Neighbours came to a joyous conclusion last week, after 37 years on air, and viewers were left in tears as the residents of Ramsay Street entertained us one last time.
The final episode, which was viewed by a whopping 3 million viewers in the UK, saw the soap pay homage to the support its received from fans over the past 37 years.
Mike Young (Guy Pearce) and Jane Harris (Annie Jones) took a trip down memory lane, literally, and rekindled their romance in the process, while Toadie (Ryan Moloney) tied the knot with Melanie Pearson (Lucinda Cowden).
Paul Robinson (Stefan Dennis), meanwhile, reunited with Terese Willis (Rebekah Elmaloglou), and Margot Robbie and Natalie Imbruglia made a special cameos to return as Donna Freedman and Beth Brennan respectively.
Fans, however, were quick to note that the hour-long edition of the finale, which aired on Channel 5, differed somewhat to the one that aired in Australia on Network 10.
A number of key scenes were cut from the UK broadcast, including a pivotal one that saw Karl Kennedy (Alan Fletcher) telling Toadie that he was like a son to him and Susan (Jackie Woodburne).
We’re crying at the sheer thought of this.
Aus viewers, what’s more, also saw Stephanie McIntosh reprise her role as Sky Mangel to feature in a special video message for Toadie and Melanie on their wedding day.
This was not shown to UK audiences.
Channel 5 audiences were also robbed of the opportunity to see Beth Brennan (Natalie Imbruglia) say hello to son Ned Willis (Ben Hall), which is an interaction fans had longed for.
The end credits, which featured a mighty megamix of various Neighbours theme tunes over the years, was also significantly truncated in the UK broadcast, and the final shot – in which the soap thanked audiences for their commitment – showed both the cast and the crew in Aus, whereas our version only featured cast members.
Jason Herbison, Neighbours’ Executive Producer, weighed in on the confusion, telling Digital Spy that it wasn’t a case of Channel 5 cutting the finale, but rather the fact that Australian broadcaster Network 10 required an extra minute of footage.
‘The finale was always intended as a one-hour special,’ he said. ‘However, when Network 10 made the decision to run 90-minute episodes in the final week, we suddenly found ourselves with more screen time.
‘After bolting the second last episode with the finale and dropping an extra set of credits and recap, it opened up over a minute of time.
‘We hurriedly added in some additional moments, such as Karl’s longer speech and Beth blowing a kiss to Ned.
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‘As you can imagine, with so much story at play, there was a lot of material left on the floor. There is easily another 15 minutes of unseen footage in the last episode, including the video messages.’
Metro.co. uk has reached out to Neighbours for comment.
Neighbours: The Finale is available to stream on My5.
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