Latest news with #TheNeighbours
Perth Now
09-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
White Lotus star returns to TV with new Aussie drama
Morgana O'Reilly has worked steadily in film and TV both here in Australia and in her home country, New Zealand, for the better part of two decades. But it wasn't until The Neighbours star was cast in the third season of The White Lotus as resort worker Pam that people began to put two and two together. Almost overnight, O'Reilly went from a 'where do I know you from?' level of fame to 'THAT'S how I know you!' fame — and her head is still spinning. 'For so long I have been an actor that people see in the street, and they say, 'How do I know you? Did we go to school together?'' O'Reilly explains. 'I'd get that a lot, and I would say something stupidly cryptic like, 'I am just deep in your subconscious.' 'But recently, it's changed and people know exactly what it is.' It's been a big change to adjust to, but luckily for O'Reilly, her appearance on the Mike White juggernaut anthology series is just one of several projects that have kept her busy this past year, so she's had no time to dwell on it. Morgana O'Reilly with White Lotus co-stars Patrick Schwarzenegger, Natasha Rothwell and Leslie Bibb during a recent press trip to Sydney to promote that show. Credit: Scott Ehler / Max Over a 12-month period, she's filmed The White Lotus in Thailand — 'that experience has ruined me for hotel travel forever,' she says of her deluxe stay at Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui — to appearing in a movie adaptation of her popular one-woman stage show, Stories About My Body, produced by her film-maker husband Peter Salmon. 'Then this came along, and I rolled along to Playing Gracie Darling,' she says of her latest project, which filmed earlier this year in New South Wales. The series, which airs on Paramount Plus from August 14, is a premium six-hour scripted mystery drama produced by Curio Pictures (also behind The Narrow Road To The Deep North and The Artful Dodger) and it's already getting plenty of buzz. Created and written by acclaimed writer and author Miranda Nation, it's directed by Jonathan Brough (Rosehaven), and brought to screens by Rachel Gardner and Jo Porter, who was behind the popular Aussie series, Wentworth. Morgana O'Reilly plays a child psychologist in Playing Gracie Darling. Credit: Ingvar Kenne/Curio Sarah Enticknap / Sarah Enticknap/Curio/Sony Pictures Television It tells the story of Joni, played by O'Reilly. When she is 14, her best friend Gracie Darling disappears during a séance. Twenty-seven years later, local kids are in the midst of a game called Playing Gracie Darling when another young girl disappears in eerily similar circumstances. Joni, now a child psychologist, returns to the town to try to piece together what is happening and how it relates to the strange circumstances that played out all those years ago with her own friend. '(Joni) can't help herself and she goes back under the guise of helping,' O'Reilly explains. 'But it brings the past back, and then she finds herself up against possibly losing her mind, possibly seeing apparitions, and she's in conflict with herself about what is real and what is not.' As O'Reilly explains, Joni is a practical, rational person, 'so she is scrambling with using logic and reason to explain what is happening in her head'. Morgana O'Reilly and co-star Rudi Dharmalingam in a scene from the show. Credit: Ingvar Kenne / Ingvar Kenne/Curio/Sony Pictures Television The series has dark undertones, a gripping mystery, and will feel wonderfully nostalgic for anyone who grew up in the 1990s playing with Ouija boards at sleepovers, or watching supernatural cult film The Craft on VHS. 'I was 12 or 13 when (that) finally made its way down this end to New Zealand,' O'Reilly says. 'Me and my friends were all about the spirit world and following a cup on a board.' Turns out she's not the only one. Series writer and creator Nation says she was 'obsessed' with séances when she was 14. 'My best friends and I did them every chance we could,' she explains. 'Each one of us was struggling with personal trauma, but we couldn't talk about this stuff, we didn't have the emotional tools. 'Instead, we disappeared into this thrilling game where, by testing the limits of the known, we could push the boundaries and say and do things that were otherwise taboo. These intense and sensual experiences, of connection with the otherworld or collective female hypnosis, have stayed with me forever.' O'Reilly knew she wanted to be involved with the show after devouring early scripts. 'I am a really slow reader — I'm a bit dyslexic, though I love to read — and it takes me a while to get through things, but I inhaled (the scripts) because they were so compelling, and broody, and visual,' she says. 'Miranda Nation is amazing, and has actually just written an incredible novel, which I have just read. It's called New Skin and it's really brilliant. 'She knows how to write a really beautiful yarn, and how to create these female characters that are really antithetical and interesting; layered, fallible and glorious.' At the heart of Playing Gracie Darling is the relationships between women, especially between mothers and daughters. O'Reilly, mother to primary school-aged Ziggy and Luna, was thrilled when producers procured acclaimed Succession actor Dame Harriet Walter to play Joni's mother. Morgana O'Reilly and Dame Harriet Walter star in Playing Gracie Darling. Credit: Isabella Elordi / Isabella Elordi/Curio/Sony Pictures Television 'She wasn't attached from the start and they said, 'Do you have any thoughts on who could play your mum?'' she explains. 'I offered some ideas, and I remember when I found out, thinking she was next level.' O'Reilly loved the storylines she shared with the award-winning performer and the underlying story of her character's relationship with the women in her life. 'I feel like that is a big 'why' for me,' she says. 'For me, I always need to walk away from a series or a show, going 'What are you trying to say about the world?' 'It's not good enough to take me on a crazy ride; it needs to have, for want of a better word, a moral, or a comment, something.' O'Reilly is currently filming a new TV project in New Zealand, and her film will make its way to screens soon. 'It's the dream; just so, so wonderful,' she says of her recent purple patch. 'I'm just so glad to be doing all this.' Morgana O'Reilly will appear in Playing Gracie Darling on Paramount Plus. Credit: Nicholas Wilson Playing Gracie Darling premieres on Paramount Plus on August 14
BBC News
09-03-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Neighbours superfan from Yelverton launches petition to save show
A Neighbours superfan from Devon said he is desperate to save his favourite Australian soap opera which is set to be cancelled at the end of the year. Alex Christmas, from Yelverton, launched a petition to rescue Neighbours after it was cancelled again, two years after it was saved by Amazon MGM petition for the show - which first aired in 1985 and was shown on the BBC until 2008 - has received about 1,500 Christmas, who has cerebral palsy, said the programme had acted as a "comfort blanket" for him. Neighbours has aired more than 9,000 episodes since its debut. Mr Christmas said: "I don't even see it as a guilty pleasure, it's an absolute pleasure." 'Iconic institution' The Neighbours fan, who requires 24-hour care, said he watched episodes when they went live at 07:00 GMT on Amazon Prime Video as it gave him the "best start" to his day."It might sound ridiculous, but when I'm watching Neighbours, it feels like I'm watching my friends and catching up with mates," Mr Christmas said his favourite characters included Karl and Susan Kennedy, Paul Robinson and Roxy Willis."I see it as more than a TV show, it's an iconic institution," he said."It's also a lifeline because it's helped cheer me up in my darkest moments." Amazon MGM Studios said it was "very proud" to have played a part in the history of producer Jason Herbison said he was hopeful another broadcaster would step forward to take over the said: "We value how much the fans love Neighbours and we believe there are more stories of the residents of Ramsay Street to tell in the future."
