Stefan Dennis reveals Alessi twins return to Neighbours has "huge impact" on Paul
Caroline and Christina are back after 26 years
Neighbours legend Stefan Dennis has teased more details about the upcoming return of Alessi twins Caroline and Christina, played by real life identical sisters Gayle and Gillian Blakeney.
Speaking to RadioTimes.com while filming on location in London for a future storyline involving guest star Denise Van Outen, Dennis, aka Ramsay Street's original rogue Paul Robinson, admitted he was as surprised as the audience at the news two of his old on-screen flames were being brought back for the first time since the early 1990s.
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"I fell off my chair when I found out!" he laughed. "I hadn't seen the girls in 26 years, we lost contact when they moved to America. But I welcomed it, and the storyline is very funny and quite surprising.
"Gayle and Gillian live very different lifestyles now and have moved away from acting, but I don't think they've got a desire to tread the boards again. Gill's next door neighbour in Los Angeles is Tom Hanks!"
Dennis wouldn't be drawn on the exact detail of what brings Caroline and Chrissie back into his alter ego's orbit after so long, but it's set to be dramatic. "The impact of their return on Paul's life is massive," he grinned. "In fact the first sighting of Christina tips Paul over the edge. That's all I'm saying!"
The glamorous siblings were both embroiled personally and professionally with Paul when they moved to Erinsborough back in 1990. Businesswoman Caroline worked alongside him at Lassiters but it was mild-mannered Christina who first caught his eye, and they eventually married and had a son, Andrew.
Naughty Paul ended up cheating on Chrissie with his sister-in-law in 1992, but she gave him another chance and they left for a new life together in Hawaii, with Caroline also departing that same year to run a hotel overseas.
When Paul returned as a regular in 2004 it emerged the marriage had collapsed off-screen due to his fraudulent activities and general skulduggery. No wonder the trio's reunion, set to air in September, sounds so fractious…
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