In the 80s and early 90s, children and teenagers used to rush home from school to get their daily fix of Aussie life from Ramsey Street. But after 37 years the soap is coming to an end.

It first aired in 1985 and became a massive hit in the UK and Australia.

By 1989, 20 million people in the UK were tuning in daily - about a third of the population.

“I literally could not walk down the street anywhere, even in Australia, but particularly in the UK,” says Stefan Dennis, who plays the role of Paul Robinson. “It was frustrating because you couldn’t do anything. You’d just be mobbed and chased.”

Ian Smith, known for his role as Harold Bishop, recalls: “It was mind-blowing. I mean, we got to a time where the post office had to put on a special delivery because they couldn’t deliver all the English fan mail.” And the show had some famous fans too, says Dennis.

“The Queen Mum was an avid fan of Neighbours, together with Princess Di, to the point where they used to get tapes sent from the BBC if they were ever away doing royal duties and they missed any episodes.

“Royalty, you know, is interested in a little two-bit soap opera in Melbourne!”

So what was the secret of the show’s success? “It’s all summed up in one word and that’s entertainment,” says Dennis.

“It’s all the trimmings that go around that - all the good-looking actors and actresses, all the wonderful sets, all the beautiful locations, all the fantastic film work and all of that. But all of that culminates into what the audience sees- and that’s half an hour of pure entertainment.”

Image source, EPA

Over almost 37 years, the soap has had plane crashes, bushfires, drownings, and several tearful bedside death scenes.

But while we won't be giving away plot spoilers for the UK audience, the show's producers had been clear they wouldn't end on scenes of destruction and devastation.

Instead, executive producer Jason Herbison told the BBC the aim was to give a "group hug" to fans who had grown up with the show.

In Melbourne's Federation Square, hardcore fans turned out to watch the final slice of life on Ramsay Street, in the fictional Melbourne suburb of Erinsborough (famously, nearly an anagram of Neighbours).

The show's demise after almost 9,000 episodes comes amid dwindling ratings.

In Australia, Neighbours has struggled to attract 100,000 daily viewers on a subsidiary channel of Network Ten.

Even in the UK, where in the late 1980s, 20 million people regularly tuned in - more than a third of the population - viewing figures are now closer to one million.

In March, Channel 5 announced it was dropping the show - leaving a funding gap because the British network was a key broadcast partner in the series.

They might have been the biggest “dags” on the street at the time, but these Ramsay Street locals shot to fame after leaving the show.

Kylie Minogue

Image source, Shutterstock

(Half of Ramsay Street sweethearts, Scott and Charlene), the princess of pop is the highest-selling female Australian artist of all time.

At 54, she’s sold more than 80 million records worldwide. After releasing 80s hits like I Should Be So Lucky and The Locomotion, she later changed her image and dropped her surname.

Now Kylie is arguably more famous as the queen of disco, a gay icon and cancer survivor. In 2008 she was made an OBE for services to music.

Jason Donovan

Kylie’s on-screen other half also enjoyed a successful music career after the show, selling more than three million records in the UK alone. He’s had four UK number one singles, including his 1988 duet with Kylie, Especially for You. He later wowed the West End with his lead role in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in the early 90s.

He returned to the stage and in 2006 took part in I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! In 2009 he once again won audience’s hearts in his role as Tick(Mitzi) in the touring stage musical of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert.

Delta Goodrem

Image source, Shutterstock

Signed to Sony Music at 15, Goodrem’s debut album, Innocent Eyes, topped the ARIA Albums Chart for 29 weeks and is the second-best-selling Australian album of all time, at more than four million copies sold.

Despite being diagnosed with cancer, Goodrem scored a second number-one album in 2004, followed by three more.

She’s had nine number-one singles and 17 top-ten hits on the ARIA Singles Chart, selling more than eight million albums globally.

Margot Robbie

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After quitting Neighbours, Robbie got her big break in Hollywood with a role in The Wolf of Wall Street in 2013. Robbie received critical acclaim for her portrayal of disgraced figure skater Tonya Harding in 2017’s I, Tonya.

After catching the eye of Hollywood heavyweights such as Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino, Robbie’s received nominations for two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and five British Academy Film Awards.

That's only half the list. We'll be back later with more.

Iain Batty started watching Neighbours on the BBC in Glasgow, when the show first began airing in the UK the late 1980s.

This week, on a whim, he came to Australia to be in the country for the final episode - which aired in the country last night.

He wasn't disappointed.

"Phenomenal. I think they brought in everyone they possibly could. We enjoyed it.

"I think for us all Neighbours fans here, we're still hoping that - like Paul Robinson always coming back - we hope that it might come back.

"So we're looking for sponsors. So if anyone out there wants to sponsor Neighbours, then it would be brilliant."

A pair of Neighbours fans who bought a house in the street where the Australian soap was filmed have told of their sadness as the show finally ends.

Hayley Jones and her partner Miles Shackley said it would "always be a novelty" to live on Pin Oak Court - known as Ramsay Street in the drama.

The couple, originally from Liverpool, moved down under in 2014 and always hoped to live on Ramsay Street.

Read more here.

Simon Atkinson
BBC News, reporting from the set of Neighbours

To the world it is known as Ramsay Street, Erinsborough.

To locals, it is Pin Oak Court in the Melbourne suburb of Vermont South.

And I’m afraid that the most famous road in Australia is, in reality, a very unassuming suburban cul-de-sac of six houses.

The homes are real. The residents are real. And for them, the end of Neighbours means life will change a little.

Under contracts with production company Fremantle, residents couldn’t come outside or park cars on driveways when shooting was underway (typically one or two days a week, I’m told).

Now, they can come and go as they please. We might see a few paint jobs too - as restrictions on changes they can make houses exteriors will disappear.

Vanishing too though, will be the payments owners got from the soap’s producers for their co-operation.

Local media reported this ranged from A$30,000 to A$50,000 per year – depending how much a property was featured.

And given Australia’s obsession with house prices there’s speculation over whether the end of the soap - and the loss of this income - makes the homes of Pin Oak Court less valuable.

Data suggests homes in this street sold for about 10% more than others in the same suburb.

Given there was no filming in the street at all during the height of the Covid pandemic, residents had already got used to a quieter life.

But one thing they’ll have for a while yet is television tourists,

Every half hour or so, I’ve seen people walking or driving up the road, pausing outside the house of their favourite characters and taking a few selfies.

Fremantle even employs a (very friendly) security guard to make sure those visitors behave and are respectful.

So while life here will be much more "normal", the spirit of Neighbours looks bound to live on for a good while yet.

Simon Atkinson
BBC News, reporting from the set of Neighbours

While the soap is synonymous with Ramsay Street - almost all Neighbours filming was actually done in studios just down the road, in the suburb of Forest Hill.

And impressive it is too.

On a recent filming trip we visited the huge so-called studio backlot with all the familiar locations like the Waterhole Pub, Harold’s Café, Fitzgerald Motors, and the backyards of houses featured in the soap.

Because production company Fremantle leases the space and needs to move out by the end of the year, this area will all be packed up.

But its contents won’t all consigned be to the dump.

Representatives of Melbourne Museum, the Victoria State Library and ACMI - Australia's national museum of screen culture, have all been to to see what they might be interested in salvaging to put on display.

So if you missed out on the chance to do a Neighbours tour (once particularly popular among British backpackers), some of the more iconic props, signs and structures may well pop up elsewhere.

Shaimaa Khalil
Reporting from Melbourne, Australia

If you grew up in the UK, the chances are you grew up with Neighbours.

I grew up in Alexandria, Egypt. And while the soap wasn’t part of my life as a teenager, its global effect certainly was!

And by that, I mean Kylie and Jason.

In school, I remember a friend hugging her Jason Donovan poster tightly and bragging about it.

Some of our school friends who were lucky enough to spend summers in the UK would come back with issues of Smash Hits magazine.

We’d sneak them into our books and read them in class – there were many heart-shaped photos of Scott and Charlene from Neighbours.

In the late 80s an Egyptian singer called Simone did an Arabic rendition of Kylie Minogue’s I Should Be So Lucky and I can’t count the number of times I heard it.

Back then I couldn’t tell you who lived in which house on Ramsay Street. But I certainly knew how big its stars were.

Image source, PA Media

After 37 years on air, Neighbours has had an incredibly good run.

But it all came to a head after UK broadcaster Channel 5 said it was dropping the show from its schedules.

The channel said it was instead focusing on investing in original UK drama, which had a "strong appeal" for UK viewers.

The move left the soap's producers with a funding gap, as Channel 5 was a key partner in the series.

And in March they said they were "so sorry" but had "no option but to rest the show".

Neighbours was first aired in the UK on BBC One in 1986, a year after its Australian debut.

Image source, Getty Images

As the UK prepares to say goodbye to Neighbours after 37 years as a lunchtime and teatime favourite on two TV channels, we've taken a trawl through near 9,000 storylines.

From perhaps the most talked-about fictional wedding in television history to a zombie invasion, take a look at 10 best moments from the Australian soap.

Image source, EPA

It’s fair to say the build up to Neighbours’ final episode has captured the attention of fans all over the world.

Unsurprisingly, that translated into yesterday’s ratings in Australia - where the soap has been filmed for the last 37 years.

The 90-minute finale averaged 1.2 million viewers nationally, peaking at 1.41 million, and enjoying a 41.6% commercial share, according to local media.

The figures mark the best audience the show’s had since July 2009, according to Media Week.

And to finish off in true style, Neighbours was also the most-watched programme overall on the night and convincingly won all key demographics between ages 16 and 54, according to a report by entertainment website Deadline.

Image source, Getty Images

Welcome to our live coverage of the finale of Australia's longest-running soap, Neighbours.

After 37 years and almost 9,000 episodes, the show will broadcast its final episode in the UK tonight at 21:00 on Channel 5 (it's already aired in Australia, no spoilers please).

We're expecting plenty of famous faces to make an appearance on Ramsay Street, including on-screen couple Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan.

Later on, as the final programme airs, we'll be guided through the end of an era by TV commentator Emma Bullimore.

Stick with us as we soak up all the nostalgia.