Ned Parker
Ned Parker | |
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Neighbours character | |
India Napier |
Ned Parker is a fictional character from the Australian soap opera Neighbours, played by Daniel O'Connor. He made his first appearance on screen on 9 August 2005, arriving to see his brother, Stuart. He departed on 31 July 2008.
Casting
Following his elimination from the 2004 series of
In February 2008, it was announced that O'Connor was to leave Neighbours that year, along with co-stars David Hoflin (Oliver Barnes), Jesse Rosenfeld (Marco Silvani) and Sweeney Young (Riley Parker).[3] It was speculated that the departures were linked to the arrival of Susan Bower, who was appointed executive producer at the end of 2007.[3]
Storylines
Ned is the younger brother of
).When Ned became quite secretive,
Ned teams up with Karl Kennedy (Alan Fletcher) to form a children's band called "Oodles 'O' Noodles". They later split when Ned meets Justine Spensley (Alexis Porter) and she forces Karl to quit the group. However, Carmella Cammeniti (Natalie Blair) exposes Justine's plan and Ned and Karl reform the band. Ned then began a relationship with Carmella, but she ended it when she realised that they were spending too much time together. Ned then grew close to Katya Kinski (Dichen Lachman), and a jealous Carmella unsuccessfully tried to win him back. Ned ended his relationship with Katya when she was blackmailed into several crimes, even assaulting Ned when he caught her stealing a car.
Ned moved in with
Ned's high school girlfriend,
When Steve tells Ned that their father was once a vicious drunk and a cheating husband, Ned refuses to believe him. Ned takes Kirsten and Mickey to
Reception
O'Connor was nominated for 'Most Popular New Male Talent' at the 2006 Logie Awards for his portrayal of Ned.[4] In 2007, O'Connor and co-star Natalie Blair (Carmella Cammeniti) were named 'King and Queen of Teen' at Dolly magazine's Dolly Teen Choice Awards.[5]
Ned has received negative criticism from Ruth Deller of television website Lowculture.co.uk. In a feature specially dedicated to Ned called "Clearing out the dead wood", Deller expressed her delight that the character was leaving Neighbours.[6] She went on to say "Whilst Dan O'Connor's acting has been somewhat short of stellar, he can't take the sole blame for Ned's failure at becoming a character viewers took to their hearts. The scriptwriters never seemed to know what to do with him".[6] Deller added that Ned had been portrayed as being sometimes thick, sometimes kind and sometimes selfish.[6] She said "The only time he almost became likeable was when his son Mickey arrived, but seeing as the kid was only tolerable in scenes with Lou and Harold, that didn’t really work, either. He did get his kit off quite a lot though, so every cloud and all that".[6] She finished by saying that Ned was the least loved of the Parker brothers.[6]
In a feature on the best and worst soap characters of the decade, Ned was placed first on the worst characters list.[7] Deller said "Thick as two short planks, with their acting ability, Ned's storylines revolved around rubbish romances and being rubbish at a string of jobs. They even twisted the knife in by introducing more family members when Stu left in order to enable him to stick around even longer. The saddest thing about his departure was that they didn't even kill him off".[7] Describing Ned, media company Virgin Media state: "Life was action packed for Ramsay Street macho-man, Ned. As well as constantly showing off his buff bod, he also discovered he had a secret son with an ex-high school flame and got caught up in a love triangle with Katya Kinski and Carmella Cammeniti."[8] Katie Baillie writing for Metro included Ned on her list of the "worst Neighbours characters" ever.[9] Ed Jefferson from the Daily Mirror named Ned and Karl starting a children's musical "awful" pop group as one of the weirdest Neighbours storylines, calling the pop group.[10]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Nicholson, Sarah (24 October 2007). "Home for Idol hand". The Courier-Mail. Queensland Newspapers. Retrieved 17 May 2010.
- ^ "Dan O'Connor (Neighbours' Ned Parker) Interview". Last Broadcast. Retrieved 17 May 2010.
- ^ a b Kilkelly, Daniel (17 February 2008). "Four more 'Neighbours' departures announced". Digital Spy. Digital Spy Limited. Retrieved 17 May 2010.
- ^ "Neighbours strikes out at Logies". Women Republic. Archived from the original on 11 July 2010. Retrieved 17 May 2010.
- Network Ten. 6 March 2008. Retrieved 17 May 2010.
- ^ a b c d e Deller, Ruth (22 October 2008). "Clearing out the dead wood". Lowculture. Archived from the original on 20 August 2011. Retrieved 17 May 2010.
- ^ a b Deller, Ruth (31 December 2009). "Soapstar Superstars: The 2000s". Lowculture. Archived from the original on 20 August 2011. Retrieved 17 May 2010.
- ^ "Neighbours ruined my life – Dan O'Connor – Ned Parker". Virgin Media. 2009. Archived from the original on 11 October 2012. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
- ^ Baillie, Katie (23 January 2016). "11 of the worst Neighbours characters ranked from Serena Bishop to Libby Kennedy". Metro. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
- ^ Jefferson, Ed (13 March 2015). "Neighbours is turning 30: How many of these crazy storylines do you remember?". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 11 November 2023.