Neighbours producers search for a star to spend month Down Under in Ramsay Street

THE show that has given Britain Kylie, Guy Pearce and teatime escapism to sunnier climes – Australian soap Neighbours – is now offering British fans the chance to audition for a cameo role.

As part of the show's 25th anniversary, TV channel Five launched a search to find a female star to play Poppy Rogers, a friend of Mal Kennedy.

Aspiring actresses can download the audition script for Be A Star On Neighbours from the Five website and are asked to upload their audition tapes on to video-sharing site YouTube.

A panel of representatives from Five and Neighbours' producers Freemantle will pick their top five candidates, then the final two will be decided by public vote.

They will be flown to Melbourne, where the soap is filmed, and put through their paces by producers who will have a week to decide who takes on the month-long role.

The episodes featuring the competition winner will be aired in November in the UK, just a month after the programme's 6,000th episode.

Five's channel controller, Richard Woolfe, said: "Neighbours has launched the careers of Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan and Guy Pearce, so this really is a life-changing opportunity for Five's viewers. There's a huge amount of untapped talent around the country and I'm thrilled we have the opportunity to find a brand new star and hand them the international stage Neighbours provides to show off their talents."