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Going for the doctor
Alan Fletcher never tires of playing Dr Karl on Neighbours... or chatting to fans

If you see Alan Fletcher walking down the street, don't be shy, go up to the actor known to millions of viewers in many countries as Neighbours' Dr Karl and say hello. He won't mind. After 16 years in the cast and as Neighbours approaches its 6000th episode after 25 years, Fletcher knows exactly what the show means to its fans. "I can honestly say that there's never been a moment where I haven't been happy to stop and say hello because it only takes a second out of my day," he says. "A lot of us at Neighbours feel the same way; if someone is bothering to stop to talk to me it's because they watch the program and if they watch the program, I've still got a job. And if they want to get a photograph or an autograph, it's gratifying."

"Wherever you go where the show is on, people stop and tell you how much pleasure they get from it. Long before Dr Karl, I was in Neighbours for three weeks in about 1987 playing a mechanic and I was subsequently traveling around Asia. I was in a temple complex in southern India and the lag with the UK was a lot longer then, so this was two years later and I heard this English voice say, 'Oi, aren't you off Neighbours?' And this was after I'd been in it for three weeks - that's how pervasive it is in people's lives."

Exactly why the show is so pervasive no longer matters - after 6000 episodes it stands on its record - but Fletcher has one or two theories. He points to the scores of crime shows on TV and says that when people watch them, there's a level of detachment. They enjoy the shows but they don't feel part of them. He says: "But with a show like Neighbours, for it to be successful, the viewers need to be able to sit back and say, that could happen to me. I always say that Neighbours is extraordinary things happening to ordinary people. And extraordinary things do happen to ordinary people in real life."

Sunday Herald Sun TV Guide 22/08/10
By David Pougher

The headline band was The Waiting Room – quite appropriate, as the band is fronted by Alan Fletcher, who plays Dr Karl Kennedy in Aussie soap ‘Neighbours’. I’ll be honest here; I was expecting the music to be quite ‘cheesy’. Was I surprised-they were superb! They opened with a cover of ‘The Boys are Back in Town’. When they did play some of their own stuff, it was very reminiscent of Green Day and early Bon Jovi. Considering most of the crowd had come to see him, ‘Fletch’ didn’t hog the limelight, and the other 2 guitarists sang solos. My admiration of the guy grew when the security staff wouldn’t let any more people back into the venue to meet him after the show. He went outside and refused to come back in until everyone had gone! Now that to me is a real star.