Farewell Neighbours, harmless viewing of my youth

“Don’t worry, your secret is safe with us,” said a colleague when I revealed during the daily print conference that I used to be a big fan of Neighbours. It seems no one else on our Zoom call was mourning the news that the Australian soap had just filmed its last ever scene.

But I know there will be plenty like me, lamenting the end of an era. At its peak in the UK, during the late 1980s and early 1990s, Neighbours attracted ten million viewers for each episode. More than 20 million switched on in November 1988 to watch episode 523, when Scott and Charlene (Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue) got hitched.

I remember tuning in to the very first episode two years earlier. A sickness bug had kept me off primary school and I watched on from the couch with my mum as Ramsay Street residents dealt with the fall-out from Des Clarke’s stag do (or bucks’ night in Aussie parlance). We were hooked.

From then on, Neighbours became part of my family’s daily routine. We weren’t particularly avid TV watchers but Monday to Friday we gathered for the 5.35pm showing on BBC1, before eating dinner at 6pm. It’s just what we did; it was harmless viewing. And, aside from the time Harold Bishop got swept out to sea (don’t worry, he returned!), the sun was usually shining.

Handout photo issued by Fremantle Australia of the man and guest cast, (front row left to right) Freya Van Dyke, Lucinda Cowden, Scarlett Anderson, John Turner, Ryan Moloney, Ian Smith, Alan Fletcher, Benji McNair, Jackie Woodburne, Zima Anderson, Annie Jones, Harlow Herbison-Fuentes, Melissa Bell, Stefan Dennis, Rebekah Elmaloglou, Kate Kendall, Sally-Anne Upton, (second row left to right) Richard Huggett, April Rose Pengilly, Takaya Honda, Richie Morris, Gemma Bird Matheson, Georgie Stone, Candice Leask, Lloyd Will, Emerald Chan, Jacinta Stapleton, Paul Keane, Charlotte Chimes, Tim Kano, Pheobe Roberts, James Mason, Ben Hall and Matt Wilson, featured in the final Neighbours scene filmed on Friday. Issue date: Friday June 10, 2022. PA Photo. The globally-recognised soap opera first aired in 1985 and followed the lives of those living and working in the fictional Melbourne suburb of Erinsborough. See PA story SHOWBIZ Neighbours. Photo credit should read: Ray Messner/Fremantle Australia/PA Wire NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used in for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder.

As my brother and sisters and I grew up and left home, that routine inevitably fell by the wayside. But I continued watching. The 1.40pm slot was ideal for a rookie sub-editor who didn’t start his shift until 3pm!

A gap year in 2001 with friends - to Australia, of course - was, ironically, when I had to break the habit. Yes, I got pictures taken with Jarrod‘Toadfish’ Rebecci at the Neighbours Quiz Night at a pub in downtown Sydney and, yes, I visited Vermont South on the outskirts of Melbourne to stand in Pin Oak Court (aka Ramsay Street), but I stopped tuning in regularly as life got in the way.

Now that I have three kids of my own, I wonder how I ever had the time for it. But, there, my secret’s out: I loved Neighbours! And I’ll tune in when the final episode is broadcast by Channel 5 on August 1. For old times’ sake.