Drew Kirk

Drew is a country boy who works on a farm in Oakey. He comes to Erinsborough to stay with his aunt Janet (Roberta Connelly) and is later hired by Lou Carpenter (Tom Oliver) to work at Carpenter Mechanics, replacing Ben Atkins (Brett Cousins).[5] James Joyce of the Newcastle Herald said Drew was a "suitably spunky rival for established stud Ben, who thinks his boss has shafted him as he recovers from his car accident."[4] A writer for the BBC said Drew initially had a hard time adjusting to city life and working for Lou was not an easy task.[6] Illawarra Mercury writer, Denise Everton, described Drew as "eternally nice, naive and gorgeous."[7] Jason Herbison from Inside Soap observed that Paris shared many similarities with Drew, most notably his loyalty, sense of humour and that they were both from the Australian outback and preferred the outdoors.[2] Paris said that unlike himself, Drew was more traditional when it came to things like marriage and starting a family.[2]

Drew was known for his long hair, which gave him a "hippy look".[8] When Paris asked producers if he could cut his hair, they turned down his request and invoked his contract, saying they did not want to upset Paris's female fans.[8] A BBC insider commented "They don't want to allow a make-over that could be a turn-off."[8]

Drew developed a crush on Libby Kennedy (Kym Valentine), but he decided to take his time courting her.[5] Paris admitted that Drew had never wanted someone as much as Libby and that he would stop at nothing to get her. Valentine added that Drew understood Libby and she finally allowed herself to let her guard down around him.[9] Drew and Libby eventually began a relationship during a trip to Drew's home town of Oakey.[5] Paris and Valentine knew their characters would be getting together, but became worried when it took longer than they had anticipated.[10] Both Drew and Libby worried that a relationship would ruin their good friendship and Paris told an All About Soap writer that the couple's romance started out with them exploiting each other's differences and working out how to deal with each other's likes and dislikes.[10] Paris believed Drew and Libby's relationship would last.[10]

Shortly after getting engaged to Drew, Libby was involved in a motorbike accident that left her with internal bleeding.[11] Paris explained that Drew was obviously concerned for his fiancée, but when he was told by the doctors that Brendan Bell (Blair Venn) was responsible, he had to confront him.[11] Drew managed to get Brendan to almost confess to causing the accident, but Brendan then unexpectedly died from his injuries. Libby then took a turn for the worse and developed a fever and began hallucinating.[11] The doctors tried to play it down, but Libby's father Karl (Alan Fletcher) knew how serious it was and told Drew there was a chance Libby could die. Paris called the situation "difficult" and said Drew felt helpless as he willed Libby to pull through.[11] Both Paris and Valentine thought the storyline was exciting to play out and Paris added that he had done some of best work because of the emotional content involved.[11]

Libby decided to call off the wedding, after she learned that the injuries she sustained in the accident may have left her infertile.[12] Paris confirmed that Drew was unprepared for Libby's announcement. Although he had noticed that she had begun pulling away from him, he had put it down to what she was going through.[12] Paris continued "He doesn't seriously believe that she's having second thoughts about their future together."[12] Libby told Drew that the accident made her re-evaluate her life and she realised that she no longer loved him, therefore she could not go ahead with the wedding.[12] An Inside Soap columnist observed that Libby's news left Drew "bewildered and devastated."[12] Paris agreed, and said Drew knew there was something more to Libby's decision, but the more he asked about it, the more Libby pushed him away.[12] Paris believed Drew would be patient, but if Libby did not give him a chance, then Drew would be forced to move on and forget her.[12] Paris added that he was shocked when he learned of the storyline and was not sure how it would turn out.[12]

Drew and Libby got back together and their wedding finally went ahead, after fans asked for it. Producers decided that the wedding would go without a hitch, but saved a few surprises for afterwards.[3] Drew and Libby's wedding was "celebrated in Scottish splendour" and Drew sung a traditional Scottish song during the reception.[3] Paris was dismayed to learn that the producers wanted him to sing on-screen, as he had never done it before. He explained "I thought I'd kind of talked them out of it. But when they said they wanted to go ahead with it, I asked if we could at least play it up that I wasn't any good at singing and not make it serious."[3] Paris thought the producers might regret asking him, but he said the scene was edited together well and called it "a tearjerker."[3]

In late June 2002, Herbison reported Paris had filmed his final scenes for Neighbours.[13] Herbison confirmed that Drew was to be killed off in a cliffhanger episode, after Paris decided to exit the show to pursue "fresh challenges".[13] Paris said that after appearing in over 1,000 episodes, he did not think there was anything left for his character to do.[14] He explained "I've taken the character as far as he can go, and personally, I've learned about as much as I can. I'm now in the frame of mind to do other things."[13] Drew died in hospital after falling from a horse.[15] Years later, Paris explained to Andrew Bucklow of News.com.au that his desire to continue travelling around Australia with his partner and spend more time outside the studio were the deciding factors in his departure.[15] He told Bucklow that he asked for his character to be killed off, saying "They said to me that obviously if I was killed off that I couldn't come back. And I said, 'You know what? I think I need the door shut because I know that when the money runs out that I'm going to want to come back.' I needed to do other things in life and at the time that felt really right."[15] He admitted that he did not watch or even hear about Drew's funeral when it aired.[15]