No, sorry, I’m just not ready to say goodbye to Neighbours

I have so many Ramsay Street memories. What could possibly replace this hole in my life, asks Charlotte Cripps

Farewell old friends (and Neighbours) after 37 years (Fremantle Media/Shutterstock)

Neighbours is being axed from UK television after 37 years this summer – and it’s like losing a childhood friend.

More than 20 million viewers in the UK, including me, were glued to the TV set in 1988 when Scott (Jason Donovan) and Charlene (Kylie Minogue) got married on the long-running Australian soap.

The soap launched the careers of not only Minogue and Donovan but also Margot Robbie who, as Donna from 2008 to 2011, famously shared a very brief same-sex kiss with Sunny, after learning she wrote the love letters from Ringo. I will also never forget the bizarre moment when Bouncer the dog dreams of his wedding to Rosie the sheepdog, while his owners reminisce about their wedding day in an episode in 1990. Can it really all be over?

The UK broadcaster Channel 5, which bankrolls much of the production (more popular in the UK than Australia), said it won’t renew its contract to air the show – despite it attracting more than 1 million viewers per day in the UK.

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It’s bad enough when a popular soap star is killed off – think of Katherine Kelly’s much-loved Becky McDonald who left Coronation Street in 2012 – but a whole show? When Dallas ended in 1991, I couldn’t imagine life without the backstabbing Ewing family, particularly Larry Hagman’s ruthless JR Ewing. Even waving goodbye to BBC One’s Grange Hill was hard; it ran for 31 series from 1978 to 2008. I can still hear the theme tune in my head.

Channel 5 wants to invest in original homegrown dramas, after their hit reboot of All Creatures Great and Small. That’s no bad thing. But as Donovan said on Twitter, let’s hope that Neighbours finds “a new home with another UK broadcaster”.

It may just be nostalgia on my part – but I’m not ready to say farewell to Ramsay Street.

Yours,

Charlotte Cripps

Culture writer