The Launch and Legacy of Neighbours

If you want to listen to all of the episodes of this series right now, early release and ad free, plus a whole host of extra fan club benefits, head to museum of pop culture. Supportingcast.fm or if that's too much of a mouthful , just click on it in the show notes , which is the description bit that no one reads. Hello and welcome. I am Josh Whittakham. For today, I am the curator of a place of incredible artifacts and exhibitions, a place that stores the greatest thing on Earth. This is my archive of pop culture . As a self confessed pop culture obsessive, I love the geniuses, the scam artists and Darrac, the absolute madman. They've made the records shows and films that we love. In each series I will tell you a story of unlike ly triumph and usually an enjoyably crushing failure, featuring celebrated stars that in any other industry would probably be politely sacked. It's a show for people more interested in David Hasselhoff than David Lammy. Elizabeth Taylor than Queen Elizabeth II, which let's be honest is all of us. Joining me today to discuss one of, if not the most iconic and beloved show in British television h istory is the story of Ramsey Street and neighbours. It's Matthew Crosby . Britain in the mid nineteen eight ies, a nation caught between tradition and change. Margaret Thatcher's government reshapes the economy. Juran, Juran and Wam dominate the pop charts while live aid unites the world through music, and most importantly of all, daytime television is about to change forever . In nineteen eighty five a quiet cul deck in Melbourne, Australia captures the world's imagination everybody needs good . Ramsey Street wasn't just a fictional location for millions of viewers, it felt like home. From pop superstars to academy award winners, the show became a legendary launchpad for global superstardom. It gave the world Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Guy Pierce, Margot Robbie, and Russell Crowe. By the late nineteen eighties, nearly twenty million British viewers tuned in daily. It became an essential cultural anchor for generations of UK school kids and adults alike. From Bouncer's Dream to Harold's Amnesia and Scott and Charlene's iconic wedding, few shows before and since have held such a nostalgic endearing place in the heart of British TV viewers. This is the wonderful joyous story of Australia's greatest TV export , a show that was much more than just a soap opera . This is neighbours . That's when good neighbours become This is a story we've been looking forward to, Matthew. This is a big one, isn't it? This is Torn straight from our childhoods. I'm going to say this is neighbors and home in a way, but really as is the way neighbors dominates the narrative. I never watched Home in a way. No. You know, it's like Beetle Stone's Blur Oasis. You picked one and you stuck with it. Well, I picked both. You picked both and you picked Blur Oasis as well, didn't you? Yeah, of course, yeah, because I'm not tribal. I believe in love and bringing people together. Whereas you believe in I believe in the BBC is what I believe. Yeah, you believe in a BBC household. Let me just give you a couple of stats because I want people to know we are serious about this that yes, we are going to laugh at how absurd a lot of this stuff is. Yeah , but this is good television. If you watched all of Neighbors back to back , this is an achievement. It would take more than one hundred and forty seven days. That is achievable. I suppose if you did twelve hours a day , you could do it in less than a year. You'd go insane, wouldn't you? You'd believe that you were living in Ernsborough. Yeah, believe these were your real friends. I think it would be a bad move. Do you think you'd get bored? Definitely. No, 'cause it's's something always happening. That's true. They're always trying to keep you watching, aren't they? Yeah, those first series , you know, you go back and watch an old TV show. Would it feel slow? Would it feel slow? Yeah, because we're so used to, you know, Josh you and I are part of the TikTok generation. Of course. We're used to super fast the hip hop montage, things coming out as quickly , information overload, whereas the early neighbors they were very much like Tinker Taylor soldiery S werep,n't they? Exactly. They're going to feel like a sort of art house film. So little is going on in an episode. I just want you to respect this because I think this shows something that English soap has never achieved. If you talk about the amount of actors that have come out of Coronation Street or East Enders and had a really stellar career, it's not a huge amount. You're talking Saran Jones , Sarah L ancashire from Cori and then you're talking what? Ross Kemp? Michelle Kegan? Michelle Kegan. Let me give you this. Five actors from Home and Away of Neighbors have been nominated for an Academy Award.. Wow Isn't that mad? That is huge. And that's not including Chris Hemsworth because he hasn't been nominated for an academy award. So that's another one. It's an absolute Hollywood A lister. So you got Russell Crowe, nominated and winner foradi Gatlors. Gladiator Gladiator You forgot he was such a good host of the first ever series of Gladiators. I said we're going to give you an Oscar for this. I know Barney Walsh is still livid that he hasn't been nominated. Margot Robbie, multiple nominations, I Tonya, for instance , and also producer of Barbie. Nomi Watts. I forgot about Nomi Watts, of course. Yeah. Heath Ledger. Of course, RIP. Guy Pier asce well . Guy Pierce. Yeah, was it for LA Confidential? This is the Brutalist, but I think he was not there was a lot of nominations for LA Confidential, wasn't there? Yeah, this is a serious talent factory. It's huge. Now, I'd say neighbors and home and away . So I want you to hold that in your mind as we go back to well before the nineteen eighties. Let's go back to nineteen twenty six and the birth of Reg Watson . Okay , right. I thought you were going to go right. Let's go back to the birth of television. Let's go right. I think you may have gone too far back in the story here . Everyone understands what the concept of television is the birth of fire . When the first cavemen drew paintings on the wall, these were the early soap operas. Quite exactly. Red Watson, he grows up on a sugar farm in Queensland . He has brief stint as a radio act before moving into television production. Red Watson is the man who creates neighbors. Do you know anything about his journey to creating neighbors? It's absolutely fascinating. Was it that he lived in a house and he had people next door he thought there's something in this . You're not going to believe the concept where it comes from, but that we're going to come to that. We need to go through his life first. So in nineteen fifty five, at the age of what twenty nine, he moves to the UK . Okay. And he's hired by ATV , which is a kind of regional ITV franchise. Like the kind you get in rivals . Exactly. It's a Korean, it's an adventurer. It's one of those kind of things. Yeah. So moves to Birmingham to start ATV Midlands and he becomes the head of light entertainment. So his first big hit is a chat show called Lunchbox hosted by Nol Gordon. Do you know who Noel Gordon is? I don't think I do. So she is primarily famous as the matriarch in crossroads. Ah, okay. She actually there was an ITV drama written by Russell T Davis about her called Nolly starring Helen Abonamh Carter as Noel Gordon. And I think Loy Lori Griffin was a friend of mine, Loyffis was in it yeah. Yeah, and Tom Bell was in it as well, I think. Yes. So it certainly popped up on Instagram and I didn't watch it. But that was Nolly, right? Okay, gotcha. She's a TV presenter. She's also a TV execut and then she kind of goes into crossroads. So she's like a huge megastar basically. She's also the first woman ever to be seen on color television. So let's go back to the birth of television. You joked about it, but here we are. Here we are. So she participated in transmission tests for John Logi Bed. She was also the first woman to interview a British Prime Minister when she interviewed Harold McMillan for ITV ch showurch te witha Noel . She also had a show called A New Angle with Noel Gordon. Do you know what that was? Is it about the Permissive Society? It's about angling, it's about fishing. She was like the romish of her day. She was the romish of her day . She was exactly the romish of her day. So constant formats being thrown in her direction. She was doing lunchbox in Nel Gordon at this time, which is what Rebed Watchmade, which is the kind of I suppose the loose women of its day, should we say, or the Steph's pack lunch of its day. She went down a mine, she rode an elephant. She entered a cage of lions. I mean, that's more fun than loose women, isn't it? This sounds fantastic. Why is Linda Robson not doing that? Budget. That's exactly what it is. That's exactly what it is. And health and safety gone mad. You couldn't get a sign off in Linda Robson's woke. Wokery has stopped Linda Robson going into a cage of tigers . Linda Robson after get theys an active volcano . So Red Watson's working on that. Then in nineteen sixty two, he accidentally creates an ITV children series called Tinger and Tucker , which features two koalas talking to host Gene Manorton Merrily merrily reading alarm and look over there and talk So basically Watson's brought these two koala, presumably toys . Back from a trip, someone waves them behind Jean on screen when she's doing continuity an nouncing. People love it that bit of fun. So they make a show of it. Wow. The theme tuned is composed by Tony Hatch , who would later go on to compose. The theme tuned to neighbours, yeah. The theme tuned to neighb . Tinger and Tucker become such a huge success. This feels wild that the Tinger and Tucker Club is formed like the Fan Club and it attracts three quarters of a million members . Wow to the point where ATV has to close the club because it's untenable. Tinger and Tuck had to do one of those Ringo Star style announcements, didn't they? Exactly. Yeah. As of may the third, I will no longer be accepting anything to be signed. Exactly. That's exactly what I was saying with peace and love. Crossroads comes about because Watson is Reg Watson sent to the USA to study television techniques before the opening of ATV, or I' IveTV. And he's impressed by their kind of daily series, but it takes him five years to convince ATV it's a good idea . But lunchbox comes to an end and Noel Gordon's still under contract with ATV, so they shover in crossroads. She's got such a varied career. I was going to say it's kind of mad that no one remembers her, but obviously they did just do an ITV drama about her. Yeah. So people do remember. Yeah, so she becomes the kind of matriarch, the hotel motel owner, Meg Richardson . Crossroads is originally called the Midland Road. Because it's set in Birmingham, of course, crossroads. Did you know much about crossroads? The main thing I think of when I think of crossroads is Benny from Crossroads. If ever you wore a hat, someone would call you Benny from Crossroads. He was the odd job man . I don't think it's unfair to say he's played with what would now be termed learning difficulties I think is how the character is played. He's neurodiverse. He's neurodiverse, yes. He's neurodiverse, but not played by someone neurodiverse but it was a different time. Well, we don't know. Yeah, true. He was the sort of comic relief, the light relief. Also, it was famous for its bad sets . They actually brought it back in the two thousands with Jane Asher, Paul McCartney's Yeah, former girlfriend in the lead . It did a few series on ITV in the two thousands and then it ends with the final scene with Jane Asher working on a till and she's dreamt the whole thing. Oh , the classic it was all a dream it was all a dream. Is it Bobby Ewing in the shower? Patrick Ewing in the shower? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it was all a dream. So Noel has to do crossroads because she's still under contract. They call it the Midland Road, Reg doesn't like it, so they have a local newspaper competition for readers to suggest alternatives . He doesn't like any of them either, so he calls it crossroads. Of course they're going to go soapy McSope, aren't they? It's got to be exactly exactly. He's a professional. Don't throw it out to the general public. It's your job. I had one idea, but I didn't like it that much. Instead of having a second idea, I'll ask everybody else in the entire world. Come on, man. So ATV becomes central independent television and in the late seventies they want to get rid of crossroads so they can make more expensive prestigious dramas . And so the best way they think to do this is that they sack Noel Gordon. They sack her kind of not really giving a pro per reason and that's the way they think the viewers will stop watching because she's such a big thing. So they sack her in an attempt to get the show cancelled by viewers dropping off. That's mad. She sacked into a nineteen eighty one . It actually runs until nineteen eighty eight with a brief revival two thousand one to two thousand three . So it doesn't even work the sacking. It's such a strong show that even taking out the central character. Reg has actually left in nineteen seventy four to go back to Australia. One of his last actions which is a very positive action. So there's a car crash storyline where the character Sandy is paralyzed and Reg doesn't want the character to kind of wall ow in self pity , so he does all these positive storylines that sees Sandy in a wheelchair helping to run the motel and his mother caring for him, and he persuades ATV to donate ten thousand pounds to set up a service to give carers a break called Crossroads Care. It's now the carers trust and it operates nationally still to this day. That is amazing. What a good man. Plus he created neighbors, Matthew. We haven't even got to that bit yet. I already like him . So he moves back after doing ten years on crossroads, eighteen years in the UK and he starts working as the vice president of drama. Remember he's called Reg Watson at Reg Grundy Productions. There's two regis ter in this production company. They're both called red their Red Grundy likes to be called RG for red Grundy, not as in fused. Reg without the E ight, yeah . I get it. Or as in like the G . As in our gangster. No, no, no, he's not our gangster. Not our kid. No. He's so famous in Australia. His name's become slang. Do you know what it's slang for? Grundies are underwear, aren't they? Yeah, that's comes from Reg Grundy. No. Yeah. Was he famous for wearing his pants over his trousers like Superman? It's rhyming slang, presumably. You're red Grundies. Grundy Andy, of course, you Grundies, your Andys . So the Regis meet because Red Grund ony' Hsoneymoon presum,ably in the UK, Bob Munkhouse invites the Grundies out for dinner. I don't know whether this sounds like a great honeymoon. Would you not like to hang out at Bob Monkhouse on your honeymoon? No, I'd like to hang out with my wife if I was marrying Bob Munkhouse, I would but what about what about two or three days into it and you think, well, we've had a lot of conversations now. Let's mix it up. Let's get the king of the One Liners in. Exactly. But Bob's a little worried that it's just going to be them. So he invites a couple of Australians who work at ATV because Golden Shot Bob Show is on ATV. One of them is Red Watson. They hit it off immediately. So that's how Red and Reg Grundy meet through Bob Munkhouse. So he goes back to Australia. In the seventies in Australia, serial dramas are largely not very much like neighbors. They're kind of mature, risky, adult content . There's one called Number ninety six, which follows the lives of residents in Sy thedney apartment block . The first soap to deal with themes such as sex, infidelity, nudity has the world's first LGBTQ plus character, regular character. So that's very positive. It does have a very controversial storyline, Matthew, involving black mass where a satanic priest and some toppless characters read the Lord's prayer backwards. What year is this? What year are we talking? This is the eighties. Seventies. All right, so it's like kind of ahead of the Satanic panic. Yeah. I love that kind of stuff. There's also an infamous ad they put in the newspapers which says tonight at eight thirty television loses its virginity . I do like that. I do like the idea I mean I don't think anyone believes Telly Corrupts anymore . No, there's very little television that you think that's genuinely yeah corruption. That's the internet for you, isn't it? Really? If you want to be corrupted, there's better places to go. If you want to be corrupted, I've pointed you the way. Absolutely. I can send you some URL 's . But yeah, it did used to be back in the day there was kind of like a happy kind of relationship between the tabloid newspapers and slightly cheeky rude shows. Yeah, where they would, you know, I remember when the Buddha of Surbubia was on the telly and there were loads of articles in the Daily Mails. I did a paper round. I was reading it on the on the paper around of like this is fresh Look at how many bums are going to be in this TV show and look at these horrible discussion it was basically the big advert for like, oh yeah outrage, outrage, outrage. I guess the similar thing now would be the show Euphoria. Yes. It seems like people are going. You're not going to believe what they're doing on euphoria. Here are some photos of it. Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. Well, Redge goes on to produce the young Doctors. Oh yeah, which runs from nineteen seventy six, nineteen eighty three, which is basically about the names on the tin, isn't it? Really? It's Ron Seal, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. It kind of has a claim to being Australia's first medical drama, but there's not many medical issues. It's not got much of a budget. So the set is made from cardboard . The roof of the set's got a leak , they also recorded as live so like bits of the set would fall and pieces of the set falling would make it into the final edit. Well, I don't know if you've been into an NHS hospital recently bloody accurate. The system's on its knees. It's not a bit of a purpose. There you go, that is good, yeah. A little bit of a satire there for you. It's a hit and in the UK airs until nineteen ninety five they repeated in the UK until I remember watching it and finding it incredibly boring, but it was back in the day when you watched Telly that you didn't like. Exactly. Our kids will never have that. No, they'll never be bored well they will. They'll never be bored by its televis ion. He also does prisoner, which is known in the UK as prisoner cell block H. Prisoner Cell block H a, of course. He's absolutely. He's got the golden touch here. He's a hitmaker . He has to give me roses . I wish he could again , but that was on the outside And things were different then ex . Do you know the name of any of the classic characters fromison Prer cell Black H. You've got Vera Vinegar Tits Bennett . Now I don't remember Vinga Tits. Yep, there's B Smith who was a top dog and Joan the Freak Ferguson. I might go back and revisit Prisoner Cell Block H. It's a big cult hit, like, I think it's on late on ITV in the UK . And in the nineties, there's a stage production called Prisoner Cell Block H, the musical, starring Lily Savage. I remember that, yeah.. Yeah I mean, I never saw it, but I remember that being around, yeah. So it was quite camp, wasn't it? I mean, obviously the Lily Savage version was, but like the show itself was quite yeah, yeah , there was a camp side to it. So then in the eighties, he creates sons and daughters . He's absolutely turning out every soap in Australia. Lord over tears and sadness and happiness We reply out our sons and daughters . Do you know what the premise of sons and daughters was there was the twins, Angela and John who are separated at birth and then they meet twenty years later fall in love without realizing they were related . Oh no the tagline is brothers and sisters usually fight. These two are in love doesn't feel quite feels icky, doesn't it? It feels a bit icky, yeah. It's described as a Romeo and Juliette storyline, but really it's just a kind of, oh god, oh no. You're not rooting for them. One of them's with a wealthy family. One of them's from a working class family says there's all that kind of thing. Oh okay, so there's like a kind of prince and a pauper type thing going on but you still the happy ending is that they both get a blood test. Exactly. Yeah. At what point do they realize do they realize immediately or they fall in love and then they go Oh no. I don't know. Does everybody else around them know? I'll be honest, I haven't watched sons and daughters . But all this success from Reg Watson is leading only to one place . Just to give you an ide a of the success, Red Grindy ends up selling the Grandy Road organisation, which obviously is a problematic name when everyone else thinks it means underwear. To Fremantle, one of the big media conglomerates for three hundred eighty six million dollars. Oh wow. He's doing all right, isn't he? He is doing alright. And part of the reason is in the eighties neighbors is born. So channel seven looking for family friendly dramas . Reds Watson wants to combine Coronation Street but in suburban Australia . He wants a show concerned with kind of realistic storylines young people and adults openly discussing their problems . They try and get money from the BBC by saying there'll be a lot of English migrants in it, but the BBC declines because there isn't really any English migrants in it is there? Well, I mean, if you go back far enough, do you? Yeah, if you go back far enough, I suppose. Maybe that's their argument with the BBC . I don't know if you know the history of Australia, but quite a lot of the people there were originally English. It's not originally called neighbors. The options are Ramsey Street , No Through Road , one way street , living together, that's bad, isn't it? Yeah . And here's one where they couldn't quite work out what to call it, the people next door. It's on the tip of their tongue. So close. It's literally next door to the right idea. Yeah, if we could just distill that down a bit, that is long. It's the right idea the people next door, but is there like one word that means that? The thing about the name neighbors, I mean, there's the story of the TV show friends . Like that's what went through a lot of different titles and everyone thought friends like these are wonderful. Yeah, exactly. And everyone thought friends , it's just a nothing title. Yeah, but actually the simplicity of it is what makes it work, isn't it? I think the thing with titles is they're all shit until the show's a hit. Yeah, I guess that's true. And then when it's hit, it's the same with band names. They're all rubbish until the band's famous and then then you think it sounds completely normal. Two bands that immediately spring to mind Arctic monkeys? Yeah, bad name, Naf name. I mean the classic is the Beatles. The Beatles, yeah, exactly. Even if you take away the pun in it yeah, it's still rubber. Beatles is a bad name. We're talking about the television equivalent of the Beatles, neighbors, Matthew. Very much so, very much so. The show is inspired by EST, which is not English summertime, it's Erhard Seminars training. What's that? So this is a man who develops a kind of self awareness based on early versions of Zen that's training that Reg Watson and Reg undy do. So Reg Watson says RG came to me one day and said, I want you to do EST. I said, alright and what it did for me it showed me the lack of communication between fathers and sons . So it's just some kind of what you'd now describe as wellness, I suppose. Yeah. In many cases, guys got up and said my father never told me he loved me. And then they replied, Well, did you ever say you loved him? Oh no, we couldn't talk. I said to RG I've got this idea for a drama about three families and the whole concept is about communications between generations. I'd never thought of a show like that. Regrundy's quote is So Names became the drama and we two regis ed ins aert scene in the first episode to sell the EST message. So they were brainwashing us to communicate with our parents. Wellness mumbo jumbo. Now I'd say neighbors if anything, didn't help you communicate with your parents. But certainly at five thirty five in an evening I would not be talking to anybody. Do you want to know the scene? So Max Ramsay has two sons Shane who he loves, Danny who he ignores. Yep. There's a reason for that which, is reveal ed in a later episode. One day, Max and Shane are at the Olympic pool. Shane is training for the high dive in the Olympics. Danny comes running up to his father who looks away from the pool to talk to him, just as Shane makes the perfect dive behind his back , Danny is berated by his dad. Look at what you did, you made me miss it, he says. And so the EST message would remind us that we're responsible for our actions. Max could have said over his shoulder just a minute, and seen the dive so Max Ramsay is responsible for missing Strain Dive and not Danny. I imagine the significance of this scene, according to Regrundy, was lost on viewers, but we two regis got it. You know what, sometimes you are making telegraph for yourself, aren't you? It really is I'd say a push to say that you're passing on the EST message in that scene. Aren't you just showing a bad dad? Yeah, wouldn't it have been better to pass on the EST message by showing a dad who turns around and says, I love you, son? I mean, there's no drama in it. There's no drama. No one's watching that, Matthew. That is a shit TV show. Yeah, you're right. Look at how well your brother's doing. And by the way, I love you. No, there's nothing to it. Exactly. So where's neighbours at which town? Arrensborough. What false fact is often purported about the word Arinsborough? It's an anagram of neighbors. Yes, it's not. There is an extra O and R. So it is almost an anagram of neighb . So neighbours first airs on channel seven on the eighteenth of march nineteen eighty five. So you've got the original characters. You've got Jim Robinson, played by Allen Dale, do you remember him? Of course I do. Yeah. Gorgeous silver fox of a man. Paul Robinson, obviously. Yes. Helen Daniels, and then you've got the Ramsay family. So it's about the Robinsons and the Ramsay's two kind of warring families. That's the kind of idea. This is Alan Dale's move into acting, but his first second to showbiz is quite interesting. So moving to Auckland at twenty one, right ? He marries at twenty one and he works a variety of jobs including doing the milk run. He's a milkman. And he says I was driving around with the milk at five AM when I heard the breakfast announcer come on the radio and announced he's qu itting. So he goes home as a wash, he goes down to the radio station and he says you need someone like me and two weeks later he's hired. Tell you what, he's got a lot of bottles. He has got a lot of here we go. Here we go. That's lovely isn't it? That's lovely stuff. Reg undy doesn't like him. So when he becomes Jim Robinson, Reg i says he was impetuous. There was nobody in the world but him. He was an okay actor, but he really wasn't a st ar, and so eventually we did what we do in the series. He had a heart attack and died on camera. He says that in a documentary but he doesn't name who he's talking about, but then the documentary cuts to the scene of Jim Robinson dying of a heart attack He goes on to quite a success Allendale, doesn't he? He'd goes on to work in Hollywood, he's in lost. I think he's in a variety of those kind of two thousands and nineties dramas in Hollywood. So he is one of another neighbor's success story. Just alright. Another of the originals, Stefan Dennis and Absolute classic of the game. Yeah, pop star. Pop star, Paul Robinson, who's the baddie, the inbeel of the situation . He starts out working in a restaurant because his dad says as son, there are only two trades in which you'll never be out of work, food and undertaking. I think undertaking is a smart . The thing is working at restaurants. Restaurant all the time. It's a very tricky business. You're better off working in Tesco. He moves into the job where there's most people out of work , but that is luckily he takes a job in neighbours which he is in work for forty years . Yeah, he'll he's done okay out of it. So it's set in Erinsburg, middle class suburban culesak in Melbourne, six houses that we see, numbers twenty two to thirty two . And do you remember obviously when we were kids , one of the facts we all knew about neighbors was that it was a real street. Yes. Have you ever been? No, have you? Yes. So what was that like ? It was amazing. We went and visited our friend Kat in Melbourne and she said we can drive to the street. We won't do the tour because the tour wasn't running, but they've got security on the streets all the time. Have they? Yeah, because I guess people are going to be showing up constantly. And the school was lovely and said, like, yeah, that's so house and that's so house and that's how we're like, yeah, we have watched it for about ten years. Yeah. It's very exciting to be there. Like if you've been on our set, like we've been on the set of East Enders , you feel, oh, this is exciting , but it's definitely a set. Whereas it's it's a very sort of weirdly uncanny feeling of being I'm in the real world but I'm also in television. In my head though, I didn't understand when I was a kid that the interiors were separate from the exteriors. And that's what they want. That's the magic of television. I know. But I thought families were living in those houses and then having to move out of their house. Oh, sorry yeah. Yeah, you know, Todd's gonna have to do a seat in here now. That's what you presume in television. It was only the exteriors and I can't imagine they're shooting there wasn't a huge amount of exteriors was there? It was mainly interiors, I'd say. Opening titles, game of cricket? That's in the can. They don't have to reshoot that for every episode. What are you telling me? They filmed once and used it over and over again lace, isn't it? I was wondering why Helen Daniels never got better at a game Playing the same shot again and again, Helen. You never learned Bully . So when the show begins the residents are told it will probably only last a couple of years and they're given payments by Grundy Television for that. And then in the end there's a move to have the street protected as a local heritage site. I think that's fair. Well no, the city council vote against it because they find that you know, it's unfair on the owners of the properties that it'll affect their ability to kind of redevelop their homes. I wonder whether any of these people have thought to redevelop that like that is but I think yeah you wouldn't like basically if you live in one of the neighbors' houses you're probably getting paid some money, right? Yeah. Are you basically living for free if you own those houses? I don't think they're covering your mortgage. They're not covering your mortgage but cover the mortgage on six homes. That's a lot of money. But you can't paint your door or anything like that, can you? You must be old too much ? I don't know. Maybe in the off season when they're not filming. Yeah, you could say that you could do all your renovations in this brief window of time. But you can't have Lou Carpenter leaving with a yellow door and come back to a red door. No, they'd have to write it into the script . Hello, Harold Bishop goes for planning permission episode Also , I suppose it went on long enough that you imagine those houses have changed hands so people at least know what they're buying into. Would it make you more tempted to buy a house or less tempted? There's a few houses in my area like either they're nice enough that lots of filming happens there or just whoever lives there works in television. But it's going to be a ball lake, isn't it? Yeah. If you can't use the front of your house, yes. That's going to be annoying. And I'd say the excitement of it wears off incredibly quickly. And you're constantly going to be having people like me and my wife just showing up and taking a photo of your house. Yes, that's not ideal feels intrusive now I think about it. You did it. You weren't the first. I'm sure they didn't think this is totally unacceptable. No, they used to it by now, but yeah. So everything's in place for neighbors to launch. All they need is a theme tune. And in the next episode we will come to Tony Hatch and his wife, Jackie Trent , coming up with a theme tune. Not his first theme tune will cover his absolutely incredible career then the first episode launches and then you're not gonna believe this Neighbors actually gets cancelled by channel seven. No it almost dies in its first year of existence until it's picked up by a saviour and then along come Kylie and Jason . All of that in the next episode plus the story continues all the way through home and away until a very sad decline in recent years. If you want to hear the whole story now, head over to the Fan Club where you can hear all the episodes now plus loads and loads of bonus episodes. Otherwise, Matthew, I'll see you in a few days. See you very soon Eight, Charlene Stop acting like a maniac, Charlene. Nothing happened between Jane and me except that one. What are you doing? There's no point in trying to talk to you when you like this. I'm moving back to Dan's purpose. You want to talk some sense Now where to find me, okay? If you walk out that door, our marriage is over . That's your decision.