Neighbours

What  Michael “Mickey” Gannon lacks in size, he makes up for in heart. His best friend in the whole world is his beloved dog Jake, who is nearly as big as Mickey and who follows him everywhere. Little Mickey has moved around a fair bit in his short life and he’d like nothing more than to stay in one place for a while. Preferably somewhere with a garden for Jake.

Mickey’s mum Kirsten was Ned Parker’s high school sweetheart. Conceived at the Year 10 formal back in Oakey, Kirsten never told Ned that she was pregnant and snuck away to raise Mickey on her own, with some help from her grandparents. However, they both recently passed away, leaving Kirsten struggling to deal with her grief and look after Mickey at the same time.

Desperate for help, Kirsten tracked down Ned and begged him to look after Mickey for a while. It was an interesting journey for them both as Ned discovered what it meant to be a father, and Mickey discovered what it meant to have one.

Because of his gypsy-like upbringing, Mickey’s very self-sufficient… which is handy because Ned still doesn’t have a clue when it comes to kids. In many ways father and son are almost polar opposites: whereas Ned is big and, let’s face it, stupid, Mickey is small but smart. He loves to read and his inquisitive mind is always on the hunt for new information. The adults around him not only underestimate his ability to hear them when they’re having private conversations but also his ability to understand the complicated issues they’re talking about.

However, Ned and Mickey also have a lot in common. Mickey is sports mad and loves roughing around in the dirt whenever he can. He’s quietly thrilled to finally have a big male role model to wrestle with and he was particularly pleased when Ned took on the role of coach at the Erinsborough Pups footy club. Mickey’s also clearly inherited Ned’s “no worries” gene. While mum Kirsten constantly buckles under stress, Mickey remains resolutely cheerful and always sees the brighter side of life. 

When Kirsten took off, Mickey assured Ned that he and Jake wouldn’t be much trouble. This didn’t turn out to be entirely true. The day that the rest of the Parker family arrived in Erinsborough, Mickey snuck out to play in the removal van. Accidentally releasing the brake, the truck crashed into a minibus full of Frazer and Rosie’s wedding guests. Blaming himself for the horrific accident, Mickey went on the run.

He fell with an older street kid who turned out to be none other than Declan Napier. Declan kept a brotherly eye out for the little runaway but misguidedly involved him in an attempted robbery. The resultant police investigation led to Mickey being safely reunited with Ned… and to Declan not receiving the warmest welcome to Ramsay Street.

Since then Mickey has also infected the entire house with lice thanks to a Russian hat scam with Lou and got himself locked in an old trunk and carted off to the rubbish tip during a game of hide-and-seek on hard rubbish day. He’s certainly trouble but Ned wouldn’t have it any other way. When Kirsten tried to move Mickey to Adelaide, Ned and Janae got caught in a bitter custody battle: neither side prepared to lose the loveable little boy from their lives.

Mickey was heartbroken when Janae left to be with her family in Queensland but, as ever, he was more worried about Ned and Kirsten than he was about himself. Having made a new best friend in neighbour Ben Kirk, Mickey is quite happy in Erinsborough and intends to make sure it stays that way.