Yahoo News Neighbours' Colette Mann confirms new deal with soap
Neighbours star Colette Mann has confirmed that she's signed a new year-long contract with the soap in a new chat with Digital Spy.
The popular actress will be sticking around as comedy queen Sheila Canning for the foreseeable future, but will Sheila's new boyfriend Clive Gibbons (Geoff Paine) be staying by her side? That is the question!
During a recent trip to London, Colette caught up with us about her character's on-screen romance, mystery man Cassius Grady, and the next big wedding to hit Ramsay Street.
Are you pleased with the warm fan reaction to Sheila and Clive's romance?
"Absolutely. Clive is a guest character at the moment and he's been in the show on and off for the past 18 months. But of late, Geoff Paine has been in filming with us every week, which has been lovely. I must admit that the fans have been very nice about it, which is great because I desperately want Clive to be a regular.
"The first scene we ever did together was when Clive asked Sheila out on a date. I've looked back on it recently, and because Geoff and I knew each other years ago and did two plays together, the chemistry was already there. It's just really grown over the past 18 months. Geoff is fun and he really makes me laugh."
Is there more drama coming up for Sheila and Clive, or will it be plain sailing for a while?
"Oh, you can't have plain sailing in Erinsborough! (Laughs) They'll have a few ups and downs, literally and metaphorically speaking. We've had one big storyline recently, which we've just finished filming. That had funny moments but was quite poignant at the end. Kate Kendall [who played Lauren Turner] directed the resolution of it and she did a beautiful job.
"Before that, Sheila makes some quite weird choices, which causes some consternation for Clive. We've also done some very funny stuff too. Geoff is a comedian and a wonderful actor. He loves doing the comedy, so we try to put as much in as we can."
There's been some talk on Twitter about fans wanting a Sheila/Clive wedding. Would you like it to happen?
"Well I don't know about Sheila, you'd have to ask her! But Colette and Geoff don't really think the characters should get married. Only because whenever characters get married in soap, the only thing that can happen to them afterwards is that they break up. We do enjoy working with each other greatly, so when your characters get married, it restricts you a little bit.
"I think that's a long way down the track yet. We've only really been together for about six months, so I think we need to calm our farms down a bit. But the fans are so into it, which is lovely and I couldn't be more happy.
"Geoff is really wonderful with the fans too. I can't get him onto Instagram yet, that seems to be beyond him. But Twitter he can do and he's very good because I've taught him to engage with the fans on there."
You're probably one of the most responsive of all the cast on Twitter. Do you think it's important to have that dialogue with the fans?
"Well I suppose it comes from having been in the industry for so many years, although still so young! (Laughs) We didn't have any of this in the past. You'd just get a fan letter in a screwed-up envelope, but now you have this direct contact.
"On Instagram, I tend not to be taking constant photos of myself pouting, or pictures of food. I'm not really into that. But I do tend to tweet a lot about the show and whatever I'm working on.
"A few of the fans are saying 'oh get a room' when I'm tweeting about Sheila and Clive, but they don't understand that that's who I'm working with on the show at the moment. So if I'm working with Xanthe a lot, you'll see lots of photographs with her.
"We recently had a photoshoot with Clive and Sheila, which I'm bleeding out to the fans at the moment – about one picture a week. It makes Harry and Meghan look very tame, let me tell you that!"
Do you have any more scenes coming up with the mysterious Cassius?
"Yes, I do actually. I just read them this morning. When I go back, I've got three or four big scenes with him, where I deal with him in a different way. Cassius has a secret, which of course hasn't come out yet. If I told you what it is, I'd have to kill you and that'd be quite unpleasant!
"I had quite a lot to do with Cassius in his first couple of weeks on screen, when everybody else was ogling him, but I was determined that I wasn't going to. It was originally written that Sheila would, but I went to see the producers and said: 'I'm sorry, this is ridiculous. I'm old enough to be his great-grandmother and I don't think this is appropriate!'
"But yes, I do have quite a lot coming up with him in the next few weeks when I go back."
Would you like to stick around on the show long-term, or do you take each contract as it comes?
"I've just been contracted for another year, from the beginning of August. But I really do just take it one year at a time. Now we're only being contracted one year at a time anyway. That suits me, because one never knows where one will be.
"There's a couple of things I want to do. I'm very interested in theatre, so I'm looking for another play to direct and produce. Geoff is writing something at the moment and I'm supporting him through that process too, I suppose I could be called a quasi script editor. So I've got that on the go.
"But I'm really happy in Neighbours at the moment. The reintroduction of Clive has been great and putting the Canning family back together. We sometimes have two or three months where we hardly see one another, but we're back together again at the moment. That's when I'm happiest, I must admit, when I'm with Lilly (Xanthe) and Damien (Gary) – and now Geoff."
The other big Neighbours news recently has been David and Aaron's wedding day. Can you give us any gossip on it?
"It goes almost smoothly! There's a surprise guest and that's the bit that doesn't go quite to plan. It was massive in Australia, the press came to watch the filming and it was on all of the television stations. It was handled really well. Chris Adshead directed it, he's one of our better directors and he's wonderful with those big events. The art department also did the most beautiful job.
"I also think it's great because Matt Wilson, who plays Aaron, really just started in the show after being a tradie – and probably a very good tradie – about three or four years ago. He's come such a long way since. I've helped him too, as I used to teach him and I still help him with scenes. It's lovely to see somebody bloom like that.
"I think it's a great thing for Australia too. It's the first gay wedding in a drama in Australia so we've made history, which is another feather in our producer Jason Herbison's cap."
Neighbours airs weekdays at 1.45pm and 5.30pm on Channel 5.
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