Pop career made me as popular as Beatles but Paul Robinson role was wildest ride, says Neighbours star Stefan Dennis
HAVING been in soap Neighbours since its first episode in 1985, Stefan Dennis could be seen as the Aussie Ken Barlow.
But the 63-year-old, who plays Ramsay Street legend Paul Robinson, reckons he has more in common with The Beatles than Corrie actor Bill Roache.
Stefan scored a string of chart hits in the 1980s off the back of his role in Neighbours, which airs for the last time next week.
And he says British fans went mad for him — and fellow cast members Jason Donovan, who played his onscreen brother Scott, and Kylie Minogue, who played Scott’s wife-to-be Charlene.
Stefan said: “The term Beatlemania has been referred to in those days in the mid-to late-Eighties, particularly over in Britain. And it really was like that.
“If we walked out on to the street, you’d get chased down that same street by screaming people. You couldn’t go anywhere.
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“It wasn’t until years and years later, decades later, that I actually was able to go on things like the Tube and buses or walk down Oxford Street in London without being absolutely hassled.”
Back in 1989 he formed a holy trinity of Neighbours pop stars that whipped the UK into a music frenzy.
Kylie had just released her second album, Enjoy Yourself, and Jason served up his debut LP, Ten Good Reasons.
Then along came Stefan with hit Don’t It Make You Feel Good.
He said: “They were fun days — they were exciting, and they were flattering, and they were all of that — but on occasion, those moments were scary.
“Jason has told me of more than one occasion where things got a little bit scary for him with fans.
“The same with Kylie. It scared her at the start.
“It was intense and her diminutive size would have made it even more scary for her.
“It was just unlike anything we’d ever experienced before. I look back on those days and it just seems crazy the stuff that happened to us.”
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At the soap’s height, 20million tuned in to see Charlene and Scott Robinson tie the knot in 1988. And Stefan had many “pinch me” moments coming to England around those times.
He said: “The Who’s Roger Daltrey asked me for an autograph for his daughter, and I was like, ‘What? No. This is supposed to be the other way around. This is not real’.
“And Rolling Stone Bill Wyman thanked me and my Neighbours co-star Kristian Schmid for making his party a success when we turned up. It was insane to hear things like that.
“But the one absolute ‘pinch me’ moment was when we’d been invited to Michael Jackson’s concert at Wembley.
“Within a few seconds of sitting down, some people in the front turned around and saw us.
“Within, I don’t know, a very, very short space of time, pretty much everybody in Wembley Stadium was on their feet, applauding Kristian and myself, just for being there. There was about 72,000 people in there.
“But the ironic thing was, about five minutes later, in walks Prince Charles with his entourage and he sits a few seats up behind us. There was hardly a murmur.
“I just thought, ‘This is a crazy moment in my life. How did we get a bigger reaction than a royal?’.”
Kylie and Jason, both 54, are returning to make cameos in the final episodes of Neighbours next week — and so are a string of other stars, including Hollywood’s Guy Pearce, who played Mike Young.
Stefan returned to the soap a long time before though, in 2004, having quit in 1992, making him the only cast member from the first episode still in it.
Stefan recalls that despite Kylie and Jason being obvious stars-in-waiting, there was never any pecking order behind the scenes.
He said: “We were all just actors in the same show. There was no hierarchy or anything like that, not amongst us.
“We were just cast members and mates who got on with each other and seemed to enjoy doing what we were doing.
"It wasn’t until we got out into the world of publicity where it all suddenly became about who was a little bit more popular than others. People became obsessed with that.
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“But even then, it didn’t bother us. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, you’re getting all the attention and I’m not’. There’s nothing like that at all.
“Jason and Kylie did very well over in the UK from the word go.
"Fortunately, they had some very good people behind them who were looking after them.
“Whereas the rest of us kind of went over and were like, ‘Ah, this is fantastic’, and not realising what we were letting ourselves in for.
“But that’s all right. You live and you learn. It was good fun.”
And it has been good fun playing six-times married Paul Robinson, who was in Neighbours from 1985 to 1992, then returned a year later for a guest appearance before returning full-time from 2004 onwards.
He said: “Apart from the six wives, I guess it’s just because, over the course of time, he’s been so diverse.
“I mean, he’s gone from being squeaky clean, to a bit of a bugger, to a criminal on the run, to a bit of a bugger again, to big-time criminal on the run, to whatever he got up to in South America, to come back to deliciously malevolently evil, and then to absolutely squeaky clean with his loss of memory, to back to being a bit of a bastard again, to where he is today.
“The rollercoaster ride that I’ve had with the character has been worth it, whether I played him for five years or 500 years. He’s just such an incredible character to play.”
Soon after Stefan’s return to the soap in 2004, the script saw Paul having his leg amputated after falling from a cliff.
It was replaced with a prosthetic limb and the actor has since had to remember to walk with a limp on set.
He adds: “People used to say to me quite often, ‘Oh, how come you’re not bored? Why are you still doing Neighbours? You must get so bored playing Paul Robinson’.
"It’s like, ‘Well, no — because it’s like playing a real-life person, but with the condensed drama. Every single day I’m doing something different with the character’.
“Christ, his six wives, that’s crazy! Not to mention his countless girlfriends. He really has been a king of a character to play. If you ever wanted to play a misogynistic, chauvinistic, sexist, bigoted, old-fashioned, grumpy old b*stard these days, Paul’s the one to go for.”
Such an incredible character to play
Stefan Dennis
In contrast to the Aussie lothario’s private life, Stefan’s world is much simpler — and quite British, too.
He has been married to Scottish actress and Neighbours co-star Gail Easdale for 22 years. They met doing panto in Southampton.
Together, they have sons Cameron, 20, and Declan, 16, along with a 13-year-old daughter, Darci.
But that has not stopped the dishy dad getting some adoration from female fans — which has been the case ever since he first arrived in Erinsborough 37 years ago.
He said: “The mature Paul attracts the mature lady who likes the mature bad boy. It’s funny, I still get all ages.
“But it’s been a long, long, long, long time since I have been chased down the street.
“I still do get people asking for selfies all the time.
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“Even long after Neighbours is finished, I’m sure I’ll still get people going, ‘Oh my God, you used to be Paul Robinson’.”
- The final episode of Neighbours will air on Channel 5 on July 29 at 9pm.