Jason Donovan has revealed that he is very happy with his role in new ITV soap opera, Echo Beach, as it is ‘very him.’

Speaking to the Daily Record Jason said:

“It’s the beach, it’s me, it’s surfing, it’s blonde hair and blue eyes. It’s very me.

“I’m nearly 40. I look back with fond memories. There’s not a day when I can escape those references to Neighbours or Kylie but why would I want to? I’m proud of all that. Life’s short, f****** enjoy it. I think you should never start taking yourself too seriously.”

Echo Beach will run alongside behind the scenes comedy, Moving Wallpaper.

He said: “I read Echo Beach and thought, ‘yeah’ and then I read Moving Wallpaper and thought, ‘this is for me’. They work very well together but can stand up on their own. It’s a potent mix. Read more & comment »

“The concept of Moving Wallpaper really made Echo Beach very attractive to me. I haven’t been on British television as an actor for a long time and I was looking to try and explore that avenue. But it’s difficult to cast an Australian, someone who has worn a technicolor dream coat, and sung a few hit singles in their time, or for people to get over the image of the Neighbours boy. I managed to manipulate that better in Australia but it’s tough to cast me as anything other than, say, an Australian in Casualty… I certainly wouldn’t cast me as a Geordie. It needed something like this to break the mould, so it seemed like the perfect vehicle. And to take the mickey out of yourself, as we all do in Moving Wallpaper, is healthy. When I read Echo Beach I liked it and when I read Moving Wallpaper, I rang my agent straight away. It just sounded really, really good fun. Read more & comment »

This is an interview with Martine McCutcheon on her new ITV1 show, Echo Beach.

“Susan is a very unhappily married woman who has played everything pretty safe in her life. She’s quite repressed and she’s got all these emotions in her head waiting to explode. But there was only ever one man who could make her head explode, and that was Daniel Marrack. He comes back and a repressed woman about to explode is sight to see.

“Susan is quite an integral character really - she’s the main reason why all the problems happen. When Mark, Daniel and Susan were younger they were very close. They were like the three musketeers. However, as they got older Daniel and Mark naturally developed feelings for Susan. Daniel’s a lot more laid back and so treated her more like a friend while not realising his true feelings, whereas Mark acted on his straight away. Unfortunately Susan doesn’t think Daniel would ever want to be with her, so she marries Mark and has an affair with Daniel, the consequences of which are catastrophic. Read more & comment »

“Ladies and Gentlemen, we are about to change the face of British television forever… welcome to Echo Beach,’’ Jonathan Pope, Producer

Jonathan Pope is a man on a mission. That mission is to make the most talked about post-watershed soap opera in Britain. But when your boss hates you, the writers despair of you and the entire cast and crew think you’re a prat, that mission is bound to be a fraught one.

ITV is proud to announce two interlinking shows from the makers of Life On Mars, Spooks and Hustle. Jason Donovan and Martine McCutcheon return to their soap roots to play the parts of ex-lovers in Echo Beach. Ben Miller plays the hapless producer desperate to make the soap a success in a behind-the-scenes comedy Moving Wallpaper.

Both 12 part series, from the award-winning Kudos, will run together on ITV1.

In Echo Beach, Hugo Speer (Bleak House, The Full Monty) plays Mark Penwarden, who will stop at nothing to run his wife Susan’s (McCutcheon) ex-lover Daniel Marrack (Donovan) out of Polnarren, with Johnny Briggs (Coronation Street) as long term resident Fin Morgan. Read more & comment »