The Neighbours finale airs tonight (July 29) on Channel 5. After 37 years and nearly 9,000 episodes, Fremantle Media, the production company responsible for the show, has failed to find funding to allow it to continue.
The final hour-long episode of the soap that launched the careers of, among others, Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Russell Crowe, Margot Robbie and Guy Pearce, will be broadcast at 9pm. In it, Ramsay Street residents past and present are reunited to say a fond farewell.
But what of the Neighbours legacy? Will you still be able to visit Ramsay Street and the studio where the soap was filmed for nearly four decades after the show ends?
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Where was Neighbours filmed?
Neighbours was filmed in the Australian city of Melbourne. The show’s Ramsay Street was a fictional place, but Pin Oak Court, in Vermont South, is the real cul-de-sac that doubles for it. All of the houses in the show are real and the residents allowed Neighbours to shoot external scenes in their gardens. Pin Oak Court is popular with tourists, with tours to the cul-de-sac running throughout the year.
The interior scenes were filmed at Network Ten's Global Television studios in Nunawading, also in Melbourne. At the studio were sets for the Lassiter’s Complex (including Lassiter’s Lake), Fitzgerald Motors, The Waterhole, Harold’s Cafe, back yards of houses and The Tram.
Will I still be able to visit the locations now the show has ended?
There is good and bad news for Neighbours fans. The good news is that Ramsay Street (in the shape of Pin Oak Court) will still be there; but the bad news is that the studio tours look set to end.
It’s likely that the tours that run just to Pin Oak Court will continue, at least in the short term. However, the Neighbours Official Tours website says that the final studio tours will run on Sunday, July 31.
A message on the official tours website reads: “All remaining tours are now fully booked. Our final tours of Ramsay Street and the Fremantle Studio backlot operate this weekend (30th & 31st July) and are fully booked. We regret that – due to staffing shortages – we are not able to add any further availability.”
That will be blow to Neighbours fans. Commercially, it’s likely that Fremantle needs the space for other shows, so it’s unlikely there will be a change of heart.
But the Neighbours legacy will live on, both in Pin Oak Court and in the thousands of episodes available to watch on TV.
...And there may be one final treat in store for Neighbours fans
In June, Wales Online reported that stars of the show will next year embark on a farewell theatre tour across several locations in the UK, including Cardiff. No details have yet been revealed, but watch this space...
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