Light-hearted look at Aussie soap star’s Carrickfergus roots

Many local people might not realise that one of the borough’s ex-citizens is Jackie Woodburne, who appears as Susan Kennedy in Neighbours.

Ahead of a live interview with Jackie on the ITV ‘This Morning’ couch on Tuesday, the Mayor of Carrick, Alderman Charles Johnston, was filmed over the weekend in a light-hearted fashion for a 90-second segment to be played to the actress depicting her home town.

Jackie was born in Carrickfergus Borough and resided here for the first three years of her life.

A statement from council explained the first citizen’s brief from ITV was to “depict just how proud we are of the fact that she came from the borough and included the unveiling of a fake plaque on the Town Hall dedicated to Jackie as well as a ‘Soapstar on a Rope’”.

Alderman Johnston added: “I was delighted to be asked by ITV to take part in this short, amusing video tape celebrating Jackie’s twenty successive years in the popular soap, Neighbours.”

The light-hearted tribute included souvenir mugs, tea towels and a wall plaque.

“The fact that this has been aired nationally across the UK and Ireland is absolutely fantastic PR for the borough and something that we should all be immensely proud of,” added the Mayor.

Susan is seen as the “heart and soul of Erinsborough”. The long-suffering wife of Dr Karl Kennedy, former school principal Susan is regarded as caring, dependable and has a wicked sense of humour.

Susan made her first screen appearance in an episode in October 1994 and is the “mother hen of Ramsay Street”, raising not only her own children Mal, Libby and Billy but also playing stepmum to Rachel and Zeke, and surrogate to lawman Toadie.