With less than a week until he arrives in Ramsay Street, we thought is was about time we caught up with former Corrie star, Ryan Thomas, to find out more about his time Down Under…
Ryan will be featuring in 18 episodes of the Aussie soap playing mean and moody stranger, Rafael Humphries.
But this isn’t some light-hearted guest role for Ryan – his character is in Erinsborough looking for revenge on a well-loved Ramsay Street resident!
But what has it been like swapping Weatherfield for Erinsborough? “It’s crazy being the new boy,” he told us.
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“It is one of the reasons I left Corrie, because I wanted to challenge myself. It is nice to start again from scratch and everyone at Neighbours was so friendly.”
In newly-released pictures we can see that Ryan’s character is badly scarred across his back – but how he got them remains a mystery…
Ryan’s character can be seen stood in the backpackers hostel with his scars on show – and something tells us that these burn marks definitely have something to do with his arrival in Ramsay Street.
“He lived in Brazil with his mum where she worked in a factory. While they were there they both got badly hurt.”
And his scars are clearly something that have tormented Rafael for life…
“He’s now got to his 30s and he knows that someone was responsible for what happened… and it was someone in Erinsborough. I can’t tell you who, though!
“He’s come to Ramsay Street looking for revenge and to put his demons to bed – it’s been playing on his mind for so many years. He’s set to shake things up when he arrives.”
Ryan has also revealed he spent a lot of his time in Australia filming with Neighbours legend Stefan Dennis, who plays Paul Robinson…
“He was a joy to work with – he’s a real talent and I learned a lot from him.
“He makes it look effortless, it’s annoying! You didn’t realise how hard he works – he is a legend. He puts so much in. He doesnt know I have been watching him work – it was a real eye opener.”
Read more: Neighbours SPOILER: Brand new pictures of Ryan Thomas as Rafael Humphries revealed
Rafael makes his first appearance on 12 February in a special Neighbours episode which is set to be aired at 10pm.
Entitled ‘Hit And Run’, it’ll explore some darker themes as Izzy arrives to target Dr Karl Kennedy once more.
There will also be plenty of other familiar faces returning to the show – all there to attend a huge belated 21st birthday party for Toadie.
It’s going to be an episode not to be missed!
Neighbours airs a special hour-long extra episode on Monday 12 February on Channel 5 at 10pm, and continues weekdays at 1.45pm and 5.30pm.