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Neighbours

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This article is about the soap opera Neighbours. For the 1952 film of the same name, see Neighbours (film).

Neighbours is a long-running Australian soap opera, which began on-air in March 1985. Through its entire run it has screened as five 22-minute episodes a week, shown each weeknight in an early evening time slot.

The series originally aired on the Seven Network in Australia in 1985. The Melbourne-produced program underperformed in the crucial Sydney market leading to Seven cancelling the series at the end of 1985. Neighbours was immediately picked up by the rival Network Ten. They began screening the series on that channel in early 1986. After low ratings, a concerted publicity drive and the addition of new, younger characters, gradually transformed the show into a high rating show. Australian ratings had cooled considerably by the early 1990s, but the serial continues in Australia with adequate rating figures, frequently attracting almost a million viewers per episode Mercado, Andrew. Super Aussie Soaps, Pluto Press Australia, 2004. ISBN 1864031913 p 231. The series is more popular in the UK, where it screens on BBC One, than it is in Australia [[Citing sources citation needed]].

The show was created by Reg Watson and is produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation.

The series follows the daily lives of several families who live in the fictional Ramsay Street, Erinsborough – although in fact it is restricted to the small cul-de-sac of six houses at the end of the street – and includes the usual soap staples of births, deaths, and marriages. The show features a regular turnover of attractive young actors mixed in with the more stable cast of older people. Though it is not commonly mentioned so as to not alienate viewers in other Australian cities, Erinsborough (nearly an anagram of 'Our Neighbours') is undoubtedly supposed to be a suburb of Melbourne. The show is filmed in Melbourne, and for street scenes uses Pin Oak Court in Vermont South, a suburb in eastern Melbourne. Erinsborough is often contrasted with the neighbouring, and equally fictitious, suburb of Eden Hills. Other locations often mentioned (and sometimes seen) in the show include West Waratah, Waratah Heights and Anson's Corner.

Many successful Australian actors and singers had some of their earliest work on Neighbours, including Kylie Minogue, Jesse Spencer, Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe (brief guest appearance), Natalie Imbruglia, Jason Donovan, Holly Valance, Mark Little, Radha Mitchell, Delta Goodrem and Natalie Bassingthwaighte. Actor Alan Dale who had previously starred in The Young Doctors, played the central character of Jim Robinson for the show's first seven years and is now a recognisable star in US series such as 24, The O.C. and NCIS. One of the most enduring characters currently on the show is Harold Bishop, played by actor Ian Smith who has also written many of the scripts for the show.

Neighbours celebrated its twentieth anniversary in 2005 with a special episode which featured appearances from several former members of the cast.

Contents

Neighbours internationally

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The show is also popular in the United Kingdom where it quickly gained a cult following after it began to be broadcast there in 1986. BBC One began by screening it at lunchtime, but it was soon given an early evening repeat slot by controller Michael Grade on the advice of his daughter. In the late 1980s it regularly had a UK audience in the tens of millions and was sometimes watched by more people than the population of Australia at that time Mercado, Andrew. Super Aussie Soaps, Pluto Press Australia, 2004. ISBN 1864031913 p 211. The episodes in the UK are now generally shown between one and three months after they are seen in Australia, as the BBC often removes the show from its schedule during major sports tournaments such as Wimbledon and bank holidays in order to take into account the fact that the show usually takes a four week break over the Christmas/New Year in Australia for the Southern Hemisphere summer. Accounting for the duplication of viewers across its two UK showings a day, the show rates on average over five million viewers a day, making it the highest rated commonwealth import on British television and one of the most popular international imports, rating higher than US favourites including Desperate Housewives and Lost. Rumours are currently circulating that the BBC plans to give 'first-chance' Neighbours on the networks digital channel BBC Three in order to boost that channels ratings. Most likely, the episode following BBC One's most recent broadcast will be shown after 7pm. However, the episode could even be up to date with the Australian episodes. Holmworth, Leigh. Neighbours could air on BBC3, Media Guardian 12th July 2006 12:15pm BST [link](Subscription Required)

It also airs every evening on Irish TV station RTÉ Two at 5.30. These episodes are also about three months behind the Australian network.

The show has also been sold to networks in many other countries. Episodes from 1999 were aired for a six-week trial basis on the American channel Oxygen in March of 2004. At first, it was shown in the afternoon opposite higher-rated American soaps such as The Young and the Restless and All My Children, which gave the show anemic ratings from the first airing; the people who would be most interested in the show were watching other, more established serials. After a couple of weeks, the show moved to a late-night time slot and eventually left the air entirely. It was the sixth Australian soap opera to be aired in the United States (The Sullivans, Prisoner, Home and Away, Paradise Beach, and Pacific Drive are the other five).

It has been long aired by Television New Zealand and screens twice daily at 5:05am and 5:00pm. It was initially aired by TVNZ when Neighbours started showing in New Zealand in 1988, but by 1996 it had been removed from the schedule. Canwest's TV4 (now C4) picked it up and aired it from 1997 to 2000. They dropped it in 2000, and it returned to TV2 in 2002, where it has stayed there since.

Neighbours is aired in Belgium on the VRT at 5:30pm, Monday to Saturday. The show has been broadcasted in Belgium since 1988; they are three years behind Australia.

Storylines

In the beginning, the show mainly focused on two families, the Robinsons and the Ramsays (after whom "Ramsay Street" is named) who were as the name of the show suggests, neighbours. The show initially gained notoriety for its depiction of the teenage romance of Scott Robinson and Charlene Mitchell (Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue). Their Romeo and Juliet style romance culminating in a wedding was keenly anticipated by viewers and is still fondly regarded today as being one of the high points of the series. Another popular couple in the show's early days was the pairing of Des Clarke (Paul Keane) and Daphne Lawrence (Elaine Smith), a couple who also lived on Ramsay Street alongside the Ramsays and the Robinsons. Daphne's death in 1988 is still considered as one of the most emotional moments on the show.

Until recently, both the Ramsays and the Robinsons had been written out of the series, with the sole exception of the Bishop family (who are related to the Ramsays through the marriage of Harold Bishop (Ian Smith) to the late Madge Ramsay (Anne Charleston)). However, one of the original characters, Paul Robinson (Stefan Dennis), made a return to the show as a regular character in the final episode of 2004. Today the show revolves around the Scully, Hoyland, Timmins and Kinski clans, along with several other residents who live in Ramsay Street.

In the late 1990s, Neighbours gained the reputation as being a somewhat conservative soap with topics such as sex generally not being included in the storylines due to its early evening timeslot in Australia and the United Kingdom (Earlier storylines involving controversial topics such as incest and teenage sex were often censored by the BBC in the UK, which may account for the reluctance on the part of producers to depict controversial issues). In the past two years this has started to change, with the show now regularly featuring its teenage characters discussing issues such as sex and contraception in a manner which has not been seen on the show since the mid 1990s. Recently, the show has depicted a lesbian storyline involving Sky Mangel (Stephanie McIntosh) and Lana Crawford (Bridget Neval). An arguably illegal relationship has started between the 18-year-old character Stingray Timmins (Ben Nicholas) and 14-year-old Rachel Kinski (Caitlin Stasey), although the two have not actually slept together yet. There was also not one but two incest storylines; the first involving Serena Bishop (Lara Sacher) and Luka Dokich (Keelan O'Hehir), who embarked on an intimate relationship, blissfully ignorant of the fact that they were half-siblings, sharing a mother, Liljana Bishop (Marcella Russo). The second storyline to touch on this taboo subject was the plotline in which Harold Bishop became obsessed with a younger woman who bore an uncanny resemblance to his deceased daughter, Kerry (in fact, the character was played by Linda Hartley-Clark, who did indeed play Kerry Bishop years earlier.) The pair went as far as sharing a kiss, which ultimately made Harold 'snap out' of his obsession. The character of Sindi Watts (Marisa Warrington) has also been involved in storylines involving stripping and more recently prostitution.

The break up of long time married couple Karl (Alan Fletcher) and Susan Kennedy and soon after Joe (Shane Connor) and Lyn Scully (Janet Andrewartha) has also been a great source of interest to viewers, especially since it has led to a long running storyline in which Izzy Hoyland (Natalie Bassingthwaighte) duped Karl into believing that he was the father of her unborn child continuing the charade long after she tragically miscarried in November 2004. After over a year of manipulation, Izzy's lies came to light in a spectacular fashion, and despite a last ditch attempt by Izzy to gain Karl's sympathy by falsely claiming that she was raped, Karl finally dumped Izzy for good.

Late in the 2005 season came a highly dramatic storyline where a large contingent of Ramsay Street regulars went on a joyflight on a Douglas DC-3 aircraft over Bass Strait. A time bomb had also been planted in the plane's undercarriage. During the flight Izzy discovered a note in her seat pocket addressed 'To my one and only' which read 'Think about your life and everything you've done.'

The bomb soon went off, sending the plane crashing into the ocean below. David (Kevin Harrington), Liljana and Serena were killed, although only David's body has been recovered. Paul, Elle (Pippa Black), Izzy, and Sky were quickly found and taken to hospital. Susan was missing for a few days but eventually rescued. Dylan (Damien Bodie) and Connor (Patrick Harvey), who believed Dylan was wanted for armed robbery, survived washed up on a desolate beach and decided to fake their own deaths by assuming new identities, but they eventually returned to Erinsborough. Through flashbacks and conversations with his comatose brother Cameron (Adam Hunter), Robert Robinson (also played by Hunter), Paul's son, has been revealed to have been the one who planted the bomb on the plane; a crime which Paul believed to have been committed by Cameron until Robert admitted it when he attempted to kill Paul. Paul was eventually rescued and he vows to get revenge on his son. Robert soon returned and kidnapped Katia. Robert and Gail attempted to lure Robert back by staging a fake wedding and he eventually returned. Paul told Robert to show himself and he eventually did and shot Paul. Paul was only wounded and then Robert was arrested.

Cast

See also: List of Neighbours characters

Current cast members

Recurring cast members

Coming and going cast members

Locations

Apart from Ramsay Street, there are many other places inside and around the fictional suburb of Erinsborough that have been featured in the show, including:

Shane Connor's sacking

After being fired from the series in 2003, former cast member Shane Connor (who played character Joe Scully) filed for wrongful dismissal. Evidence presented in court in October 2005 described alleged on-set problems such as arguments with the cast and crew, lateness and absenteeism. This behaviour has been connected to the actor's period of drug use, after the death of his brother.[link] Connor admitted that he'd had problems in that period, prior to receiving a final warning in April 2003, but contested Grundy's claims that he had acted unprofessionally immediately before his dismissal in September 2003. He won the case and was awarded AUS $196,709 (£84,416) plus interest and costs.[link] Connor can now be seen in adverts for car insurance company Sheila's Wheels as well as his frequent appearances in university nightclubs throughout the UK.

See also

Notes

External links

 

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