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Gallery: Neighbours new sets

Exclusive: And here is your first look at new Neighbours exteriors which will bring additional location sets to Erinsborough.

EXCLUSIVE: And here is your first look at new Neighbours exteriors  which will bring additional location sets to Erinsborough.

FremantleMedia is adding the finishing touches to a series of new sets that will be introduced mid-2010, built on the famous ‘Lassiters’ exterior at Nunawading.

TV Tonight visited the building site which will comprise permanent new sets including a Police Station, University Campus locations, Cafe and upgraded Erinsborough News and Lassiters Hotel.

Significantly, they are not just facade shells, but include working interiors which will allow OB camera crews to shoot indoors and give scenes more visual authenticity.

The new Erinsborough Police Station, manned by ‘Metropolitan Police’ is the largest of the new exteriors, with several interior rooms and office spaces.

Other areas will become University Campus common spaces. A rooftop cafe has been added.

The nearby lake was drained over Christmas to enable the construction of a pathway.

A Used Car lot has been added near the local garage.

And there is another permanent fixture yet to be unveiled.

Neighbours has also revamped its interior Hospital set, with a new-look Reception area.

48 Responses

  1. Neighbours is still producing solid ratings for Five here in the UK, just before Christmas it was reaching highs of 1.8m and since then has maintained ratings of around 1.5 in the evenings. Sadly it’s still way down on what it used to get on the BBC but all things considering it is still quite popular.

    EastEnders, just celebrated its 25th anniversary and it was a huge success, around 17 million viewers tuned in for the live episode! Since then EastEnders has maintained regular ratings of 10 million viewers, placing it as Britain’s most watched show. Neighbours could learn a thing or two, new sets just wont cut it when the storylines and writing are so incredibly weak.

  2. The Austin Hospital has been used for the establishing shots since 2006 (after Carmella’s loopy cousin burnt down the maternity ward), but whenever the characters are in a scene outside the hospital it’s just shot around the Nunawading studio – usually outside the entrance to the reception area.

  3. Lucy Robinson is probably one of the only character to be played by 3 different actors!
    The weirdest one was Duncan in H&A who went into the Christmas break as a five-year old non-speaking role and came back the next year as a 10 year old main character.
    Then there was Caroline Gillmer who wore a red wig to play Sheryl Stark in Neighbours, so when she got sick, Collette Mann just showed up and popped the wig on!

  4. I love Neighbours and I think I will always have a place in my heart for it but somethings wrong, you can’t lose so many viewers after a summer break and survive as it currently is. To me i see nothing wrong with the show, I am really enjoying the storylines, some of the best in years and I am slowly warming to the newer younger cast members, it has gone through alot of changes in the past few years but i think its flowing nicely. I have noticed there is an empty house in Ramsay Street that they never mention, perhaps a new family or a kooky old lady with a 100 cats could suddenly appear, something funny and more comedic might add a touch of what the show needs. I’ve heard so many people comment on why they hate the show, what about some of the great things its done for our entertainment industry, i really would like to see Neighbours around for another 25 years at least, its a show with alot of warmth and heart, i also think alot of people who watch, rely on it and treat it like a dear old friend who you’ve shared so much with. Yes i may sound like an emotional soapie freak, i guess I am but i long for the days of just pure soap opera’s not Australian “drama’s” , i think there is room for a few more soaps at least, we do them so well in Australia. I think if anything was to change to much with Neighbours, there would be a public outcry, not just here but in the UK aswell, if it ever was axed, i’d hope another Network would again pick it up!! Lets just wait and see if the ratings improve, if you care about the show, tell your freinds to watch again, its at a time when the storylines are so juicy and it would be easy to tap into.The new sets look great btw and are they still shooting exteriors for the hospital at the Austin anymore??

  5. It is not the first time that a cast member has been re-cast on Neighbours. Remember Lucy Robinson? She was re-cast and people accepted the change pretty well.
    The new sets will breathe new life into Neighbours.

  6. It will take much more than new sets to save this dead and buried show which has constantly had low ratings and a lack of popularity for many years now.

    @tasmanian devil the show was huge in the UK but what century are we talking about? It was huge back in the 80’s/early 90’s but has been in shambles since.

  7. Also visible in the Nearmap photos, a piece of Erinsborough history. In the field behind the set they still have the old bridge that used to cross the big pond that was where the courtyard is now, back in the days when I used to watch.

  8. Brekkie, you are spot on – UK ratings have been on the slide for years. The show dropped the ball. With even a degree of care, it could still be rating like EastEnders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale (and Five would’ve paid a lot more).

    John, recasting is nothing new – but you can only do it so often. Summer is a waste – she’s not a key character, and presumably is only back to give Steph something to do. Declan makes more sense, because without him, Rebecca is without a family. By using the device twice in a short time, it becomes comical.

    They need to take a page out of Home and Away’s book. They jumped the shark in a big way in 2009, yet are addressing it appropriately. But perhaps Neighbours has simply had too many chances.

  9. They need to sack Susan Bower, She has ruined the programme. Im in the UK and used to love watching neighbours at tea time, but its got so cringeworthy, it needs to stop.

    And those titles at the start are just way too cheesy for anyone to take it seriously.
    They need to make the songtitle more modern, and stop the cheese in the clips.

    Need good storylines.

    Ill take the job, i can make it as successful as Eastenders is in the UK within one year.

  10. The show is far from huge in the UK now. Ratings were falling even before the BBC lost the rights, and since moving to Five it’s lost around half it’s audience.

  11. Maybe Ten will end up offloading it to their third channel in 2011? (if they can get it running then)

    Considering the current audiences are quite low, most of them are probably quite dedicated fans, so would switch across.

  12. Nearmap shows that they have ripped out the entire middle garden and ponds and replaced it with paving!! It looks dreadful. I really liked the garden area. It didnt look to good in 2005 when all the plans were small, but now it looks really nice. Very dissapointing, I hope they replanted all the stuff elsewhere.

  13. David,
    Wasn’t the news lately that they only just managed to get another 1 year lease on the Global TV lot, and that it is being sold off after that? Why put so much into infrastructure there when they should be looking at new locations? Or has the sale idea gone out the window? On nearmap.com you can see houses right over the Lassiters back wall, so they are obviously developing on the site now. You can also see the set going up over Christmas. None of the new stuff is there in the Nov 13 photo, but it all appears in the Jan 7 photo. It looks so small!

  14. @damo.. ok.. you don’t have to have it then, but I’m interested in Neighbours (and so are many others) and I have been interested for the last 18 years.

    Although it is a bit strange with the recasting of Summer and really strange how Declan is going to look and sound different soon when James Sorensen leaves and Erin Mullally supposedly takes over the role. I know there has been times when actors have temporarily taken over for others, when the usual actor is sick, but I can’t recall a time when an actor chooses to leave for whatever reason and so they just get someone else in to take over for them to continue playing the character.

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