NEIGHBOURS LEGEND RYAN MOLONEY LANDS MAJOR NEW ROLE AFTER TOADIE EXIT

Last week, Neighbours star Ryan Moloney announced he would be leaving the show after 30 years as Toadie – and is now set to take on a new project in the UK.

In a video released on Thursday (27th June), the actor, better known for his role as Toadie Rebecchi in the Australian soap, said: ‘After 30 years, I will be leaving Ramsay Street. I can’t tell you what is happening to the character – maybe I could be the next Jim Robinson.’

‘Or maybe I’ll be the next Harold Bishop and keep popping back over the years.’

But fans needn’t worry about missing him too much – as Ryan will be heading on a UK nationwide tour throughout September, coined Toad on the Road. 

Ryan was last in our country with his cast mates last year, prior to commencement of filming of the new series of Neighbours, where they embarked on a sell-out fifteen date Celebration Tour.

Earlier this year, in an exclusive chat with Metro.co.uk, the soap star reflected on this time and told us how his new show will work.

‘I think it’s going to be a little bit different,’ he told us.

‘I want it to be a sort of cross between television aspects and theatre at the same time and just bring to the forefront that I’m a performer and I’ve been doing it since I was eight years old on stage, doing musicals and comic theatre and performing and hosting – all that kind of jazz’. 

‘I think it’s time to let people in and show them something a bit different, [so they can] see what Ryan’s really like.’

When asked how he will depart the show, with soap bosses remaining tight-lipped over the plot, he joked: ‘he dies actually.’

‘Oh – I wasn’t meant to say that, was I?’

The real Ryan is a far cry from his fictional counterpart Toadfish, who works as a lawyer – he spends his days off renovating a farm on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula which at the time of our chat was three days into a power cut following a storm. 

Moloney is also hoping the experience will open new doors for work alongside us Poms: ‘I’ll have to be honest the British fanbase is our largest, so in terms of getting other jobs the UK is a wonderful place for me to work,’

‘I’m kind of hoping that I can get a bit more work and do a bit more drama and a bit more television over there in time to come.’ 

Reality TV fans will remember that he took part in the eleventh series of Celebrity Big Brother in 2013. 

But even the confines of the Big Brother house aren’t a match for the drama Toadie faced in the Amazon Freevee soap recently, with affections for ex-wife Melanie Pearson (Lucinda Cowden) growing and his marriage to Terese Willis (Rebekah Elmaloglou) on the rocks as her head was turned by ex-husband Paul Robinson (Stefan Dennis). 

‘I think the more that Terese gets drawn in and sucked in by Paul, Toadie is fearful of losing again, he keeps losing wives and losing loves’ he told us. 

Next year, Neighbours celebrates 40 years on air, a feat which nobody saw achievable after the show was axed in 2022. 

Luckily, after much fan reaction, the show was saved and Ryan is looking ahead to his final months in Melbourne’s most-liveable suburb: ‘Wouldn’t it be good if he just settled down and had a nice happy life?’ 

Oh Ryan, if only. 

Toad on the Road kicks off in Birmingham on Tuesday September 3rd. 

Neighbours streams Mondays to Thursdays from 7am on Amazon Freevee.

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2024-07-01T23:02:53Z dg43tfdfdgfd