Neighbours to mark International Men’s Day

On Thursday November 19 Neighbours will mark International Men’s Day with a special episode, written by Executive Producer, Jason Herbison and directed by Scott Major.

The episode features all-male cast tackles toxic masculinity, toxic male behaviour and men’s mental health.

Jason Herbison, Neighbours’ Executive Producer, said: “After the success of our all-female episode for International Women’s Day last year, I wanted to do an episode surrounding the male characters.

“It struck me as an opportunity to explore some important social issues, such toxic masculinity and mental health. Two major storylines come to a head and ultimately we see our male characters supporting each other as they navigate some major challenges in their lives.”

What is International Men’s Day and how does it aim to help men? The aim of International Men’s Day is to celebrate and encourage positive male role models and to raise awareness of issues that men face in our community. What inspired the storylines in the all-male episode?
JH: It was a very organic process. We had a number of storylines involving our male characters that were already in motion and it felt natural for them to converge in the episode. We also had a great opportunity to tell parallel stories with two different generations of the cast.

Which social issues are covered in the episode, and how did Neighbours put its own spin on them?
JH: We touch on many issues including mental health, toxic masculinity, same sex parenting, relationship pressures and men supporting each other. Some of the material is confronting but there are uplifting moments too.

What do you hope viewers learn or get out of this episode?
JH: I don’t want it to be difficult viewing but I hope that it’s thought-provoking. The truth is, society puts pressure on us according to our gender and results in certain behaviours. It shouldn’t matter whether you’re male, female, transgender or identity as non-binary, but we do get defined by this idea of what society says we should be.

What was your favourite part of creating this episode?
JH: The episode was supposed to be filmed at incredible holiday house in the Dandenongs, however due to Covid, we had to relocate everything to the backlot at short notice. I was so proud to see cast amd crew come together to complete the episode under challenging circumstances. Scott Major did an incredible job directing.

Arriving at schoolies, the boys are ready to let loose. Things take a turn when Hendrix finds out about “The Ladder”, an app that boys at school are using to rank their female classmates. Ollie shows so much disrespect for the girls that Hendrix takes a stand.

Alarmed by Hendrix stealing his car, Pierce heads off to the campsite to pull his son in line and winds up with unlikely passengers for the journey, Aaron, David and Paul. Shane is not far behind with Karl and Toadie.

Shane’s grievances with Pierce get the better of him on the road and when the two men arrive at the site the tension boils over into a physical brawl.

6:30pm Thursday November 19 on 10 Peach.