Neighbours

1 9 8 5 – Current (Australia)

As the theme song suggests, everyone who lives on Ramsay Street needs good neighbours.

Everything in sunny Ramsay Street is as clean and straight as its teenagers’ teeth. Neighbours has neat houses, quickly tidied problems, strong young bodies, strong old biddies, token grown men and the teeniest smidgen of sex.

Think of The Waltons in swimsuits with all mod cons, and you’re close.

Neighbours debuted in Australia on 18 March 1985 on the Australian Seven Network. The serial was very carefully conceived and marketed, including the preparation of five different pilot scripts and two actual pilots.

Original working titles for the new series included One Way Street and No Through Road.

The show did not do well initially for Channel Seven, and after six months on the air with 170 episodes in the can, the Seven Network announced that the show was being cancelled. The Grundy Organisation immediately sold the series to the Ten Network and the rest is history.

Neighbours underwent a facelift. Out went the gritty, working-class focus of the original script with its emphasis on middle-aged figures, and in came more affluent homes and surroundings, quality brand-name clothing, more good-looking teenagers and professional and semi-professional workers.

Most of the original cast disappeared, and in their place came such characters as feisty mechanic Charlene (Kylie Minogue), her high school sweetheart Scott (Jason Donovan), and Mike (a pre-Priscilla Guy Pearce).

When Charlene met Scott, she punched him. They fell in love, he surfed, she moved into a caravan, and then they got married.

The on-screen wedding of Charlene and Scott (pictured below) in 1987 made nearly every magazine and newspaper front cover in Australia and was watched by 20 million viewers in the UK alone.

In 1986, Neighbours began on British television on the BBC, originally in the daytime, but later – due to good audience response – it was moved to an early evening time slot. Soon, with much media hype, Neighbours fever was everywhere.

Neighbours consistently scored in the top three British television dramas and repeatedly finished ahead of EastEnders and Coronation Street in the ratings. It also screens in several other countries, including Zambia and Mauritius.

Structurally, it was (and still is) the most unremarkable of shows. Although there are a smattering of fatal accidents, dramatic disappearances and mental breakdowns, much of the Neighbours plot always revolved around the mundane daily activities of the Robinsons, Clarks, Ramsays, Bishops, Willises, etc., etc.

There have been several dramatic departures from Ramsay Street, though, during the show’s run. Kerry Mangel (Linda Hartley) was killed during a duck-shooting protest in 1990, Harold Bishop (Ian Smith) was swept out to sea in 1991, and Lucy’s dog, Basil, drowned. But no one seemed to care when pain-in-the-butt Julie Martin (Julie Mullins) fell from a balcony in 1995.

In other major cliffhangers: Madge (Anne Charleston) won the lottery in 1989; Glen (Richard Huggett) fell off the roof at Lassiter’s in 1991; Hannah (Rebecca Ritters) and Beth (Natalie Imbruglia) were trapped in a burning cottage in 1992 – starting a loooooong tradition of fires in Erinsborough; and Gaby (Rachel Blakely) and Annalise (Kimberley Davies) were in a plane crash in 1993 that left them stranded in the bush.

Past characters frequently return to Ramsay Street, and the residents often travel to exotic locations (Japan, New Zealand, Adelaide).

Add to this the fact that there is often comic relief, and you can see why it occupies a particular niche in the world of international soaps.

Charlene Mitchell/Robinson 
Kylie Minogue
Madge Mitchell/Ramsay 
Anne Charleston
Max Ramsay 
Francis Bell
Tom Ramsay 
Gary Files
Shane Ramsay 
Peter O’Brien
Henry Mitchell/Ramsay 
Craig McLachlan
Jim Robinson 
Alan Dale
Paul Robinson 
Stefan Dennis
Scott Robinson 
Darius Perkins (1)
Jason Donovan (2)
Lucy Robinson 
Kylie Flinker (1)
Sasha Close (2)
Melissa Bell (3)
Julie Robinson/Martin
Vikki Blanche (1)
Julie Mullins (2)
Helen Daniels 
Anne Haddy
Des Clarke 
Paul Keane
Daphne Lawrence/Clarke 
Elaine Smith
Eileen Clarke 
Myra De Groot
Zoe Davis 
Ally Fowler
Harold Bishop
Ian Smith
Madge Bishop/Ramsay/Mitchell
Anne Charleston
Fiona Hartman 
Suzanne Dudley
Joanna Hartman 
Emma Harrison
Mrs Nell Mangel 
Vivean Gray
Kerry Mangel
Linda Hartley
Jane Harris 
Annie Jones
Mike Young 
Guy Pearce
Beth Brennan/Willis
Natalie Imbruglia
Gaby Willis
Rachel Blakely
Annalise Hartman
Kimberley Davies
Gerard Singer 
Bryan Marshall
Douglas Blake 
James Condon
Dr Beverley Marshall/Robinson
Lisa Armytage (1)
Shaunna O’Grady (2)
Glen Donnelly
Richard Huggett