Neighbours, for those of you that don't know is a long-running Australian soap opera that started airing in 1985 in Australia and 1986 in the UK. It has celebrated its 25th anniversary this year. The soap has such an iconic theme tune that it has apparently been voted the world's most recognised television theme song.

Neighours is based on the residents that live in the fictional Ramsey Street, Erinsborough. Other than Ramsey Street homes and gardens, Neighbours features the Lassiters Complex which includes Lassiters Hotel, Charlie's bar, Harold's Store and also featured are the garage, Erinborough High School, Hospital and Lou's car lot. I know that what we see as Ramsey Street is actually a real street in Australia that is used for all the external scenes shown on screen; however what we see as the interiors to the houses are all studio based.

I think over the 25 years Neighbours has been aired it has changed drastically. I was too young to watch it when it initially started but have over the years seen many repeated episodes and iconic clips so I feel like I have watched it from the beginning. Initially, the soap centered on 3 families - the Ramsey's, Robinson's and the Clarke's. I remember iconic incidents from this era such as Daphne's coma, Scott and Charlene's wedding, the meddling Mrs. Mangel and Madge and Harold's romance.

My interest in Neighbours hit its peak whilst I was in secondary school in the 90's. It was always topic of conversation and if the title sequence was ever changed it was big news. I distinctly remember always wondering why were so many women interested in Paul Robinson, being utterly shocked when Cody Willis got shot, being desperate for Toadie to cut off that ponytail, being confused by Harold's amnesia, being distraught when Todd got ran over and feeling like it was the end of an era when Jim Robinson died and years later when Helen Daniels died.

Over the last 10 years I have dipped in and out of Neighbours - I don't watch it daily anymore. I do find that it is quite easy to follow despite not watching every episode and I also think that Neighbours is much more light-hearted and humorous than most of the other soaps probably due to the time it airs.

One thing that I always find entertaining about Neighbours is the soaps ability to be completely unrealistic. I always comment on how Karl Kennedy single-handedly runs the Hospital and seems to be trained for every type of medical emergency possible. It also makes me laugh that Toadie is every person on Ramsey Streets Lawyer, how illness such as blindness last only an episode and how pregnancies don't last a few months let alone 9 months. All of these are reasons why I enjoy watching Neighbours.

Neighbours has produced some really well known celebrities. Alan Dale who starred as Jim Robinson has been in many big American hit series over recent years, Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan, Natalie Imbruglia, Holly Valance and Delta Goodram to name but a few.

There are still some characters that I remember from the days where I was an avid viewer such as the Kennedy's, Toadie, Lou Carpenter and Paul Robinson. The soap is no longer centered on just 3 families but does still have links to its history with the introduction of some new Ramsey's last year and Paul Robinson retuning to the street a few years ago. Most of the households now contain people that are loosely related and quite a few of the families seem to have taken in waifs and strays.

I think this a soap that you don't need to watch religiously to follow and is very light-hearted and quite funny at times.