Farewell (again) to Neighbours, Australia's longest running soap opera

It is a classic soap opera plotline. A much-loved character is killed off in spectacular fashion, shockingly resurrected from the dead and then brutally despatched again soon after.

Now one of Australia's most famous shows has gone the same way.

On Thursday, the final episode of Neighbours will be broadcast in the UK and in its homeland.

Officially, the soap is "resting". But the sets have been dismantled and actors have taken other jobs. It looks like it really is goodbye to Ramsay Street.

If this sounds a touch familiar, you're not wrong.

"The feeling is very deja vu," executive producer Jason Herbison tells the BBC.

In 2022 Neighbours was axed after being dropped by Channel 5 in the UK – the country where it had found most of its audience.

Margot Robbie and Guy Pearce, both Hollywood stars who cut their teeth in the fictional suburb of Erinsborough, put in an appearance for the grand farewell. Kylie Minogue's Charlene Mitchell and Jason Donovan's Scott Robinson also featured.

TV crews descended on Pin Oak Court, the real-life suburban cul-de-sac that is the set for outdoor Neighbours scenes.

Hundreds huddled on a freezing Melbourne night to watch the last episode go out live on a big screen in the city's Federation Square.

The BBC even did a live blog on the final episode – both because it was truly a momentous moment in popular culture and to satisfy editors who grew up religiously watching Scott, Charlene and Mrs Mangle at 5.35pm on BBC One every day.

But the final signature credits had barely played, before it was announced Neighbours was coming back, after being saved by Amazon MGM Studios.

It was such a rapid return that Pearce joked Robbie might want her farewell gift - a crate of champagne sent to the show's producers - returned.

But, as many predicted, the Neighbours revival has been short-lived.

Earlier this year, without specifying a reason, Amazon confirmed the series would finish at the end of 2025 - 40 years and more than 9,000 episodes after its television debut.

"It was like it was death in stages, I suppose this time," Jackie Woodburne, who has played Australian icon Susan Kennedy since 1994, told the BBC.

"There was very much a sense of 'No, this time we're done'."

How does it feel to say goodbye to a character she's embodied for the past three decades?

"Oh, gosh. Honestly, I'm going to get emotional thinking about that," she says, glancing skyward and blinking rapidly.

"She was the heart, you know? She was the mother - and then the grandmother," Jackie says of Susan. "She was inherently good. But at the same time she… made dreadful decisions."

Human and relatable, she was exactly the kind of character audiences around the globe connected deeply with.

Set and filmed in Melbourne, Neighbours was first broadcast in Australia in 1985 and launched on BBC One a year later, quickly entering the cultural zeitgeist.

It became a "drama school" of sorts for up-and-coming Australian entertainment talent, a springboard for people like Russell Crowe, Natalie Imbruglia, Holly Valance and Liam Hemsworth.

"I would see these kids come, full of hope and promise and talent, and to watch them develop their skills was just an absolute joy for me, and I know Fletch felt the same," said Woodburne, referring to Alan Fletcher, who played her onscreen husband Dr Karl Kennedy.

The show often reflected for audiences formative parts of their lives too – first loves, first heartbreaks, births, deaths and marriages. In one episode you'd be doing "outrageously stupid", "slapstick" story lines, and the next you'd be sobbing over the coffin of your dead stepchild, Woodburne says.

In recent years those behind the soap have been proud to show more diverse characters and storylines, amid questions over how well it represented modern Australia. Neighbours featured the first same-sex marriage on Australian TV.

"There's a legacy for its audience, but there's also a legacy for our culture… It certainly is leaving a void," Herbison says.

While audience numbers have dwindled, true fans are mourning this like they did the death of Madge Bishop, Sonya Rebecchi or Bouncer the golden labrador retriever, who died in real life only a few months after filming his final scenes.

"I'm devastated," says Gemma Clement, a Brit who moved to Melbourne inspired by the "sunshine and the sound of the birds" on the soap. "I don't think there is any coming back. It feels final this time."

As goes the cliché, Woodburne hadn't realised what they had until the show was gone (the first time). Touring the UK on a farewell-turned-celebration tour, meeting hundreds of fans a day, was one of the most moving experiences of her life.

"I knew that people watched it and enjoyed it and appreciated it, but I don't think I fully understood," she said.

"Times are tough for a lot of people and our show gave them half an hour a day of pure escapism and fun… And to hear them tell us how meaningful that was to them… how much they look forward to it every day was very humbling."

That a show so iconic, and so beloved, could be cancelled is a worrying reflection on the state of the industry, Herbison says.

With it, goes 200 odd jobs – in a sector where work is already scarce.

Viewership has dramatically changed, and budgets are getting thinner and thinner. Unapologetically Australian content is getting harder to make. Woodburne wonders if Neighbours would have even got off the ground in today's world.

Herbison acknowledges the criticism that they should have let the show die a more dignified and star-studded death in 2022 – but says continuing to build its legacy, on and off screen, even for a few more years was profoundly worthwhile.

This finale will be different. Herbison says he knew there was no way it could compete with the last one.

"It still has all the heart and all the warmth, but the street is under a bit of threat this time. And it's left kind of a bit of a question of what will happen and what will become of everyone."

So is it possible the soap's ghosts return to haunt TV screens yet again?

Herbison won't rule out another twist: "The door is open. You never know what could happen."