Dion

That is a shame that Zeke and Rebecca are being written out. At this rate by 2014 (assuming the show hasn't been cancelled by then but I do think it will be given a few years on Eleven) there will be no characters left over who joined during the 2000s just like how by 1994 all the eighties characters except Helen, a recast Julie and a recast Cody were gone (not including Lou in that list because his first stint in 1988 was short). Although at least this time we still actually have some characters left over from the nineties and Paul is back from the original cast. I guess what I am trying to say is that Neighbours has really struggled with developing long term characters in the past few years after having great success with the likes of the Kennedys and the Scully's. So it really is a shame that Jane Hall (who seemed happy to stay put) and Matthew Werkmeister (who I'd hoped would stay for a bit longer as he has been there for five years despite making noises about leaving some time ago) Won't really miss reacst Declan though

I was wondering if they were going to deal with the racism angle. I do remember Jim referring to Billie as "that black kid of Carol's" or something to that effect when he was introduced and Carol saying that her father and all her brothers (even though Max and Jack hadn't been invented yet then) were all racist, a point which seems to have been quietly brushed under the carpet (aside from when Jim and Patrick first became friends). So while Jim, Max and Jack aren't racist anymore, its good to see Carol still remembers how she was treated when she got together with Billie's father (mostly by Jim and the other Branning brother not on canvas as Jack and Max would have still been a bit too young).

Definitely Carl...she was amazing in the storyline when Jim beat her up and though I haven't seen it myself, was praised for the storyline when Jim and Liz's premature daughter died

Yeah that happened here in NZ too. Eventually we were more than three years behind but now they play double episodes so we are now 2 and a half years behind.

Tonight was Gerald's last episode. His exit storyline involved him marrying his best friend Libby (who left the show back in March but returned for a guest stint to wrap up Gerald's storyline) as Libby needed to get a US green card and Gerald conveniently turned out to be an American citizen! (I would have bought that particularly detail if they'd mentioned it when his parents came on during one of their recurring stints). Oh well, at least this marriage is heavily implied to be based on real feelings (a strong friendship that will actually turn into true love) and not just a scheme to defraud the INS! Just a shame we won't get to see their relationship play out onscreen! But it is a somewhat fitting end to the arcs of both characters (Gerald gets a wife who won't mind the whole asexuality issue and accepts him for who he is and Libby finally got a wedding and a husband).

It's called a Newton's cradle...for some reason I've always wanted one of those! lol. I don't know if she cut the strings off either.

Kinda old news now but it seems Adam Rickitt's departure in the 90 Minute special on August 2 scored an Impressive 837,000 viewers, making it one of the highest rated episodes of Shortland Street since it began! (and also it was the highest rated episode of any show that week) And since then the show has rated quite well, remaining in the 500,000 to 700,000 range. Fridays often do relatively poorly with figures down in the low 500's but on other nights the show can get more than 600,000 or even 700,000. Here is a link to NZ ratings on Throng.co.nz NZ Ratings

I agree and I always thought it was a shame they decided to dress her up like a modern day Queen Victoria for most of her 00's stint.

Its not the EE theme tune, although the arrangement is very similar (the handclaps!) and thats not actually Chris with them either...its a NZ actor Simon Praast(who actually does resemble Chris, I thought it was Chris at first too until I realized who it really was). I think Chris and Leeza were at the Christchurch venue while this one was at the Auckland venue. oh and I do think Letitia's actually quite talented at the poi lol.

Saw this and just had to share: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvOziT29Hqg&feature=related I never realized that EastEnders was that popular in NZ to warrant flying Susan Tully and Letitia Dean all the way from the UK. Though EE was in a primetime slot here until around 1990, so I guess maybe we lost interest after Dirty Den's first death (and another network did try EE in a primetime slot again when he came back...) And if the date is correct its from the same Telethon that Christopher Quinten (Brian Tilsley on Coronation Street) met Leeza Gibbons...which led to him being killed off.

Yes that's very true. They didn't have very much to do with each other and when the whole Sharongate business came out Pauline actually commented that she felt that she'd failed Sharon by not having been a greater presence in her life and promised that she'd look out for Sharon more in the future. Of course Sharon soon left, but when she came back Pauline was able to live up to that promise. So while Sharon and Pauline may not have had much to do with each other during Sharon's first run, the stage had already been set for a much closer relationship during Sharon's second run.

Morgan is Bianca's Bio child. She had a one night stand and got pregnant. Bianca then met Tony while she was pregnant and vulnerable and he adopted the child (of course his motives were to get Whitney). Should be quite interesting I think when Morgan's father eventually turns up (and I'm sure he will eventually). Really I'm guessing Morgan's only function was to be Bianca's version of a young Billie.

Yeah, Irene and Marilyn were the best of friends back during Marilyn's last stint, now it seems Marilyn is just merely some old acquaintance that she barely used to know.

As of tonight in New Zealand (we are two weeks behind Australia), and I'll put this in spoiler tags because I know you guys are watching at UK pace

Part of the show's mandate when it was commissioned to receive funding from NZ on Air (the governments local content funding agency) was to "push the boundaries of New Zealand drama" which they did with gusto. The complaints about the content not being suitable for the timeslot poured in for a few years (Until 2008 the NZ broadcasting standards authority always ruled in Shortland Street's favour) but eventually died down. The 90 minute episode was interesting, and had what was probably the longest ever pre-episode recap as they recapped many of the main events from Kieran's run on the show. Thankfully the entire episode wasn't just about him otherwise it really would have gotten tedious watching him get kidnapped and escape several times. In the end Kieran fell off a cliff and is now presumed dead, but before that happened they did manage to resolve most of his characters arc so it was a very satisfying end to the character. The B plots in the episode were also quite interesting, with one major subplot (downgrading the Shortland Street hospital into a satellite of another) that has been brewing since the beginning of the year being wrapped up and Chris Warner (the sole remaining original character) learning that he has a somewhat SORASed son by an old love.

Yeah i'd rather see some more Beales (new or old) or some Masood relations (a son or daughter of Masood's brother)

Hopefully they start with a season return episode. The first episodes of 2005, 2006 or 2007 would be excellent starting points as each preceding season finales provided more resolution than cliffhanger. My personal preference would be for the first episode of 2005 as that pretty much was a transition period for the show that set up stories and characters that ran for several years, but that's probably a bit too long ago now, even with double bills. The first episode of 2007 would be another good place to start as you still have 9 characters on the show from that period with no major characters leaving until the serial killer storyline kicks in about six months in. As for Kieran's exit and the 90 minute special, well I'll have to leave that for another day as its actually 3am right now lol.

pretty easily i'd imagine...Bianca seems to just vanish into thin air whenever Patsy Palmer needs some leave. She was off air for two months last year while she was doing a play.

I'd love it if all three went to the same support group seperately and were all surprised to find the others there.

Yeah, I don't think Gerald has appeared in Irish episodes yet (he joined the show in August 2007). I'm guessing the clips you have seen were maybe from 2008 or 2009. Speaking of Gerald a scene he was in led to Shortland Street's first ever fine from the Broadcasting Standards Authority in 2008. This scene involved a male childhood friend of Gerald's coming to town and revealing he was gay. Gerald who was confused at the time decided that he might be gay (or rather everyone else assumed he was gay but in denial and encouraged him to try things out with his old friend) and somewhat awkwardly decided to sleep with his friend. The two hopped into bed and the friend put his head under the covers to obviously give him a blowjob but Gerald who wasn't too comfortable with this ended up kneeing his friend in the face! Not too risque really until you realise that the show screens at 7pm! Actually the man who hated Lesbians didn't actually know that Jay was a lesbian (at first). Jay was looking for finance for some business venture and met Dylan. After Dylan had made his homophobia clear, Jay decided not to tell him about her sexuality and ended up having an affair with him. Of course Dylan ended up finding out that Jay was a lesbian and I believe he vindictively videotaped their last sexual encounter before sending it to Maia, who saw it and had her first breakdown (with the whole first act of one episode being shot entirely from Maia's POV as she had her breakdown). These episodes should be available on Youtube as Ireland would have screened them some months ago. When I get time I'll huntout the episode numbers for you. This was not actually the first time that Jay had cheated on Maia with a man (she'd slept with another man almost a year before the civil union) despite the fact that Jay was not bisexual (but at least the first time made sense because she was trying to get pregnant, the guy was her male best friend who'd already agreed to be her donor and they were wasted after drinking too much which led them to try getting pregnant through sex rather than artificial insemination). The show certainly has no qualms about killing off popular characters, this was particularly evident during Jason Daniel's run as producer (hence that comment I made about him in the Home And Away thread). He was behind the infamous Ferndale Strangler storyline (and in fact, Jay's actress wanted to leave at the beginning of 2007 but Jason Daniel persuaded her to stay on for an extra six months so she could be killed off). The show actually rates quite well (It's regularly rated in the top ten and often beats Coronation Street). The current audience ranges between 500,000 and 700,000 (which in a country of 4.3 million is amazing). The peak year for the show was in 1994 when the show peaked around the 900,000 mark, and then dropped off to around 500,000 by 1998 staying somewhat consistent until 2007 when the Ferndale strangler storyline caused a ratings resurgence which the show is still currently enjoying.

Yeah bizarrely he is quite popular in New Zealand, I'm not exactly sure of the reasons why. I partly put it down to lingering traces of cultural insecurity (the "oh look, an actor from the UK's longest running soap has decided to grace us with his presence and keeps on saying our country is wonderful" factor), the fact that much of the bad press he used to get in the UK never made it here and the fact that he is a lot better in Shortland Street than he was in Corrie (in fact most of his fans would have never seen him on Coronation Street as while both shows are usually in the Top ten, they appeal to different demographics). Even the shoplifting incident a few years back did nothing to affect his popularity. The lesbian couple you are referring to is Maia and Jay. Their wedding on Valentines Day 2006 (actually technically it was a civil union) came at the tail end of years of debate over the civil union issue (which was passed late in 2004). Their relationship only lasted 18 months. Merely six months after their civil union, there was this really bizarre and awful story about Jay sleeping with a man who hated Lesbians, followed by an equally bizarre but really good story about Maia and her sister's husband (a sex addict who had only settled for Maia's sister because he couldn't have Maia) conspiring to artificially inseminate Maia behind everyone's back. This ended Jay and Maia for good and Jay was all set to leave when she ended up being murdered by the Ferndale strangler. Maia then had her baby boy, left the show for six months (actress went on holiday with her boyfriend), came back, fell in love with Jay's straight best friend Alice, murdered Alice's evil boyfriend, confessed after having a mental breakdown, got off on a technicality (they ruled that her confession was invalid due to her mental instability!) and has since led a somewhat quieter life with her new girlfriend Nicole and her now almost three year old son (whom she predictably named Jay). Gerald hasn't had much of a story this year but is featured quite regularly. Last year though he did have an interesting arc in which he married his ex girlfriend Morgan (They'd broken up originally when Gerald realized he was asexual) who was pregnant with triplets (a surrogacy deal that was going sour) in order to strengthen morgan's case for getting custody. The marriage came unstuck when Morgan had a change of heart and gave the babies to the genetic parents. Gerald and Morgan decided to try for a baby of their own, but of course Gerald wanted to do it through artificial insemination rather than sleeping with Morgan. Morgan then became attracted to another man and despite resisting temptation, she eventually realized that she wasn't willing to fore go a sexual relationship so she and Gerald ended the marriage. By the end of the year they had patched up their friendship, but then Morgan was killed in a hit and run in the 2009 season finale (Kieran, Adam Rickitt's character was the driver and is yet to be found out because his brother confessed instead). The show seems to be just plodding along at the moment but 2007 and 2008 were really good. Most of the episodes on youtube are from the Irish broadcasts (I think every single episode from late 2003 up to early 2007 is on there with closed captioning because the uploader is partially deaf and doing it for his/her other deaf friends) which are three years behind. I don't know if anyone is doing the current episodes though.

Thought I might as well start a thread on Shortland Street since there isn't one here already. Nothing much on the news front though aside from the fact that Adam Rickitt is

Partly because I didn't like the fact that the show was doing two unrelated murder storylines at around the same time (Lucas as a serial killer and Archie's whodunnit) I always thought it would have been nice if (some months ago that is) Stacey, feeling guilty about Archie's murder wound up confiding in Lucas. Talking to Lucas and re-examining her behaviour in the months beforehand (specifically the Trina incident) would somehow make Stacey realise that her delusions about Ryan killing Trina weren't so far-fetched, she just had the wrong person. Lucas would explain it was an accident and Stacey would keep mum about it (especially since she wouldn't know that Lucas also killed Owen and there would be the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction). Of course, with the current events, Stacey would figure out that Lucas is responsible for everything, but not be able to say anything because Lucas would know about Archie.

So they will actually be going through with it this time? Rumors have been popping up since about 2005 about this.

My fave is the one where Janine tells Pat that she once spent hours scratching her name into the wall with her nails until they bled. Of course Pat doesn't believe her and applauds her for her Oscar winning performance! Then later as Janine is being led away we get to see that Janine did indeed scratch her name into the wall. I hated Janine with a passion right up until those scenes. now I quite like her but I do think she is being wasted. Then four years later Janine was able to show Pat the carving on the wall