Jason Donovan

Jason Sean Donovan was born in Melbourne to Dad Terrance (a guard in "Frontier In Space" and future Doug Willis in "Neighbours") and wife Sue McIntosh, a Channel 10 newsreader. That is, Sue was Terrance's wife, not Jason's. That would have been incest, as well as tricky.

In 1986, Darius Perkins, who played Scott Robinson in upcoming Aussie Soap "Neighbours", was fired after not turning up, which was thought to be hindering the filming of his scenes. In one of those glorious "Pete Best" moments, Jason took over the role and became a worldwide star and seller of 30 million albums, whilst Perkins moved on to a brief stint in "Home & Away" before vanishing in the blackness of obscurity forever. Bet he wished he'd turned up on-time now.

Kylie and Jason. Everyone wanted to shag one of them.

Jason really made it big when he signed to Stock Aitken and Waterman's record label PWL (proprietors of a suspiciously large number of fellow Music Box inmates on the Vervoid - see also Kakko, Mandy Smith and probably lots more to come). After becoming beloved of millions via the infamous Neighbours wedding between Scott and Charlene (Kylie having been elevated to Pop Goddess status by PWL just previously) Jason followed in her footsteps, releasing debut single "Nothing Can Divide Us". A crafty duet with Kylie, "Especially For You" was Number 1 for Christmas 1988, and became the 4th highest selling single that year.

Jason's debut album "Ten Good Reasons" went on to spawn two further number one hits - "Too Many Broken Hearts" and "Sealed With A Kiss" and he would notch up 17 singles in total before 1993.

Jason, Back In The Day. Remember him this way.

Jason always followed, quite literally, in Kylie's footsteps. She released her second album, he brought out his first; she released an exciting video containing her first three promos; he did the same. Thus his now-rather dull career path trod a very rigid PWL-led direction. However, this didn't seem to do him any harm and Pete Waterman today remembers him as one of the most successful acts PWL ever nurtured, even eclipsing Kylie in terms of sales.

Pete Waterman in a silly hat

But in the end, Jason wasn't exciting enough to last the distance, unlike Kylie who ended up recording four albums with PWL before becoming an international treasure and owner of a twenty year career. Jason's latter singles for PWL, "I'm Doing Fine" and "RSVP" skydived into the charts well short of the Top 10, and in the end he perhaps wasn't interesting enough to last. The Little Girls had grown up to be able to handle the more dangerous and sexually potent New Kids On The Block, and the gays always stuck with Kylie. Why do gays love Kylie? Because Kylie loves cock. Sadly, Jason couldn't say the same and didn't endear himself to the Poof Market when he sued "The Face" magazine in 1992 for alleging he was homosexual, thus suggesting he found the idea deplorable, the fool.

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Possibly not "doin' fine". Arghhhhhh!

A stint playing "Joseph" lead to a final number 1 single, "Any Dream Will Do", but this was very much a late flourish, and after a wretched third album "All Around The World" with a new label (which tackily bolted on all his old PWL hits) spawned no more hit singles, he opened his arms and welcomed in drug hell.

In 1999 Jason admitted "I still have a joint, and I still take coke". He shocked his former fans by appearing, dishevelled and looking horrendous in drag, in "The Rocky Horror Show" - it was a far cry from the clean-cut, bubbly, young looking Jason from "Neighbours" that everyone loved and occasionally rubbed themselves to. Dom Joly, tiresome host of once-great one-trick sketch show "Trigger Happy TV" set up Jason during a run of the musical, pretending to have been attacked by an ice-cream man. A bizarre Jason continually interrupted Joly throughout the stunt, imploring "Did you punch the f**k out of him?" and eventually ending the sketch with a tirade of inaudible mumbling to camera. All was clearly not well in JasonWorld.

In 2005, Jason's phone number leaked onto the Internet when he was photographed on his mobile, trying to sell a car. From September, he put a special message on his answerphone to deter the scores of people ringing him up having discovered the number.

After a run in "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" that year, Jason appeared on all-conquering reality show "I'm A Celebrity" and presented himself well - though appearing haggard and a shadow of his former-self, he finished third and raised £200,000 for charity, behind Myleene Klass and Matt Willis, for shame.

He's thought to have been calmed considerably by marriage and two kids, though suffers from psoriasis, an unpleasant skin problem which is caused by stress and alcohol abuse, natch. His fans sometimes put on "Ten Good Reasons" and cry quietly to themselves.

The Beard Years - Is there no magic left in the world?

Everything is available still, though you probably don't need the third album in your lives.

This fetching autograph failed to sell on Ebay recently, despite the asking price being £3 (the same cost as twelve loo rolls) and free postage.

I mean, just look at it! It's not exactly how you want to remember him - looking like he's on Crimewatch.

Jason, yesterday. Drugs and folk-rock tour not pictured.