But it felt quite easy. And I had two of the best actors to work with opposite me. It was a blast."

The actors she's referring to are Jackie Woodburne (who plays Susan Kinski), and Alan Fletcher (Dr Karl Kennedy). The plotline featuring Izzy revolves around Karl and Susan's trip to London. Karl plans on proposing to Susan, but Izzy's appearance throws a spanner in the works.

She drops a bombshell when she reveals the baby she is carrying is Karl's. Izzy has also been up to her usual tricks and made front page news for her affair with a married footballer.

"Izzy and Karl had slept together this one night when Paul had broken up with Izzy and Karl's relationship with Susan was not quite there," says Bassingthwaighte. "But Karl was on medication and he was a bit off with the fairies and while Izzy thought he loved her again, in actual fact he thought he was with Susan."

While in London the characters bump into a bunch of celebrities including Emma Bunton from the Spice Girls, who makes a cameo appearance, playing herself, chat show host Michael Parkinson, '80s pop singer Sinitta and camp entertainer Julian Clary.

"Emma Bunton was sweet as pie and she was tiny. Julian was very quiet," Bassingthwaighte says.

The episodes were filmed in November last year. The actress says she agreed to do them mostly as a way of saying thank you to the producers who gave her breathing space when she was still balancing Neighbours with her work in Rogue Traders.

With Bassingthwaighte a star in England for her work with Rogue Traders as much as Neighbours, you'd think she would have been recognised by the public everywhere she went.

But she says it was Fletcher who attracted the most attention. "We had a couple of hysterical moments.

Alan and I were doing interviews and were waiting at a cafe when this woman (a fan) went ballistic (screaming) at Alan," she says.

"Then other times Jackie and I went to the theatre and the looks we were getting ... people couldn't believe Susan and Izzy were out."

Neighbours continues to rate well in the UK where it has iconic status.

Every day up to six million people sit down at lunchtime and teatime to watch. But back home, the show is currently struggling to win over viewers, with ratings down almost 50 per cent on last year.

Bassingthwaighte won't be drawn on what the show should or shouldn't be doing, but concedes it will always find the going tough up against the rival networks' current affairs shows.

Meantime Bassingthwaighte plans to move to the US as the Rogue Traders prepare to launch themselves there.

* Neighbours, weekdays, Ten, 6.30pm