Tom Oliver up for soap exchange

Neighbours stalwart Tom Oliver has revealed TV bosses once considered a soap crossover with the Australian show and EastEnders.

The 74-year-old, who plays businessman Lou Carpenter, admitted that the two shows could have merged in an "exchange-like" scenario, where characters from Ramsay Street would appear in the BBC series, and vice versa.

"I would like to do that. There was talk a while back when FremantleMedia took over our show, and we raised the possibility of that. Kyle could be on holiday in England and pop into the EastEnders pub for a drink, that sort of thing, and the same with Lou, and vice versa," he said.

"They thought of marrying the two together for a couple of weeks each, and for the variety. It's never been done. We get people like Clive James drop in, but the shows do not interact with each other like that," he added.

While the producers for both shows decided against it, Tom's co-star Chris Milligan, who plays Kyle Canning, said he would gladly make an guest appearance in a British soap.

"It'd be good to do a guest role. I don't think I would come over here and do a full-time job like on Neighbours again, but it'd be good to do a stint," he said.

Neighbours is shown on weekdays on Channel 5.