Say g'day to Paul, Susan! G'day Toady. How's it goin' mate? Aw, yehhh! (Neighbours)

Member Name: pmcds

Product:	Neighbours
Date:	07/11/09 (29 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Appealing storylines, good characterisation and entertainment

Disadvantages: Nothing really

The 1990s saw mw, sat at lunchtimes, watching Neighbours, then Home and Away. Occasionally, you'd get a crossover and miss the start of H&A, but this was always the preferable way round. You'd never miss the end of Neighbours! This was a routine at school every day for me, which then continued at Uni, and despite the fact that some extremely inconsiderate lecturers would schedule their classes when Neighbours was on, I pretty much managed to catch it most days.

Neighbours is a long running Australian soap, one that us here in the UK have almost adopted to champion. For years, it has ruled the roost in terms of daytime viewing, and many a person has grown up following the daily lives of the inhabitants of Ramsay Street, where the show is set. Running for a half an hour each episode, it used to be aired on BBC 1, only for Channel 5 to acquire the distribution rights a few years back. Sadly, I don't catch it as much any more, as I have to accept life and adapt to the real world of having a job, with no TV. I can't even ask for my lunch break to be centred around Neighbours: it just woudln't work (sob).

However, the wonders of modern technology mean I can still catch episodes every now and then, and the storylines aren't too tricky to catch up on. The stoylines themselves are often very appealing, and while they don't get anywhere near as morbid and depressing as most of our soaps that we have home grown, they still feature the occasional hard hitting trails such as Susan's ME or the occasional sudden death. They have a habit of building up a character and then spectacularly dismissing them from the show, which comes as a shock to us all, despite the fact that their leaving the show has been advertised and the episode has already aired in Oz however long ago.

Toady in particualr seems to have no luck, with bad things alwasy happening to him, whether it be losing his wife on their wedding day, or his close cousin dying suddenly, or just unlucky in life and love. He seems to battle through it all though, and the Karl/Susan saga goes on and on, with affairs and sexual preferences changing all the time. Paul Robinson is also a recurring character who serves as the bad guy of the soap. Every soap needs a constant villain to keep us on our toes and to provide the rest of the characters with trust issues, and he does this perfectly.

Neighbours is a great soap, and one I happily watch whenever I can catch it. It airs daily on Channel 5 during the week, and is one I recommend you give a go, if by some chance it has passed you by. Recommended.

Summary: Australian soap, albeit semi-adopted by us here in the UK