After 37 years of production, the final Neighbours episode will premiere on August 1 in the UK and Australia.
The cast of the show also got back together on the Melbourne set on Wednesday for a special finale event.
After the venerable soap opera was cancelled in March, Olympia Valance, April Rose Pengilly, Tim Robards, and Melissa Bell all cuddled up for sweet photos as they bid farewell.
Both Olympia and April looked lovely in pink for the important occasion.
Olympia, 29, who is Holly Candy’s younger sister and a former Neighbours actress, looked stylish in a pair of billowing rainbow-colored pants and an equally colourful blouse.
The daughter of INXS rocker Kirk Pengilly, April, 34, looked stunning in a hot pink little dress that emphasised her slender pins.
The show’s Lucy Robinson, played by Melissa Bell, 49, chose a lilac tiny dress that emphasised her breast and slender pins.
Stefan Davis, who plays the evil Paul Robinson, and Ian Smith, who played Harold Bishop, both attended the event.
After choosing not to renew its contract with production company Fremantle to produce and broadcast the series in March, UK channel 5 chose to cancel Neighbours.
The TV Week Logie Awards came under heavy fire earlier this month for neglecting to appropriately recognise the cancellation of Neighbours during the programme.
But it appears that during the upcoming AACTA Awards presentation, Australia’s longest-running soap opera will get the proper send-off.
According to Foxtel’s Executive Director of Drama Brian Walsh, the Neighbours actors will be invited on stage for the Foxtel-sponsored AACTA Awards to “make a point” of saying goodbye.
“I was really disappointed, especially since we had the Neighbours actors present.” How much would it have cost for them to be allowed to take the stage and have their moment? Walsh, who in the 1980s served as Neighbours’ publicist, said.
If we’re going to celebrate accomplishment on a night like the Logies, then for goodness sake, please let a show that has captivated audiences for 37 years have its moment and take a bow. Walsh called the Logies send-off “dismissive.”
A highlight reel of Neighbours’ most memorable moments, featuring Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan, was shown during the Logies tribute.
Dan MacPherson, 42, and Natalie Bassingthwaighte, 46, both former cast members of “Neighbours,” then made an appearance on stage to present the prize for Most Popular New Talent.
On the soap series 10 Peach, both actors got their start.
One of Neighbours’ longest-serving cast members, Ryan Moloney, later criticised the Logie Awards’ organisers for failing to give the Australian soap opera an appropriate send-off.
Moloney, who plays Jarrod “Toadfish” Rebecchi, expressed his disappointment at the ceremony’s lacklustre homage, saying it left him feeling “very let down.”
He revealed to Hughesy, Ed, and Erin on 2Day FM that all of the Neighbours cast members that attended the Logies had unfavourable seats with cameras blocking their views of the stage.
The 42-year-old veteran of Ramsay Street also said that it was unjust that Natalie Bassingthwaighte and MacPherson, two former Neighbours actors, were chosen to speak on stage about their experiences with the soap opera rather than an actor now appearing on it.
After the show was cancelled in March, according to Moloney, the full 2022 cast should have been called on stage to say their final goodbyes to their coworkers.
Although he had nothing against Daniel and Nat, he said, “I think the least they could do is get us to say something.” “Daniel and Nat are simply incredibly wonderful people, and I have nothing at all against them,” he continued.
We’re in the bloody [Logies] Hall of Fame, after all. A show that is in the Hall of Fame should not be treated that way. I genuinely do wish the Logies luck.
On August 1, Neighbours will conclude its run in Australia and the UK.
