James Martin

Are Ireland getting them?

2005 was good, it's the changes it fired the starting pistol for which taint it for me. 2006, however, not a fan. All that cop drama stuff turned me away.

There was also that recent snooker tournament where the show was moved to 5 Star. In the very early days of Five Life an episode was moved there due to Europa League football.

Bevan Lee was very good at weaving the old into the new, I admired that. Floss forseeing Aden in the then old Diner for example, and the way Milco was retconned in without rewriting too much history. Bringing back Kirsty and then Fisher to work at the school. But like you say it was a different era, nearly itself 20 years ago.

I feel they've got to bring someone from the early years back for Irene's departure. Is it too late now for Kirsty and Kane to do a turn? Tasha and Robbie? They went full send when Sally left and I'd argue this is a bigger deal.

Makes sense, but I still feel they need to drop 5 a day behind if they want to make 5 Star the "flagship" transmission. That said, their socials still push the lunchtime 5 showing and not the evening 5 Star one.

So it's the 5 Star episode that drops? So for example an episode ending in 5 or 0 would drop on a Monday, not a 1 or 6? Does that make sense?

Really weird seeing the fans begging for ITV to take it on, given ITV's awful treatment of Home & Away through the 90's.

Home & Away's production model is vastly different to Neighbours'. Firstly, the lifetime deal with Channel 5 means they have a guaranteed international partner. Ben Frow would get rid of it if he could, no doubt about that. He's stuck with it, forever and ever. Secondly, they're not as reliant on the British market; that said Home & Away does remain a big deal in Ireland where Neighbours MK2 still gets a linear broadcast. And thirdly, it still does the numbers in Australia. I don't think streaming works for open ended soaps. Normally a streaming show is a season of 8-10-12 episodes. A soap just keeps on going, and it becomes very easy to simply fall behind. I'm trying to keep up with the rerun of Eldorado and it's impossible; I'm already ten episodes behind U&Drama. Also, it ended up behind a paywall. I don't mind paying to see The Grand Tour or Clarkson's Farm but who's going to subscribe to watch a daytime soap opera that had become deeply unfashionable? The fact ITV didn't step in to rescue it last time (when they bid against Channel 5 in 2007 when the BBC first dropped it) tells you all you need to know. It's had a good run. Let it rest.

I thought I'd park this here as although it's not on air on Channel 5 & RTÉ yet, it's nevertheless a big deal. I'm so glad someone's finally said, "let's put it back." The theme tune probably means little to younger audiences who won't have grown up with the call-to-arms playing every evening, especially in Australia where it won't have even aired at the end. However, it is iconic and in my not so humble opinion removing it was one of the single biggest mistakes the production made. I don't care for the slow male version but the upbeat female version is a really solid update, and it's the first time in over 21 years the "And from the very first day I saw you" verse has been included. Whilst it's been edited together with stock shots (albeit ones not seen outside Australia) it hasn't got the cheese factor the 2000's credits had. It just lifts the whole production. I'm so glad they've done this, it's such a positive move.

The Sun in the UK are reporting the story. https://www.thesun.co.uk/tv/33479098/neighbours-axed-again-amazon-two-years/ For their many ills, The Sun showbiz "firsts/exclusives" do tend to be correct. Feel it was inevitable; streaming isn't really designed for open ended soap opera because it's just so easy to constantly fall behind.

I wonder if they need to rationalise their episode counts in the way the British soaps are doing. In the streaming era, 5 a week is a lot if you fall a bit behind and need to catch up.

Alf is 80 in July...

All seems a bit odd, as the whole point of Seven plotting that storyline when they did was to give Channel 5 a cliffhanger to come off-air for Christmas with. The 6pm showing is a bit of a waste anyway, though. If it was on Channel 5 proper where you could watch in HD it would make sense, but there's no "incentive" to follow "normal" pace and not "first look" pace - so that might be why they've come off-air on the Thursday and aired the cliffhanger on Thursday teatime FL/Friday lunchtime. When are we back this year, the 6th?

Well, my last comment aged well. ITV are following the BBC's lead from Monday, and ITV X will have Corrie & Emmerdale from 7am. I just find the whole "First Look" thing a product of a bygone age. The idea was blatantly copied from Hollyoaks when Five Life first went to air 18 years ago but Hollyoaks have now dropped that model. I know My5 drop each episode at 7pm now, after the 5 Star showing has concluded, but I wonder if now's the time to give Home & Away some proper "digital first" treatment? I'm assuming, by the way, that 7+ don't do early drops like the British networks are doing/starting to do? Edit: there is an argument that the more targeted advertising (as streaming can be at user level rather than, at-best, regional level) means that an ITV X viewer is now worth more than an ITV1 one. Channel 5, with less regional splits, may choose to leverage the advertising advantages of IP.