Farewell, old friend

Everybody needs good neighbours. That’s been the nightly reminder as the iconic Aussie series gripped audiences for 37 years. As Ramsay Street prepares to turn off the lights, we look back at how a little show that could took over the world.

- ANDREW MERCADO

In my younger years – long before I got a job in TV, first behind the scenes and later as a presenter and commentator – I was an obsessed kid who hijacked family holidays so I could visit real-life TV locations. There was the Number 96 building in Sydney, the Homicide headquarters in Melbourne’s Russell Street, and Wentworth Detention Centre from Prisoner, which you could just make out through barbed wire fencing.

These days, I get invited inside the wire fencing; something a younger me could never have foreseen in his wildest dreams. And the brick walls of Wentworth are still there in Nunawading, but today it is surrounded by numerous outdoor sets for Neighbours, the iconic Aussie drama which is coming to an end after a 37-year run.

My final set visit here starts with a COVID test, a reminder that Neighbours was the first soap in the world to resume production after the first lockdown in 2020. It led to a story in The New York Times and other shows took note, replicating the Aussie stalwart’s safety measures to keep cast and crew safe.

Upon getting an all-clear, I am warned that the Neighbours family is still coming to terms with the show’s axing, with emotions still running high. When I ask long-time director Chris Adshead what it was like when the shock news was broken to everyone, there is a pause before he emits a groan of sadness.

“A lot of the crew have worked on Neighbours for years and years. Some are of a certain age, which makes them unlikely to leap into something else.”