Alan Fletcher nearly drowned during ‘terrifying’ Neighbours scene

Alan Fletcher, 66, has been playing the beloved Dr Karl Kennedy on the soap opera for almost three decades, but revealed he had one near-death experience on set.

In a snippet from his upcoming appearance on Saturday Night with Hayley Palmer, he recalled the scene where his character proposed to Izzy Hoyland, played by Natalie Bassingthwaighte.

On the show, Izzy is overcome with excitement and “pitches into the water”. Dr Karl then dives in and saves her.

In reality, Natalie fell in the water and got helped out before Alan filmed his own scenes jumping in to “rescue her”, but he made an almost fatal error.

He shared: “This was a terrifying incident.

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“I had to dive in to try and rescue her, obviously in a fictional way, but I forgot to take my shoes off so they filled up with water and every time I went down I thought: ‘Gee, am I gonna come up again?’.”

By the third take the situation got a lot more serious and Alan “got a bit flustered” underwater in the worrying circumstance.

He managed to get his head above the water and stuck his hand up, the signal for help.

Alan continued: “The speedboat had to rush out and rescue me.

“A week later, I actually collapsed from a delayed shock to the body, it was very weird.”

The Perth-native also recently revealed that he would be joining the Neighbours reboot cast on Amazon Freevee expected to premiere later this year.

He announced the news on Instagram with a picture of himself, Jackie Woodburne, who plays Susan Kennedy, and Ryan Moloney, who plays Jarrod Rebecchi, all holding scripts for “Neighbours 2023”.

Fans were devastated by the series’ cancellation earlier last year after Channel 5 confirmed it would be dropping the Australian show after 36 years to focus on more original UK dramas.

A few months later it was revealed that producers Fremantle had reached a deal with Amazon Freevee to restart production in 2023, delighting fans. 

Over the last few months, iconic Neighbours cast members, which has included the likes of Jason Donovan and Margot Robbie in the past, have revealed whether they’ll be rejoining the show.

So far, Alan, Jackie and Ryan are confirmed alongside Rebekah Elmaloglou, Annie Jones, Georgie Stone, Tim Kano, Ian Smith, April Rose Pengilly and Melissa Bell.