Neighbour from hell

Mar 12 2006

FROM golden boy to crazed killer is a pretty big leap. Former soap superstar Jason Donovan, who last year starred in the family-friendly Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, now slices the throats of five people every night.

Even more surprisingly, he's let his children watch his killing spree.

Zac and Jemma are only four and five, but they sat in the audience while Dad took the title role in Sweeney Todd. And he's proud to report they didn't cry when he unleashed rivers of blood as the Demon Barber Of Fleet Street.

Ironically, Jason has deliberately taken the role because he wants to get away from his image of a family entertainer.

He says: "My kids weren't that frightened by it, but then it was Dad on stage. They didn't really understand the consequences of what I was doing.

"I was very keen for them to see it - they have been listening to me sing the songs at home for four months. I chose a matinee and seats where they could leave if they needed to, but surprisingly they sat through the whole thing and enjoyed it.

"The killings are mainly done with imagery but there is blood, and the subject matter is hardly Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. If you come along expecting singing, dancing and happy days, you will be disappointed. But it's very rich, and it's not all doom and gloom. There's comedy there too.

"This is a culmination of many years of wanting to do stuff like this. It's not about trying to reinvent myself, but trying to show people I'm not just a family entertainer."

Jason is certainly doing that with his next project. After Sweeney Todd he returns to his native Australia to star in Festen, a shocking play about child abuse.

But first comes a 12-week national tour of Sweeney, stopping off at the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham for a week from April 10.

He admits that being away from his children is the hardest thing about touring.

"My family are my first priority now," says Jason, who met his partner, stage designer Angela, while starring in The Rocky Horror Show.

"My career is still important to me and I have ambitions, but when you have children it all seems a bit superficial."

His job did not seem superficial to the teary millions who tuned in in 1988 to see Jason and Kylie Minogue tie the knot as Scott and Charlene in Neighbours.

And if you didn't see it then, you can hardly have missed it since. Just the other day they showed the clip in a nostalgia show about the 1980s, as well as during Neighbours' 20th anniversary celebrations. And it regularly tops polls of the best TV wedding of all time.

But Jason, who dated Kylie off-screen for two years, reveals: "I haven't seen it since we filmed it. It was just another day's work for me.

"But I realise that our TV characters were probably the most successful to ever come out of Australia, and possibly in this country too. Kylie and I shared something very special, and maybe that relationship came through and people related to it. If we could bottle that and sell it, we'd be very rich!

"I don't think I'd be embarrassed if I saw it again now, even with my mullet hairdo! It was cool then, and I have no problems with my past. It's part of my history.

"But I don't want to go back. They did invite me to return to Ramsay Street for the anniversary, but it's like putting on a pair of old shoes and I don't want to do that. I have a lot of respect for the show and the actors involved, but I've moved on."

The peak of Jason's career was when he duetted with Kylie on the hit record Especially For You, but his singing career included 17 chart hits and four number ones. In 1989 he was the UK's biggest selling artist.

But then things started to go down hill. Kylie left him for Michael Hutchence, his record label dropped him and he spent much of the 1990s snorting cocaine, reportedly getting through £250,000 worth.

He boasted he'd tried every drug but heroin. A low point was collapsing at the Viper Room in Hollywood and being wheeled out on a stretcher during Kate Moss's 21st birthday party. And he turned down the role in Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert which made a Hollywood star of his Neighbours co-star Guy Pearce. But he says: "I don't regret a thing, that's such a waste of time."

The heady days of being surrounded by crowds of adoring fans are long gone, but Jason says he prefers being able to walk down the street unmolested - and he is almost unrecognisable when he's sporting his beard.

But he's still one of the most famous Australians in Britain. Yet he wasn't among the guests at a reception at Buckingham Palace last month for prominent Australians, like Rolf Harris, Clive James and Germaine Greer, before the Queen's visit to the country to open the Commonwealth Games.

Jason says he knows nothing about it and sounds a little put out to be overlooked. Especially as, he reveals, he's a fan of the Queen, amid reports of a new wave of republicanism sweeping his home country.

"It's a shame I wasn't invited, I'd love to visit the Palace! I think we should keep the Royal family, and I'm not in favour of a republic.

"I'm very pro the Westminster system of politics.

The presidential system is flawed. I don't find presidents to be particularly effective and I'm not a big fan of George Bush.

"Royalty provides a base for culture. I mean, the Changing Of The Guard - America would love to have that! And it's come from hundreds of years of tradition and royalty."

If he can't be tempted back to Neighbours, is there another TV soap he'd like to appear on? Last year there was a report he was to join the cast of EastEnders as a womanising heartbreaker.

"I don't know where that came from, it was fictitious beyond belief. But I would consider it if they asked me, because I like watching EastEnders.

"I'm a big fan of news and current affairs programmes, and I love reality shows. They are a dime-a-dozen these days, but they are great TV. I was hooked on Celebrity Big Brother and I think Chantelle is great, I hope she makes as much money out of it as she can.

"I've been asked to take part in most of them, but I don't need the money or the exposure. I'm quite happy with my life now, thanks."