We Fear Change

When news broke that Neighbours (weekdays, five) would be leaving its home of 20 plus years, my reaction was mixed. Neighbours on BBC1 was a national institution and my memory is infested with it. I remember visiting various friends' houses when I was younger and at each one the family would stop what they were doing, sit down and watch Neighbours together. And it was the same for students too. Neighbours is huuuuuge at university, still supporting tours for its otherwise washed-up or obscure stars from the past and present. It's a big deal. So when change came-a-knockin', it was easy to be disappointed and worried. On five we'd have to endure ads, they might not put it on at the same time or maybe they wouldn't be quite as loyal to the show as the BBC had always been; anything could happen. The one thing I didn't expect was to like it more.

Beside the inconvenience of having to fast-forward through the ads, Neighbours on five has been pretty good. It's on several times a day via five's vast network of channels, it's back-to-back with Home and Away and all of a sudden the picture quality has improved tremendously. Everything seems to be okay. Whether that means its place as an institution is safe, I am not so sure, but at least its present seems to be in safe hands, and I guess that's enough for now.