Dion

Just as an aside to the above video featuring the pub quiz, I'm not entirely sure but the answer to the final question (which dish of meringue, cream and fruit is named after a Russian ballerina), the answer should be Pavlova, but Peggy says Desdemona (which I believe is three biscuits sandwiched together with whipped cream apricot glaze and fondant).

Tonight is the night Shorty returns with a hour-long episode (been quite spoilt lately)

I don't find it that strange...at one point NZ was over three years behind as Neighbours didn't start airing here until the second half of 1988! (we caught up through a combination of double episodes and screening the show all year round) There were even periods when Neighbours did not screen at all in NZ...and when it resumed they just picked up from roughly where the episodes would have been had they not stopped airing (meaning we skipped the last few weeks of 1995, all of 1996, half of 2000 and nearly all of 2001 except the final week). As for the current situation, I guess the problem is that since Neighbours occupies a 6:30pm slot like in Australia, we'd end up getting it two hours ahead of the first Australian broadcast. Screening it within 24 hours of the Australian broadcast would either mean a later timeslot, or playing it the following day which would mess up the Monday to Friday flow, so being a week behind seems perfectly reasonable to me. I don't begrudge UK viewers getting ahead of us either as the UK audience (and broadcaster whether it be the BBC or Channel 5) have always supported the show to the extent that it sometimes could be considered a UK/Aus co-production. The UK should have caught up years ago. I

The Shabnam death stare is worthy of a million memes.

I've always thought that all three of the "antipodean" soaps (H&A, Neighbours, Shortland Street) have been quite reluctant to commit to long term storylines (particularly H&A). Villians such as Charlotte will only last about six to nine months....a year at the absolute most (Characters such as the Braxtons and Paul Robinson being a slightly different kettle of fish). In Charlotte's case, obviously she was brought on to be this year's cliffhanger drama. It's actually good that she was brought on five to six months before the end of the year instead of arriving five to six weeks before. But I do feel that Charlotte had not yet outlived her purpose and could have done much more.

Yeah NZ is a week behind. There actually was a brief period (following the Delhi Commonwealth Games until the end of the 2010 season) where NZ was actually two hours ahead of the NSW and Victoria screenings, thus was briefly the first in the world to show Neighbours.

I think Lucas' brief return is a set up for a recast Jordan. Denise will get about a weeks worth of episodes out of the reunion before he's predictably sent off to become Vincent's minion in his war with the Mitchells, leaving Denise with nothing more to do other than hand-wringing. Of course, the recast will probably turn out to be Dexter 2.0 and be gone within 18 months....

Charlotte was the best thing to happen on the show in years.

I'm still watching Neighbours. It comes back in NZ next week. You'd think Paul wouldn't pull such a stunt after what Nick did to him but I guess he has a short memory lol. I like how they misdirected us regarding Shay, letting us believe she was in someway connected to Terese when it turned out that Shay had just been in a kids programme that Terese had run and her real target was Paul.

I'm really enjoying the Charlotte storyline (Season finale in NZ is today, followed by Eye for an Eye tomorrow which is getting a free to air run in NZ) and like how she's pissing everyone off. I like how her story has been tied into the main plot strands of the past year (Andy killing Jake as revenge for Casey, Billie and Kat's rivalry, Brax faking his death, Marilyn's amnesia even). The show on the whole is actually quite entertaining at the moment.

Hopefully Dayna's going to feel so stink when she finds out that while she and George were "pinching" (ok perhaps that's a bit too strong) Boyd and Harper's wedding, her baby sister was being held hostage but since she thinks the whole world revolves around her and George probably not. I don't think Drew is dead. He'll spend the next few months in recovery being angry before finally learning some humility. Maybe Virginia will try to take care of him, but he'll end up driving her away by being too difficult to deal with. I thought the set up for this whodunnit was quit unique. Having Drew already be shot twice by Gareth and then once again by a mystery shooter. I strongly think it could be Mags though, it feels like something she would do. Who knows, maybe it was Kylie's mum. I actually could see them killing off Vinnie, after all he's settled down with Nicole now and that usually signals doom on Shortland Street. Yes, Boyd is another who could be dispatched. When's TK coming back I wonder. His tenth anniversary is coming up soon, a significant milestone that few have reached. Even Sarah fell short by just one month! Though I've never really been a fan of his as he takes his own first name far too seriously...(see what I did there? Might take some googling :P)

Well that's it until 18 January.

I'm sure, somewhere out there in NZ, there'll be somebody absolutely horrified that this promo uses the American "Ashes, Ashes" rather than the British "A-tishoo, A-tishoo" lol.

So we got Gareth, Virginia (in car accident) and Victoria all with grudges against Drew, with potential conflict brewing with Boyd over Harper. Drew certainly has his hands full at the moment.

Just watched the episode now, lmao about Michael being freaked out by the infamous horse's head scene in The Godfather. Oh and the end with Bella was so awkward.

http://www.maifm.co.nz/Former-Shortland-Street-star-Beulah-Koale-lands-lead-role-in-DreamWorks-movie/tabid/76/articleID/20773/Default.aspx I'm guessing he'll be playing Tausolo Aieiti, the American Samoan soldier from the book (not the I've read it). Oh and the finale screens on Monday December 14, in a 90 minute long episode.

They haven't made a big deal out of it, but I did figure he was Muslim considering his name and references to traditional values. He'll probably get an Islamophobia storyline at some point, and references to Ramadan, Eid etc and perhaps a crisis of faith. I mentioned earlier that he's like a young Sam Aleni, I don't know when the finale is, I'm thinking it'll be Dec 18 because I don't recall next weeks NZ TV Guide saying it was the finale (and I've currently misplaced that so I can't confirm). Actually it'd be nice if for just this once they'd have the finale on Christmas Day like in 2004...or even run right through like they did in the really old days (1992 - 93, 1993 - 94 and 1995 - 96)

Ali and Esther look like they could be an interesting pairing.

Apparently TEN signed a "lifetime" deal to have the rights to screen B&B in Australia for as long as it remains in production. I think the show still rates somewhere in the region of 300,000 to 500,000 viewers in the capital cities, which is much higher than Neighbours recent ratings of around 200,000 (though Neighbours is of course on ELEVEN which has a much lower profile than TEN).

Wow I think Wendy claimed the honour of having Soapland's biggest ever up-chuck! Gross!

I don't think you have to worry about Ali, he's the 2010s version of young Sam Aleni, so while he probably go through a 'bad boy' phase at some point I don;t think it will be this soon and I think it won't be with someone as young and inappropriate as Millie (I see him eventually falling prey to a cougar lol). I think his girlfriend is the traditional type and I'm predicting now she'll turn up sometime next year for a six week to three month storyline where they get engaged or something, plan their wedding, before ultimately calling it off (or if they do marry, she'll die tragically setting off his bad boy phase like Sam Aleni). Packing Harry off to Grace was a good idea. I do wonder if they are gearing up for a recast. Reid Walker has been playing the role for six years now, making him one of the longest serving actors at only 15.

Yes he's exactly what I wanted when I said Curtis needed a male peer back at the beginning of September (kinda spooky actually). I only realised at the beginning of yesterday's episode that Bella had feelings for Boyd, totally did not see that coming, but it feels like a natural progression so I like it as an addition to the story. Now we have a Ginny-Drew-Harper-Boyd-Bella-Jimmy love hexagon (or perhaps a love sextangle lol). Also adore Kylie and Drew's friendship. I hope it always stays completely platonic. They're like brother and sister only Drew's a bit flirty (but they're not actually related so that's ok!).

He mentioned in an interview about six months ago that he suffered from bulimia and mental health issues from his teens right through his 20s, and didn't really recover until around the time of his 30th birthday (in 2008). He seems to be in a much happier place now.

Sharon didn't go to Uni, she just joined Michelle on a night out to a campus gig IIRC. Due to having had Vicki, Michelle was a little older than usual for a Uni student (started going in 1991 when she was 21-22 and graduated in 1994 aged 25). She'd been persuaded to go back to her studies by her flatmate Rachel who was a University lecturer.

Yeah whenever somebody returns on a US soap at least most of the characters portray at least some kind of shock and surprise despite it having happened at least 30 - 40 times before! On Eastenders its been "oh so you're alive...meh". Tracy had more of an interesting reaction to it then either Denise, Martin or Dot.