Neighbours announces huge icon's death causing chaos
The residents of Erinsborough are given some sad news in the week ahead’s episodes of Neighbours, as it is announced that a family member has passed away off screen. Following the death of actress Joy Chambers last September, her iconic character Rosemary Daniels has now been killed off in the Australian soap.
Played by Joy, who was married to Neighbours creator Reg Grundy, Rosemary was a Ramsay Street fixture from 1986 until 1998, and she made her final appearance in the neighbourhood in an episode in 2010. She was the adoptive daughter of Helen Daniels (Anne Haddy) and the sister of Anne Robinson, and was known as a smart businesswoman, with her character originally living in New York, running the Daniels corporation, before she returned to Erinsborough to set up an Australian division.
During her time on the series, Rosemary had some tense storylines, including discovering her mother was having an affair with her lover, and Rosemary’s old school friend asking that Rosemary adopt her daughter following her death. Most memorable of all, perhaps, was the episode in which Rosemary returned home for a visit and found her brother-in-law, Jim (Alan Dale) dead on the kitchen floor.
In the episodes this week, Rosemary’s death is mentioned when her nephew Paul (Stefan Dennis) is told of her passing, and he decides to plan a trip to New York to visit his extended family. However, as he discusses the sad news with Leo (Tim Kano), the pair fail to notice that Abigail discovers something she shouldn’t – with worrying consequences.
Abigail’s discovery happens after Paul arranges a romantic meal for Leo and Krista (Majella Davis) at the rotunda, in the hopes of helping to mend their relationship, but things don’t go as planned when Leo admits he is too hurt to repair things. He still has feelings for her, though, which becomes evident when drug dealer Shannon arrives and Leo makes him go away, much to Krista’s annoyance since – as she tells Leo – she doesn’t need him to rescue her. Neither of them notice that Shannon has dropped a small bag of pills onto the grass as he departed, or that it is Abigail that finds them.
There are more dramatic scenes elsewhere this week, too, as Jane’s (Annie Jones) ex-husband Vic makes an appearance, causing tension among their kids as Nic is happy to see her dad but her brother Byron is less impressed. And JJ (Riley Bryant) is disappointed when he visits his dad Felix in prison and discovers it wasn’t his mum who was preventing the pair from keeping in touch – Felix didn’t want to be in contact with his son or have him in his life.
