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Neighbours, the Australian soap that launched the careers of a multitude of stars and was a major cultural presence on British TV in the 1980s and 1990s, is set to come to an end.
The show, produced by Fremantle Australia, tweeted the news Thursday, announcing that “after nearly 37 years and almost 9,000 episodes broadcast we have to confirm that Neighbours will cease production this summer.”
The future for Neighbours — set on Ramsay Street in the fictional Melbourne suburb of Erinsborough — became extremely unstable earlier this year after the U.K.’s Channel 5, which it had relied on for funding after its popularity waned in Australia, revealed that it would stop airing it to focus on U.K. dramas. A hunt for another channel appears to have been fruitless.
“Following the loss of our key broadcast partner in the U.K. and despite an extensive search for alternative funding, we simply have no option but to rest the show,” the official Neighbours account tweeted. “To our amazing, loyal fans, we know this is a huge disappointment, as it is to all of us on the team. We thank you for all your messages and support and promise to end the show on an incredible high.”
The longest-running Australian soap in history, Neighbours’ almuni reads like a who’s who of antipodean stars, giving early breaks to the likes of Margot Robbie, Guy Pearce, Kylie Minogue, Russell Crowe, Ben Mendelsohn and Chris Hemsworth.
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