Farewell Neighbours

Did you watch the final episode of Neighbours yesterday?

No, nor me. Despite the ballyhoo and publicity, I forgot.

It’s hard to believe that 20 million people once watched Neighbours in the UK, and one of them was me.

I used to convince myself I was waiting for the Six O’Clock News that followed the Australian soap on BBC1 but that didn’t explain why I watched quite so many episodes between 1987 and 1991.

The early evening programme was actually a repeat of the episode broadcast after the lunchtime news and it was the scheduling genius of former BBC1 controller Michael Grade (now Lord Grade) that helped make Neighbours such a success in the UK.

The cast I followed was the one that included Jason Donovan, Kylie Minogue and Guy Pearce. When they left I gradually lost interest. In fact the last character I took much interest in was Joe Mangle played by comedian Mark Little.

After leaving the soap in 1991 Little moved to Brighton and was reported recently to be living in a remote farmhouse in Wales.

When I lived in Edinburgh in the Nineties I remember seeing him perform his stand-up show on the Festival Fringe. It was the closest I’ve got to soap royalty although he was very self-effacing about it.

More surprising was the fact that my retired parents, who had previously shunned all TV soaps, rarely missed an episode of Neighbours in the Nineties.

I’m sure it had something to do with the scheduling because they would have lunch and then sit down to watch Neighbours with a cup of tea.

They also watched Countdown together for many years - also with a cup of tea - but when Channel 4 moved it to a different time the spell was broken and they stopped watching, just like that.

Habit is a strange thing. Michael Grade understood that but many TV and radio executives don’t and regularly play fast and loose with the schedule to the detriment of the programme.

Anyway, it’s more than 30 years since I last watched Neighbours and blow me if I didn’t forget to watch the final episode. Reading the reviews though I’m not sure I missed much.

Funnily enough, I remember asking a friend who had moved to Sydney if she ever watched the programme.

This was during the period when it was a phenomenon in the UK but her response suggested that it barely registered with her or any of her friends in Australia.

I felt a bit foolish for asking but now she and her family are back in the UK I wonder if they watched the last episode if only to remind them of their old life Down Under.

See Neighbours finale: Final episode airs in Australia after 37 years (BBC) and Neighbours: The Finale review – A flimsy, agonising end to an era (Independent).