RYAN Moloney was 15 when he joined the cast of Neighbours as hapless teen Toadfish Rebecchi.

That was way back in January 1995 - and Ryan remained on the popular Australian soap for nearly 30 years.

Originally intended to be in just one scene, Jarrod “Toadie” Rebecchi proved a hit with viewers and quickly became one of the best loved residents of Ramsay Street. Fans have seen Toadie develop from troubled teenager to respected lawyer, and along the way he’s been at the centre of some of Neighbours’ biggest ever storylines.

Over the past 29 years, he’s had five wives, has driven off a cliff, taken up wrestling and was almost paralysed in a road accident. That’s just a fraction of the drama Toadie has ended up in. For his portrayal of the loveable neighbourhood lawyer, Ryan was nominated for a Rose d’Or award and won several Inside Soap Awards.

In 2022, to the dismay of fans, Neighbours ended, after 37 years, with an emotional final episode which saw the return of former stars Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan and Guy Pearce. Shortly afterwards, in a shock twist, the soap was saved by streaming giant Amazon Freevee. Toadie, one of the show’s biggest stars, returned, along with the rest of the cast.

But earlier this year Ryan announced that he was leaving Neighbours. Toadie’s fate was revealed in the soap’s recent week-long special, Death in the Outback; a series of dramatic episodes that saw him narrowly escape the jaws of a saltwater crocodile as he stumbled through a deadly creek. His final scenes left him collapsed onto a train track, having visions of each of his five wives before passing out. Will Toadie perish in the outback...or will he return to Erinsborough one day?

Fans will have chance to ask just that when Ryan heads to Bradford this month with his Toad on the Road tour, going behind the scenes of the outback filming and other Neighbours highlights. He’ll be looking back at Toadie’s biggest stories, revealing Neighbours secrets and his future plans. The show is, he says, a “thank you for the love that fans have shown me and Toadie over three decades”.

It’s 9am UK time and early evening in Australia when I chat to Ryan, ahead of his tour. He is, he says, a bit frazzled - being in the process of building a house alongside a busy promotional schedule and final preparations for his stage show.

“I’m looking forward to jumping on that plane,” he smiles. It was last year’s sell-out Neighbours: The Celebration Tour in the UK - when Ryan joined co-stars Alan Fletcher and Jackie Woodburne (Karl and Susan Kennedy), Stefan Dennis (Paul Robinson), Annie Jones (Jane Harris) and April Rose Pengilly (Chloe Brennan) to discuss the long-running soap - that gave him the idea of a one-man show. With “surprises on the night” and a Q&A section, it’s a must for Neighbours fans. “I started my career on stage,” says Ryan. “It’s good to get out there and meet the fans. It was their uproar that saved the show.”

Now 44, Ryan has spent most of his life on Neighbours and grew up on set. It’s helped him develop a skillset for a future career behind the camera; since training as a director, he hopes to direct episodes of the soap.

His highlights of the last three decades include a poignant two-hander with Eve Morey, who played Toadie’s second wife Sonya, and the ‘House of Trouser’ escapades. Will he miss Toadie? “Oh yeah, I’ve been with him a long time. A lot has happened to him and this last 12 months we’ve taken him to a new realm,” says Ryan, referring to Toadie’s mental health struggles.

Often voted one of the greatest ever Neighbours characters, Toadie has been described as an “Aussie everyman”. Ryan has embraced his transition from class clown to respectable lawyer, ditching his trademark Hawaiian shirts and, in one of the soap’s most memorable moments, having his mullet cut off, and he’s had input into his stories: “Toadie’s mental illness was my idea. With his breakdown and psychotic episodes, it’s been important to bring that into the mainstream. We’re in people’s living-rooms every night; soaps have the power to raise awareness. We’ve pushed boundaries as far as we can with it.”

He enjoyed leaving Erinsborough behind to film Toadie’s final scenes in the outback: “We were in the middle of the desert, 10 hours north of Adelaide. It was spectacular,” he says. “What’s happened to Toadie over 30 years has haunted him, especially all his wives. It’s been a remarkable amount of content, with a vast scope of emotions to cover, and I’ve been mindful of bringing a sense of truth to it all. When people say: ‘I don’t like Toadie so much now. I say: ‘Good, that means we’ve done our job right’.”

Neighbours has been his “apprenticeship”. “It’s the fastest shooting show in the business; two-and-a-half hours of TV in a week. It’s a valuable learning process and it’s been great to be part of people’s daily lives for so long. My wife really loves the Royals - I used to tell her: ‘You do know the Queen is watching me in this, right?’” he grins.

“Now it’s time to reflect on Toadie - and on what makes me me. Toad on the Road is a chance to get to know the real me. I haven’t really let people see that before.”

* An Evening with Ryan Moloney is at St George’s Hall on Monday, September 23. Call (01274) 432000 or visit bradford-theatres.co.uk