Skylover

Not as Izzy, but as Izzy's daughter. I think she could probably portray the vixen like quality Izzy's daughter would likely have more than Lucinda Armstrong Hall. Margot Robbie is a lot to live up to, but it would be good if she could achieve that level of success.

I agree about the Rodwells. Felix should have been a longer term character to cover the gap left by Wendy. They used to be much better at filling the gaps in the 80s and 90s, perhaps it's down to cost, but there have been some odd writing choices. I don't mind Karl and Susan being supporting characters, as they're so long-term I think they don't need to be front and centre a lot. Here is the list of character episode counts for 2024: 151: Terese Willis (Rebekah Elmaloglou) 142: Aaron Brennan (Matt Wilson) 124: Nicolette Stone (Hannah Monson) 122: Krista Sinclair (Majella Davis) 122: Remi Varga-Murphy (Naomi Rukavina) 120: Cara Varga-Murphy (Sara West) 120: Leo Tanaka (Tim Kano) 119: Byron Stone (Xavier Molyneux) 119: Holly Hoyland (Lucinda Armstrong Hall) 114: Haz Devkar (Shiv Palekar) 110: Karl Kennedy (Alan Fletcher) 108: Andrew Rodwell (Lloyd Will) 102: Paul Robinson (Stefan Dennis) 102: Toadfish Rebecchi (Ryan Moloney) 99: Jane Harris (Annie Jones) 98: Wendy Rodwell (Candice Leask) 97: Melanie Pearson (Lucinda Cowden) 89: Sadie Rodwell (Emerald Chan) 87: Mackenzie Hargreaves (Georgie Stone) 86: JJ Varga-Murphy (Riley Bryant) 82: Susan Kennedy (Jackie Woodburne) 61: Nell Rebecchi (Ayisha Salem-Towner) 59: Dex Varga-Murphy (Marley Williams) 35: Isla Tanaka-Brennan (Hana Abe-Tucker) 24: Sam Young (Henrietta Graham) 21: Hugo Rebecchi (Tanner Ellis-Anderson) 20: Abigail Tanaka (Nikita Kato) 18: David Tanaka (Takaya Honda) 14: Harold Bishop (Ian Smith) 14: Max Ramsay (Ben Jackson) I quite like her as a full time character, as I want the Kennedys to live on in some form after Karl and Susan leave one day (if the show lasts that long!) but I would prefer she was written differently. Less of a misery magnet and more of a mini Izzy. She's nowhere near like Izzy as much as I wish she was, she doesn't have the vixen like quality Izzy had. That's why I think Majella would have been. a good recast, I could see her as Izzy's daughter.

I wouldn't say they're part-time characters, I have no issue with it at all. The problem is they've written Holly poorly as a character, it shouldn't have been constant drama/kidnaps/hostages for her persistently, as the Kennedys' absence wouldn't have been as noticeable. I don't even find Karl and Susan's absences that noticeable and I'm not sure why some people do. Karl appeared in more episodes in 2024 than Andrew, Paul, Jane, Sadie, JJ, etc, and was still in 110 episodes so he was there more than he wasn't. Jackie had more time off-screen than usual because of her pre-planned break, but she had more time off this year than she would normally because of that. I definitely wouldn't want Karl and Susan to move out of their house, as there's a lot of history attached to them being in that house, plus Holly needs somewhere to live, I wouldn't want her going to the share house or something. UK cast take long breaks from soaps and no-one really notices.

The idea of writing Karl and Susan out is absolutely absurd, especially given Toadie has just gone and they have few long-term characters left. Leo and Aaron don't cut it. I do agree that Holly's not great though, although she did come 3rd in our vote for the most popular characters of 2024. Personally, I think she should have been recast instead of inviting back the child actress. Majella Davis would have been a good Holly recast. The producers do make some odd decisions at times.

I think the absences could be written better. Like Karl could mention in one episode he's going to visit a family member and the next he's gone for a bit, they don't need to dwell on it so much. They have a lot of family members who live away like Malcolm, Libby, Billy, Ben, the twins, Rachel, Zeke, Elly, Bea, Katya, so it should be easy to write them out while they visit relatives. I feel like Neighbours has always dwelled too much on temporary absences. Cast in UK soaps disappear for long periods without much explanation. I have to say, it doesn't really bother me that much though, although I did miss Susan when she was written out to accommodate Jackie's holiday that was planned prior to the revival earlier in the year.

I think it's down to a number of factors. The tour in 2023 initially went on sale in 2019 and was due to take place in 2020 as the 35th Anniversary tour, and this was when the show was still on Channel 5 and hadn't been axed. I do think though that the new tour should have had some stalwarts on the show in the new cast even though they'd done it before. I get the reasoning to want different actors so you're not repeating, but those long-term cast would undeniably be a draw, I don't think anyone is interested in meeting the actor who plays Leo. Alan and Jackie don't need to be there all the time. They still appeared in 110 and 82 episodes of 2024 respectively, which is a lot. I don't think long-term cast need to be involved in big storylines all the time, sometimes they work well as supporting characters. I'd rather have them there less than not there at all. They're treated much better than the Home and Away veteran actors.

If we break it down into most successful eras, 1986-1988, 1992-1994, 1996-1999 and 2003-2005 are considered 'golden eras'. Since then, the most popular era has probably been 2014-2020ish. 1995 is considered a fairly weak year (though I watched this recently and thought it was very good), Harold and Madge were re-introduced in late 1996 at the BBC's insistence in order to revamp the show following a perceived weak period. With their return, and the introduction of the Wilkinsons (including Anne) which blended long-term with the Martins, that period is considered a very good one, especially with the likes of Karl's affair with Sarah, the 1997 season finale (which saw Karl/Sarah kiss, and Ruth's son Ben involved in a car crash). 2000 and 2001 are considered to be two of the weakest seasons of the show as people thought it was boring and bland, it picked up in 2002 when the producer changed, which led to the next good period from 2003 to 2005. 2004 in particular is considered to be a very strong period. I agree with Liberty City about looking at Season 1000 to see the iconic episodes. If you're interested in the late 90s, I would watch episodes 2995, 3000 and 3108 to 3111.

I seem to remember people did pick up on it. People also picked up on a continuity error in yesterday's episode. When Gino was reminiscing about his ex boyfriend Aaron, he remarked that he wasn't as muscly as Aaron Brennan. But this was completely wrong, as Gino's ex Aaron was a bodybuilder.

Davinder is the only one of the Panesars I like, and to a lesser extent, Priya.

And the speculation was right!

Maybe they should write out the Panesars and bring back the Masoods. The show probably wouldn't be able to not have an Asian family, and Kamil would be a teenager now. I know I was against the idea of Syed coming back earlier in the thread, but if Masood, Kamil, Christian and Syed could replace the Panesars I'd be happy with that. However, Masood is with Jane now, and Bobby went to live with Jane.

People are speculating that Darcy Tyler is back.

The Masoods were wonderful in comparison to the Panesars. I loved Zainab and Syed.

Unfortunately, I don't see them going anywhere. I don't think soap producers have much awareness these days. The Millers were also considered one of the worst families, but they were better than the Panesars too.

I think I liked the Ferreiras much more. They had Sasha, who was a good character and who I'd like see return. The Ferreiras were pretty bland, but at least they had some warmth to them.

Yeah he wasn't the best.

I'm glad someone else thinks the same, I thought I was the only one who thought this.

Oh dear

I'm excited, but I'd be more excited if they did a clear-out and introduced an unrelated family to take the show forward. At least there's less deadwood than Coronation St though.

Good news 🥰

I didn't know if anyone would be interested, but we're running a vote for the Top Characters of 2024 on NeighboursFans.com. You can vote for your top 12 characters of the year. The voting thread can be found here but you have to sign up to vote, just thought I'd mention it in case anyone's interested!

I feel like Charlie Brooks only really goes back for the pay check. Hopefully Michelle Collins will be more like Gillian Taylforth, and we see her stick around for good like Kathy has. Here's hoping anyway. I think they need to recast Anna though, I don't think she's working out. Now would be a good time for Cindy jr to return too, most likely recast. That's understandable to be fair. Too much has gone wrong since 2010 and arguably there were problems even earlier. Killing off Cindy in 1998, Kathy in 2006, then later on the unnecessary deaths of people like Pat, Heather, Abi, Steven, Ronnie, Roxy etc, they're finally course correcting, but it's been an uphill battle. Chris Clenshaw has made some good decisions like bringing back Yolande, Lauren, Alfie etc. However, I feel he has also made some bad mistakes, the biggest of which for me is the Six storyline, which IMO has tarnished a lot of characters. I also think introducing another male branch of the Mitchells was a mistake, when I'd prefer female Mitchells. I hope they don't write off Sam, as there's a lot of potential with Kim Medcalf. She doesn't have to be there all the time if they don't feel Sam is needed as a regular. It's an uphill battle to get to pre 2010 level, but they've made good groundwork. I think they just need to do a few more things to get back on track, some of which includes less looking back and more looking forward, a reduction in violence and whodunnits, more new families and axing some existing ones (I'd say Panesars first out).

I think that's a good way of putting it. They just need to steer away from violence and murders for a few years, and focus on more simple drama.

I'd rather not have another murder though to be honest, in fact EE has been far too reliant on murder storylines since Archie's murder in 2010. I could possibly even do without the attack on Cindy. I wish they'd go back to exploring other types of dramatic storytelling, but I accept this is the direction they've gone in now. I quite like Phil's mental health storyline, and Nigel's return.

Best Christmas day episode(s) for years, if not decades, IMO.