Around The World In 80 Waves

In Melbourne I meet up with and old school friend of mine called Emma. I am staying with her, her husband Richard and their lovely boys Matthew and William.

Emma and I haven’t seen one another since the sixth form at school, during which we probably spent far more time than was appropriate watching the Australian soap opera called Neighbours on BBC1.

As a consequence I suggested we go on a grail quest around Melbourne to try and find the street where the series is filmed.

Emma does a bit of research and discovers it it actually called Pinoak Court and it is just down the road from their own home.

As soon as we pull up in the car we are greeted by a friendly security guard, who tells us that we can take pictures of the houses but mustn’t photograph the residents or trespass on their property.

We discover that there is filming there one day a week but it has been necessary for there to be a security team there twenty four hours a day and seven days a week as a result of bonkers people attacking the houses of characters who have been given a wicked role in the story line.

Running through the houses you see here the top one is Dr Karl’s home (or Des and Daphne’s depending on which vintage you are more familiar with.

Next is Mrs Mangle’s house, and below that Paul Robinson’s home, which has been particularly afflicted with lunatics throwing rocks through the windows, etc.

Next is the Ramsey House where Kylie Minogue was first seen in British households trying to climb in through the window from the balcony.

However the security guard was good enough to get a picture of Emma, Matthew and I calling in on the Robinson’s house, where Jim, Helen, Scott and Lucy all called home.

There was no sign of Bouncer anywhere.