Neighbours is an Australian television soap opera created by Reg Watson. He apparently based the show on British soap Coronation Street. The show premiered in Australia on 18 March 1985 and is currently the longest running drama in Australian television history, with over 5800 episodes being made.
Neighbours' storylines concentrate on the lives of the residents of the fictional Australian suburb of Erinsborough. The series centre’s on the residents of Ramsay Street and its surrounding neighborhood, which includes a high school, hospital, mechanics, hotel, radio station, general store, a bar and gym.
Five episodes are broadcast every week at 6:30 p.m. across Australia.
After originally being produced by Seven Network, rival channel Network Ten relaunched the show beginning with episode 171 on 20 January 1986.
On 27 October 1986 the series debuted in the UK on BBC One starting with the first episode. It soon gained a loyal audience and the show became very popular within the student market especially as it was shown during the daytime.
In 2007 the show underwent a revamp, introducing a new family of characters, the departure of several existing characters and a new version of the show's familiar theme song and opening titles. Daniel Bennett, the new head of drama at Network Ten, announced that the crux of the
On 18 March 2010, Neighbours celebrated its 25th anniversary.
Neighbours has proved to be more consistently popular in the UK than in its native Australia. It was screened on BBC One from 1986 until 2008. Towards the late 2000s it was normally attracting an average of 3 million viewers for its lunchtime showing and 2.6 million viewers for its early-evening repeat. It is frequently the highest-rating daytime programme in the UK, outside of news bulletins.
In 2008 the UK broadcast moved to channel Five after the BBC withdrew from talks to keep the show, after they were asked to pay £300m over eight years. Five picked up the show and began broadcasting it in February 2008. The first episode to be shown on Five was watched by 2.2 million viewers, a drop of 300,000 from the BBC's average. However, the move boosted Five's usual share for the 5.30 pm. slot. Home and Away, broadcast directly afterwards on the same channel, received 1.4 m on the same evening.
As of 4 February 2009, Neighbours' combined audience was around 3 million per day. The UK is currently 6 to 8 weeks behind Australia.
Neighbours has had a number of guest stars over the years including Brit’s Lily Allen, Emma Bunton, Matt Lucas, David Walliams and the Wombats, as well as international stars like Russell Crowe, Shane Warne and WWE wrestler Batista. As well as this, a number of internationally acclaimed stars have had stints on the show, most notably Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan. Both were in the show for just over three years. Delta Goodrem, Holly Valance and Natalie Bassingthwaighte also starred in the show before moving into big musical careers.
Neighbours, like Hollyoaks, has been criticized for seemingly only casting attractive actors and model types.
