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    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Television»Drama
    Drama TV Shows - 1980s TV Shows - 1990s 3 Mins Read

    Neighbours

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    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.

    neighbours0

    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 face-lift. 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.

    neighbours_265

    Most of the original cast disappeared and in their place came such characters as Charlene (Kylie Minogue), Scott (played by Jason Donovan) and Mike (a pre-Priscilla Guy Pearce).

    Neighbours was to turn these three and several others into Stars with a capital S. In turn, their presence was to be hugely beneficial to the programme.

    Indeed, the on-screen wedding of Charlene and Scott (pictured below) made nearly every magazine and newspaper front cover in Australia.

    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 a good deal of 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 .

    neighbours_022

    There have been a number of dramatic departures from Ramsay Street, though, during the run of the show. Kerry (Linda Hartley) was killed during a duck-shooting protest in 1990, Harold (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 fell from a balcony in 1995.

    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
    Helen Daniels 

    Anne Haddy
    Des Clarke 

    Paul Keane
    Daphne Lawrence/Clarke 

    Elaine Smith
    Eileen Clarke 

    Myra De Groot
    Zoe Davis 

    Ally Fowler
    Fiona Hartman 

    Suzanne Dudley
    Joanna Hartman 

    Emma Harrison
    Mrs Nell Mangel 

    Vivean Gray
    Jane Harris 

    Annie Jones
    Mike Young 

    Guy Pearce
    Gerard Singer 

    Bryan Marshall
    Douglas Blake 

    James Condon
    Dr Beverley Marshall 

    Lisa Armytage

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