Each generation has “their” Neighbours cast, and the celebrities who cut their teeth on the Street, such as Russell Crowe and Margot Robbie. For those coming of age in the 1980s, it was Kylie Minogue, Guy Pearce and Jason Donovan. The 1990s saw the show get a new teen focus, with Natalie Imbruglia, Holly Vallance, and House’s Jesse Spencer, although for a brief time it was Spencer’s on-screen family, teh Kennedys, who were the show’s favourites to such an extent that Alan Fletcher, who played patriarch Karl Kennedy, made a lucrative early-2000s side hustle touring British universities with his acoustic guitar.

There is no doubt that Channel 5’s decision is bad news for the show and, as one industry expert has said with splendid understatement, Neighbours’ Australian producers “are probably feeling pretty miffed right now”. There is one rather spoilsport school of thought that says that Neighbours has run its course, that it was of its time, and that there are limited storylines that they can give to characters who have been in the show for thirty years. So too is Channel 5 evolving; wanting to invest more in prestige drama and documentaries.

However, Neighbours’ own viewing figures are in healthy(ish) shape, getting around 300,000 a show, and nearing a million when catch-up is included. As its loyal viewers can attest, current or otherwise, the secret sauce is not what happens on the show so much as what just unfolds within the families. This is comfort television of the highest order, and the stuff that brings in regular viewers.