I Have A Confession – I Still Watch Neighbours

There you go, I have said it. I still watch Neighbours and I am not ashamed of it. And you know what, I may get the mickey taking out of me, but I aint hiding this little secret any more.

Ever since I was a kid, I used to be a massive fan of the soap. It was an integral part of my life. I was definitely one of those fans that wanted everything to do with it. Even going into my mum’s loft recently, she still has the Neighbours board game that I had!!!

To me it was more the escapism from normal UK life, which at the time was pretty low. The show painted Australia into this idyllic lifestyle. Compared to EastEnders and Coronation Street, which just seemed (and still does) doom and gloom, Neighbours was somewhere I wanted to live. Yeah it had its problems, but everything came good at the end.

In 1999, I went to visit my family in Melbourne…the birthplace of Neighbours. My main priority was to visit family, but I so wanted to visit the set of the show. However, I soon learnt that the show wasn’t as popular over there and my plan was soon scuppered by my uncle.  Additionally, I also learnt that Australia was nothing like Neighbours but I still fell in love with the place and have always carried the dream to visit again. Unfortunately…the pennies have never been there to do that. Damn!!!

Then adult life took over and I got a job. This meant that I was never at home for the show and I missed a large chunk of it. But have no fear, the invention of On-Demand television was able to relight the fire that I had as a kid. And like any good soap…even after time away it was so easy to sit down and get back into the show.

Now let’s get something straight…do I think it’s the best show on television? Definitely not. Is the acting the best? Not really, but it’s not the worst either (Dare I mention Hollyoaks?). And are the storylines really that realistic? Not always. However, I love that it isn’t. The show is great escapism and some of the storylines recently have been quite gripping taken into account it has limitations it needs to keep to because of its timeslot in Australia.

So why have I decided to let you know about this secret that only a handful of people know already? Well, this year there are more than two soaps that are celebrating special birthdays. As well as two British soaps, Neighbours is also celebrating its 25th anniversary (it seems the media has forgotten about that – not as big a fanfare received like it has for Eastenders and Coronation Street). It’s birthday celebrations are going to come to a peak  this week on their 6000th episode where we see a whodunnit plot over who pushed Paul Robinson (yep he is still in it and yes he has forgotten he has had his leg amputated) off the Lassiter’s mezzanine. On top of that, there is also a wedding of Ringo and Donna which they have fittingly got Sam Clark signing ‘Suddenly’ (the song infamously played during Scott and Charlene’s wedding).

So what does the future hold for Neighbours? Well it has been announced in Australia that Neighbours is moving from Channel 10 to new digital channel; Channel 11.

Many are speculating that this is the end of the show, but taking into account that the money made from the exporting of the show to over 50 countries covers production so there is no problems of that happening just yet.

Personally, I also think that this is a good move for the show as the classification in Australia is currently U. When it moves to Channel 11, the rating shall be changed to a PG, which means that there is a chance that we may see some more grittier storylines. Well that’s the hope anyway.

For now, I am happy to continue watching the soap and hope that it continues for years to come.

Related Articles

• True confessions of a Neighbours addict (thepunch.com.au)
• Whodunnit to mark 6,000th episode of Neighbours (bbc.co.uk)