We boarded the Neighbours tour bus with a mixture of excitement (me) and embarassment (James). While driving to the infamous Ramsey Street, the tour guide put a couple of episodes on to the bus' DVD player for us to watch - they were classics - the Kylie/Jason wedding and Daphne's death...remember Phoebe and Todd, Lucy and Hilary? It was amuzing to watch and reminisce about the old characters and surprising that James seemed to remember far more of the characters than me (despite insisting that he was watching under duress!).
Arriving at the street, our first impression was of how small the actual cul-de-sac is - it looks much bigger on screen. The tour guide explained that they use camera tricks to make the street seem wider and do subtle things such as number the houses 22, 24 etc, even though there are in reality only 8 houses in the road. The houses themselves are privately owned, but the programme makers have a deal that they can film at any time. When they do, all the resident's cars have to be parked elsewhere and they have to close their curtains. In return, they are paid hefty chunk of money each year, have gardeners and decorators to maintain the outsides of their homes for free and a 24 hour security guard roaming the street (apparently he is there to protect residents from fans turning up and being a nuisance). Pretty good deal we thought - well it must be - there is an actual waiting list to buy a house on the street and only one house has been sold in the last 20 years!
Having taken lots of photos - some with the cheesy 'Ramsey Street' sign the tour guide supplied us with (the street is actually called Pin Oak Cresent in Vermount South Melbourne) - we drove on to the recording studio where they do most of the filming. We couldn't go inside but did recognise the outside of the building as it's where Lassiters is - and one angle of the building is used in the show sometimes as the hospital/airport/prison (despite the popularity of Neighbours at home, it's obviously a low budget operation!).
Finally we went to Erinsborough High School before driving back. I was gutted that I didn't get to meet Harold or Karl Kennedy, but overall it was a laugh and a good bit of nostalgia. Despite James pulling faces in the photos, doing his best to look like he didn't want to be there, even he admitted to me that he enjoyed it!
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