0/5

More deaths to rock Ramsay Street

#1 on Twitter, and a million viewers in the UK, but Neighbours fans shouldn't put away the Kleenex just yet.

2016-04-06_0020

Billed as “the biggest week in Neighbours history,” dramatic storylines saw Ramsay Street resident Joshua Willis (Harley Bonner) expire last night.

A blast at Lassiters set the scene for a one hour episode, their first in three decades, throw several characters into peril.

Pinned under a fallen beam Joshua sacrificed his own life for former love rival Daniel Robinson (Tim Phillips) and the tears soon flowed.

 

But the big story points didn’t end there with the return of Sarah Beaumont (Nicola Charles), famed for coming between Dr. Karl (Alan Fletcher) and wife Susan (Jackie Woodburne).

It was all enough to send the show as the #1 trending topic on Twitter.

In the UK, where the episode even screened ahead of Australia, 1.05m Brits watched a special 10pm screening.

Tonight amid histrionic scenes another long-term Erinsborough resident, will meet their end -watch for the moment that echoes Ghost.

TEN Drama Executive, Claire Tonkin, said: “With its mix of heartbreak and bravery, anguish and hope, Neighbours’ biggest week ever has kicked off a host of compelling new storylines. What is in store next for the good – and not so good – folks of Erinsborough? What do the new arrivals have planned for our favourites? And who is to blame for the Lassiters disaster that caused all of this chaos? You’ll just have to watch and see.”

Neighbours Executive Producer, Jason Herbison, said: “We promised it would be the biggest week ever and while I know viewers are reeling over the death of Joshua, please don’t put the tissues away yet. Tonight we lose one of our much loved long-term characters and there are more surprises to come from the debris. However, despite all the drama of this week, it’s not all despair. There are some very happy endings and surprise arrivals in store over the coming weeks.”

6:30pm tonight on ELEVEN.

18 Responses

  1. Poor Toadie! First the school fire ( which he has only fairly recentlly regained use of his legs) and now being trapped in the rubble, Please let him be ok.
    I hope Pam Willis returns for a few episodes.

  2. Poor willis family especially brad, losing his dad and son on the same day.

    I truly hope one of Sarah’s kids isn’t Karl’s. I can’t think what else she would need yo talk to him about.

    1. They say things comes in threes so lets hope tonight they kill off Imogen and be done with it!!

      If one of her kids is Karls it will be a major retcon as we never saw Karl and Sarah shag…. They pashed once in his surgery and once on her wedding day in the vesitbal!!!

  3. I knew Harley was leaving months back but I never thought he’d be killed off. I just presumed he would move to Brisbane to be with Amber.

    I wonder which storyline will wrap up first. Who shot Charlotte in home and away or who was behind this explosion?

  4. Josh was one of the best written and acted young characters in the show in a long time. He began on the show as a little self involved and superficial, and then there was the incident where he puched Chris, which knocked him down and caused brain damage. Through that storyline Josh was remorseful and became one of Neighbours most compassionate characters. There was always a hint in the storylines that one day Josh and Amber would end up together, which now will never be. Neighbours seems to have a death at this time of year on an annual basis. I wish it hadn’t gone that far for Josh but I wish Harley Bonner the best for his future career. He’s one to watch.

  5. It was so sad! It was heartbreaking seeing him die that way, never expected such a raw emotional exit for anyone. Genuinely shocking to watch. So much happening, the return of Georgia has been great and Sarah coming back is intriguing.

  6. Ok, I haven’t watched Neighbours since Toady was the new kid on the block, but how many times have they blown up / burned down / sent bankrupt Lassiters over the years?

  7. The headline here should really be “Neighbours special a giant flop in UK”. The show once attracted an audience of 21million in the UK. Even as recently as the early 2000s it managed to attract slightly over 2million daily. That it could barely scrape together 1.05million viewers for a highly-publicised one-hour special is beyond sad. The truth, of course, is that the show is only kept on air because Channel 5 in the UK is part-owned by FremantleMedia, which makes the program. When the BBC wisely dumped it and no other UK network wanted it, Channel 5 took it on, more or less to save face. It remains on air only because it costs virtually nothing to produce. But with UK ratings like that it can’t be sustained much longer.

    1. It’s all about perspective and context. The ‘big’ UK soaps like EastEnders and Corrie are currently getting figures at the lower end of 6m (twitter.com/soapratingsuk). Given Neighbours is shown on the ‘smallest’ of the UK free to air networks, and the broadcast was at 10pm, the 1.05m figure is a great result.

  8. The episode was aired in the UK 11.5 hours ahead of Australia – I guess everyone involved figured that it was better to go for bumper ratings of 1m+ in the UK than to worry about spoilers for the 300k or so people who still watch the show in Australia.

    I have a sneaking suspicion that tonight’s death will be extremely underwhelming compared to last night’s genuinely harrowing one. David’s “Ghost” reference confirmed this for me. Anyone really curious just needs to check out the “upcoming departures” section of the Neighbours Wikipedia entry for confirmation (NB: Josh Willis was not listed there beforehand, so kudos to the producers for keeping that one under wraps).

    1. Wow…I was completely wrong about that one! I thought it was going to be Bossy (for some reason, I thought Patrick Swayze was hit by a car in “Ghost” and that this is what would happen to Bossy, hence David’s comment). Definitely not as harrowing as Josh’s death, but it’s always sad when such a long-term character passes away. A horrible day for the Willis family…

      Are there any more deaths this week??!!

  9. That was one of the saddest episodes ever.
    Erinsborough is such a dangerous place. We only recently had the school fire. Josh was already moving to Brisbane did they have to kill him off? Looks like I’d better top up the tissues for tonight!

  10. It was really poor form for the producers to treat Aussie audiences with utter contempt by allowing the episode where a major character dies to air in the UK first….. It was promoted as ‘The Biggest Week Ever’ in Australia yet it was ruined when it was all over social media as to who died in the episode before loyal Aussie audiences saw.
    Imagine if we screened one of the biggest episodes of Eastenders or Coronation Street prior to the UK, there would be outrage over there. The least they could have done was warn us that the episode was to air in the UK first.
    And last nights first ever hour episode of Neighbours, was utter crap, it was two episodes put together….

    1. I haven’t watched Neighbours in at least 15 years, and even I knew it was airing in the UK before Aus. Come to think of it, I probably learned about that here…

      (DigitalSpy is reporting it as a “one-off” and “the first time … UK broadcasts have jumped ahead of those in Australia” – but didn’t they also get last years’ finale / Christmas episode first?)

Leave a Reply