How did you first come to work on Neighbours?
My wife and I came back to Australia in ‘98, and I started watching the show, preparatory to trying out as script writer. When I felt I had a handle on the characters, I rang up Louise Lenay in the writing department and unashamedly name-dropped, ineptly schmoozed, and finally just begged for a try-out, vowing that with one read of my deathless prose, she and Jude Colquhoun would take me on. They did.

Were you a fan of the series before joining the crew?
No. In fact prior to writing for television, I’d virtually never watched a soapie. In my uninformed and arrogant young-male way, I’d assumed that soap opera was mental chewing gum for people without lives of their own. What I learned at Shortland Street was that soap is storytelling, and that if you tell a good story well, even with a low soapie budget, you share laughs, tears, drama and great moral truths with the community you live in. By the time I got to Neighbours, I was motivated and skilled enough to attempt to join the team.

As well as writing scripts, you also worked as a storyliner. What does this job involve? Were you responsible for creating any key characters during this period?
Good storylining requires an unusual and rare combination of skills. Ego and dignity should be left outside the storylining room, because around the Table of Pain (or Table of Ultimate Disclosure) one is obliged to plunder one’s past and present, revealing all in the quest for story, psychological understanding of what a character can be put through story-wise, and for cheap laughs to keep the others amused. Ideally it is stories that compete at the table, not ambitious storyliners. It’s true you must fight for your story, but if the consensus is favouring another’s, you must shift immediately behind that to give it the depth and emotional truth every story needs. Delicate egos are useless in such a space, and big egos destructive. You also need a good gender balance around the table, and a reasonable age spread. As for characters, I’ve helped with a few, but it’s always a collaborative affair. I had a bit more input into a few, like Zeke and Rachel, but if I can have a favourite creation, mine was a daily called Penny – a total geek who understood and found amusement in number theory, and thought Steven Hawking’s A Brief History of Time was a very light-weight read.

Who have been your favourite Neighbours characters to write for over the years?
Any well-constructed, clearly defined character – that is, one with strong internal conflict built in from scratch – is a joy to write. Whether it’s Harold in a dramatic moment, or Harold in a light-weight bit of banter with friend and nemesis, Lou, if I know the character well enough to know how they’d react in any given situation, the dialogue and action almost writes itself. But, okay, favourites? I love Toadie, Harold, Steph, Susan, Karl, Zeke and Rachel, Paul Robinson, all of the Timmins, and, of course, Izzy. Knowing the actors can take anything you throw at them – no matter how much they curse us in the Green room prior to shooting – is also great blessing when you’re writing for them. Truthfully, my dialogue is mere garnish compared to the work the actors do – I have such huge respect for those actors and directors who dig for the emotional truth in a scene.