Everyone is welcome on Ramsay Street. That is, unless you’re a stripper.
When Neighbours burst onto Australian screens in 1985, nobody could quite predict it becoming one of the country’s biggest media exports, captivating millions of viewers globally, or also becoming somewhat of a British institution.
Substantially different to the soap we love today, the original series on Channel 7 featured just 12 main cast members – with relative screen newbie Elaine Smith playing the most controversial.
‘I went for an audition for a guest role on Neighbours, as Des’ fiancée Lorraine Kingham,’ the former actress told me, from the classroom she’s built at her Sydney home that she uses to tutor children with special educational needs.
‘I went for this audition and didn’t think anything of it, and the week after, I went and got my hair cut very short and very blonde.’
It was that new weave that then landed her one of the serial’s most iconic roles, the punky stripper Daphne Lawrence.
‘The casting people called my agent and asked me to read for the regular role of Daphne and I thought: “Oh my god, I’ve cut my hair. What are they going to think?!”’ she explained.
‘I walked in and apologised, and they asked me to read, and they said: “You’ve got it. We’re looking for someone who looks a little bit different to everyone else.”
‘So the haircut did it, but I’d like my reading was good too.’
Not everybody liked Daphne. A residents campaign almost saw her exorcised from her plush new home with sensible banker Des Clarke (Paul Keane), which luckily proved unfruitful.
‘I don’t care what strippers do – no problem at all – but there was a scene at Des’ bucks party and I was absolutely terrified,’ Elaine adds.
‘The thing is, they couldn’t do much with that storyline because the show went out during family viewing time. So really the character was stripper by name only.
‘It was a new, young, energetic show and people responded to that more than anything – and the character became quite popular.’
It wasn’t just Daphne who was struggling to gel with her new environs. There were concerns that the show wasn’t rating well outside of Melbourne, and it was axed by 7.
‘Of course we were disappointed, but it wasn’t the end of the world – and then Channel 10 picked it up.’
A huge publicity drive followed, as well as some high-profile castings in the shape of Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan, something which Elaine describes as ‘mania’.
‘I remember when Des and Daphne finally got married, the Sydney publicity team wanted to hire a horse and carriage for us to cross the Harbour Bridge in our wedding gear,’ she laughs, in complete disbelief that this was once her life.
‘It was insane. It couldn’t happen though because the traffic authority said it wasn’t possible.’
The character was also firmly cemented into Erinsborough life by this point, and having been handed her very own cafe in the 1985 season, Daphne was at the heart of scenes in the suburb’s gossip shop.
It also afforded her a great deal of screen time with esteemed actresses Myra De Groot and Vivean Gray, who played harridans Eileen Clarke and Mrs Mangel.
Reminiscing on the two late stars, she gushes: ‘Both of them, I had so much respect for. They were absolutely wonderful people.’
‘What they brought to the show was a great deal of maturity and gravitas, keeping the young ones in check. I ended up being extremely good friends with both of them because I admired what they’d done in life.’
One of the most iconic scenes – that has seemingly taken on a life of its own due to a long-standing fan theory – was when Daphne gave birth to her son Jamie.
Eagle-eyed viewers have picked up on the fact Daph’ seemed to be still wearing a pair of tights when she went into labour during a picnic.
‘I have no recollection of this. People tell me I was,’ Elaine chuckles.
‘I do remember it being an incredibly cold morning in Melbourne the day that scene was filmed. The tights were on.
‘I think I questioned it and someone said: “The doctor would’ve cut them off.” Without going into the gory details but apparently, that’s what would’ve happened. But there was no way I was baring my legs in that cold!’
She also was keen to shutdown rumours that another actress was brought on board for the character to be killed off in March 1988.
Audiences had waved Daphne off as she went to reconnect with her dying father the previous November, when in reality, Elaine had quit the show to travel to her native Scotland.
‘I’d had two and a half years in the show and I felt Daphne’s stories were becoming the same, over and over again,’ she reveals.
‘I had made up my mind, my father thought I was a complete fool, and with me saying no they decided to kill the character off. I went back and had a lovely two days lying in bed pretending I was in a coma.’
She added: ‘I think Paul Keane who played Des would’ve wanted me to be there [had they used another actress].
‘We had a great friendship and respect for one another. He wouldn’t have been able to emote.’
A number of roles followed, including a tour of Blood Brothers throughout Australia and New Zealand in 1994. After marrying husband Jonathan three years later, and then giving birth to twin girls in 2000, she decided to prioritise her (understandably) hectic life with the newborns.
Little did she realise, that opened the doors to a brand new career path when their teacher asked her to help out with their end-of-year school performance.
‘The headmistress asked why I wasn’t teaching. I went back to university and did a master’s degree and then taught for several years.’
Her life then changed considerably in the wake of her mother’s ill health in 2017, when she felt she ‘wasn’t ready to go back into the classroom’ following the emotional journey.
‘I started doing tutoring on the side, COVID hit, and Zoom was the best thing in the world.
‘All of these parents who had no idea what to do with their children at home got in touch and asked if I could help.
‘It snowballed from there.’
Elaine now passionately works with neurodivergent children, and those who would otherwise be ‘lost’ in the school system from her home – and she wouldn’t change a thing.
‘I love what I’m doing.’
After casting aside her stardom, she didn’t anticipate ever wanting to revisit Daphne after almost forty years. That was, until, events company Screen Star reached out and wondered if she was interested in making personal appearances.
‘It sounds awful but Neighbours had a way of intruding into every single part of my life,’ she coyly explains.
‘It took a long time to shake it. There’s a line there, where people think they know Daphne, but they don’t know Elaine.
‘Screen Star suggested getting involved a couple of years ago, I thought it was lovely. It’s also an excuse for me to go back to the UK.’
Meet Elaine and a host of Neighbours alumni
Tickets can be purchased now from the Screen Star website.
Later this month, the icon will put in two appearances at Aussie TV conventions that are taking place in Birmingham and London, alongside fellow Neighbours alumni Alan Fletcher, Kym Valentine, Benjie McNair, Melissa Bell and Jacinta Stapleton.
‘I’m looking forward to it. We all share the moment in our own lives but will all bring different perspectives to the event.’
But would she ever return to the cul-de-sac that made her a household name, for one last hurrah before the show ends in December?
After all, nobody really dies in Ramsay Street.
‘It was suggested once. And I said no,’ she blurts out.
‘Bosses told me: “You can come back as a twin, you can come back as a ghost, anything.” But Daphne is at rest, and there she shall stay.
‘I was never tempted to go back. It was a moment in time, and I enjoyed it. But it seems surreal now when I look back. It was an extraordinary and unusual experience, the way it took off in a way nobody expected with a huge response in the UK.’
Meet Elaine Smith and her Neighbours co-stars, and hear their stories in Birmingham and London this July. Tickets can be purchased on the Screen Star website.
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