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Reference > Erinsborough News > Hands Off My Man!

Cheryl’s fury knows no bounds when she discovers Lou with another woman!

Mysterious letters, secret meetings and money lavished on expensive gifts sounds like the perfect recipe for adultery! The folks of Ramsay Street certainly think so when Lou Carpenter starts behaving strangely this month.

When car salesman Lou Carpenter starts behaving strangely, Cheryl is convinced he’s doing the dirty on her and decides to confront him. But she’s in for a shock when she finds out the truth behind Lou’s secret liaisons with an attractive younger woman.

“The whole thing is a lot more complicated than you think,” warns Tom Oliver who plays Lou Carpenter. And he should know – it’s Tom who got Lou into this mess!

“It dawned on me that Lou was old enough to have been conscripted for Vietnam and that he could have fathered a child there,” explains Tom, whose last idea to come to fruition was turning Cheryl into a mum.

“The producers told me that they’d already done that storyline with Jim Robinson so they came up with another suggestion,” adds Tom.

As a result, Lou gets the shock of his life this month when he opens a mysterious letter only to discover he has a daughter he never knew he had thanks to a fling he had 30 years ago when he was 21.

“It was Lou’s first overseas holiday and he fell in love with a medical student in Hong Kong,” explains Tom. “Lou wanted her to come back to Australia with him but she decided to stay and complete her degree.”

But the fruit of Lou’s affair was a beautiful daughter Mai Ling who had now grown up to be a sophisticated university tutor. “Lou is knocked sideways when he finds out about Mai Ling. He doesn’t tell Cheryl because he’s not sure how she will react and that’s when he lands himself in deep trouble,” he explains.

While Lou meets Mai Ling in private to check out her story, Cheryl becomes convinced he is having an affair and when she discovers money missing from their bank account, she assumes he’s showering his mistress with gifts!

“Cheryl follows Lou and is shocked to see him embrace this attractive girl,” chuckles Tom. “Naturally she assumes the worst and even when the truth comes out Cheryl is upset Lou didn’t trust her enough to tell her before.”

While Lou’s blast from the past puts a strain on relations in the Stark household, you can bet he’ll work his way out of trouble with his talent of turning tears to laughter.

“I’ve always insisted that most of the comedy comes from Lou himself and not from people laughing at him,” says Tom, who credits Lou’s dirty laugh to the late Carry On actor Sid James. “Lou’s gift is to get out of trouble by laughing at life.”

It’s a talent that Tom shares too, but unlike Lou, he prefers a quiet life with his American wife, Jan. Not that Tom, at the tender age of 57, intends to slow down. “I’m in my fourth year on Neighbours but it only seems like months ago that I started,” he says. “Time certainly flies when you’re having fun!”

This article originally appeared in Inside Soap magazine

Article submitted by Steve