The lights go out on Ramsay Street as Neighbours wraps after 9363 episodes
As darkness fell, after 9363 half-hour episodes – the last 460 produced under the banner of streaming giant Amazon, who saved the show after its cancellation in 2022 – it marked the end of an era, for Australian television, and for an iconic Melbourne institution.
Those studios, in the city's eastern suburbs, have been home to some of the best-loved television shows in Australian history, including The Go!! Show, where Olivia Newton-John made her debut, soaps such as Prisoner and The Box, the talk show Rove, glorious failures such as Holiday Island and, of course, Neighbours.
Actor Stefan Dennis, 66, who plays property developer Paul Robinson and cut his acting teeth in the studios in Prisoner before returning later to become the enduring stars of Neighbours, acknowledges he's 'probably the oldest inhabitant' of the studios.
As for saying goodbye for a second, and now seemingly final time, Dennis said he had mixed emotions. 'At the moment I'm fine, I'm just looking at it as another filming day, and that's what it is,' he said on the set yesterday.
Loading
'We did this two years ago, and it's a different vibe saying goodbye to the show this time,' Dennis added. 'It's not as sad, it's happier for me than it is sad. Happy that I have had this. It's not just a show to me, it's been an era for me, it's been a great portion of my life.'
Since its premiere on March 18, 1985, the goings-on at the not-as-quiet-as-it-seemed Ramsay Street, Erinsborough have – mostly – captivated the national conversation with births, deaths, marriages and all manner of dramatic twists and turns in between.
But in the end, like television itself, Neighbours has had to navigate the choppy waters of declining Australian audience and changing business models. Axed two years ago, it was saved by the streaming platform Amazon who saw an opportunity to invest in Australian drama.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Courier-Mail
8 minutes ago
- Courier-Mail
Queen Mary rushed indoors after shock moment during outing
Don't miss out on the headlines from Royals. Followed categories will be added to My News. IN LONDON Queen Mary has been forced to cut short her appearance at a royal walkabout after a painful encounter. The Australian-born monarch, 53, was with her husband, King Frederik, 57, and two of their children – Princess Isabella, 18, and Prince Vincent, 14, greeting locals in Gråsten, Denmark as they kicked off their summer holiday. The Danish royal family were greeting local wellwishers. Picture: Instagram In footage shared on social media, Mary was seen standing with her family before wincing and touching her leg in distress, prompting her husband and children to check on her. X Learn More SUBSCRIBER ONLY A wasp appears to have been to blame, with Sky News reporting that Mary insisted her family continue with the engagement, while she was whisked away to a nearby hotel. Meanwhile, local media outlet Billed Bladet confirmed she appeared to be OK despite the ordeal. 'The queen certainly did not seem to be badly affected by the encounter with the stinging wasp, and she, together with the king, Isabella and Vincent, made sure to greet the many citizens who had gathered in the square,' the publication reported. The Danish royal family later settled into Gråsten Palace, their summer holiday home for the next few weeks. The outing marked the beginning of their summer holidays. Picture: Instagram It's been an intensely busy 18 months for the King and Queen who officially ascended the Danish throne on January 14 last year, after Frederik's mother, Queen Margrethe, abdicated and thus ended her 52-year reign. A short time later, the King released a book, co-authored by royal biographer Jens Anderson, revealing a surprising amount of personal details about the royal couple. 'I love marriage, my wife, our children and the whole happy base that arises for the people who manage to stay together and persevere,' he wrote. He described Mary as his 'partner and wing woman' and praised their 'super dynamic'. Originally published as Queen Mary rushed indoors after shock moment during outing
News.com.au
8 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Queen Mary rushed indoors after shock moment during outing
IN LONDON Queen Mary has been forced to cut short her appearance at a royal walkabout after a painful encounter. The Australian-born monarch, 53, was with her husband, King Frederik, 57, and two of their children – Princess Isabella, 18, and Prince Vincent, 14, greeting locals in Gråsten, Denmark as they kicked off their summer holiday. In footage shared on social media, Mary was seen standing with her family before wincing and touching her leg in distress prompting her husband and children to check on her. Sky News reports that she insisted her family continue with the engagement, while she was whisked away to a nearby hotel. Meanwhile, local media outlet Billed Bladet confirmed she appeared to be OK despite the ordeal. 'The queen certainly did not seem to be badly affected by the encounter with the stinging wasp, and she, together with the king, Isabella and Vincent, made sure to greet the many citizens who had gathered in the square,' the publication reported. The Danish royal family later settled into Gråsten Palace, their summer holiday home for the next few weeks. It's been an intensely busy 18 months for the King and Queen who officially ascended the Danish throne on January 14 last year, after Frederik's mother, Queen Margrethe, abdicated and thus ended her 52-year reign. A short time later, the King released a book, co-authored by royal biographer Jens Anderson, revealing a surprising amount of personal details about the royal couple. 'I love marriage, my wife, our children and the whole happy base that arises for the people who manage to stay together and persevere,' he wrote. He described Mary as his 'partner and wing woman' and praised their 'super dynamic'.
Sydney Morning Herald
3 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
The artwork taking flight above one of Sydney's busiest metro stations
The finished artwork, The Seeds of Flight, is open to the public. Completed in the past few months, it reflects his fascination with alternative flight methods. It also captures the dream of floating free from fossil fuels, batteries, lithium, solar panels, helium and hydrogen, which is the goal of Aerocene, the non-profit foundation he initiated. Inspired by Alexander Graham Bell's tetrahedral kite experiments, these sculptures don't just look like they can fly; earlier models have taken flight. The colours are those of the Australian bush, developed with Matt Poll, manager of Indigenous programs at the Australian Maritime Museum. Saraceno said it was an 'artwork that drifts along the rivers of the wind, suspended like stars and planets carrying constellations of life's seeds through the universe … it attempts to remind us that we are all on board this Mother Earth'. 'Together with spores, spiders, birds, eucalyptus trees, can humans also float freely, without lithium or fossil fuels? 'In the interest of the trillions of inhabitants who would like to keep journeying around the sun, might we choose orbits of solidarity over extraction?' Connecting science with art, Saraceno has brought together musicians, scientists, aerospace engineers, ballooning experts, physicists, kite makers and Indigenous elders to reimagine and reinvent our relationship with the air and the earth. Saraceno's interest in spiders resulted in major installations at Tasmania's MONA and Britain's Tate Modern, where his installation Web(s) of Life received rave reviews. As well as major exhibitions and installations, Saraceno has done an international space program at NASA's Ames Centre, studied with the Centre National d'Études Spatiales, Paris, and continues to work with the MIT Centre for Art, Science and Technology in Cambridge. Saraceno founded Arachnophilia, an interdisciplinary research community with MIT and the Max Planck Institute, and recorded the vibrations of spider webs. He then invited musicians to jam with the sounds, to unveil their hidden musicality. He also created the Spider Web Scan – a laser-supported tomographic method – to study the architecture of their webs. Aerocene has broken records for solar-powered flight. In January 2020, Aerocene Pacha piloted by Leticia Noemi Marqués set 32 records for solar-powered flights recognised by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. An interview with Saraceno is like being carried along a jet stream. Was he an artist or a scientist? 'I am a little bit of everything,' he said. Saraceno abhors the myth of the lone genius, detests Elon Musk's Starlink with its reliance on fossil fuels, and says the only way to change the world is through collaboration. Loading Single disciplines cannot solve problems such as climate change, global warming and inequality. 'So why don't we try to weave or work together in different ways?' Seeds of Flight, developed by Investa on behalf of Oxford Properties Group and Mitsubishi Estate Asia, took more than two years to design and produce following a 13-month selection process led by curator Barbara Flynn.
