Neighbours airs 8000th episode starring original cast member Stefan Dennis

Australia’s longest running soapie, Neighbours — which launched the careers of Kylie Minogue, Guy Pearce and Margot Robbie — airs its 8000th episode this week. Stefan Dennis is the only cast member still on the show who was there when it all began.

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Even if you’ve never watched Neighbours, you probably know it’s set in the fictitious cul-de-sac of Ramsay St. And the reason you know this is because it’s Australia’s longest running soapie, infiltrating popular culture.

The show, which has won countless awards, set global TV records and launched the careers of Kylie Minogue, Guy Pearce, Margot Robbie and Delta Goodrem, airs its 8000th episode this week.

And, for the first time in its 34-year history, episodes of the show will air right through the Christmas and New Year period, breaking with the traditional holiday season hiatus.

Stefan Dennis is one of the original cast members of Neighbours - and is still on the show today. Picture: Tony Gough

Just one cast member still on the show today can say he was there when it all began in March 1985 — Stefan Dennis.

“The storyline for the 8000th episode is mammoth with four major stories revolving around it,” Dennis tells BW Magazine.

“I think you could safely say it’s one of the bigger events in Neighbours’ history.

“There’s a huge sense of pride for me to be associated with a show like Neighbours. Even though I have done a ton of other things, particularly in the 13 years when I left Neighbours, it is the character of Paul Robinson that I am associated with. I don’t get recognised for myself, but for Paul, and I came to terms with that many years ago.”

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It’s been said many times that Neighbours — and its Channel 7 counterpart Home And Away, which launched a few years after Neighbours in 1988 — have been wonderful career launch pads for many actors including Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Guy Pearce, Alan Dale, Liam Hemsworth, Margot Robbie, Delta Goodrem and Natalie Bassingthwaighte.

And Dennis has watched them all come and go.

Neighbours in its early days with (from rear left) Jason Donovan, Stefan Dennis (front) Alan Dale, Kylie Flinker & Anne Haddy.

He says occasionally he has been able to see an early sparkle in some of the young talent who walked onto the set, but not always.

“There have been some surprises,” he says.

“Guy Pearce was a real surprise.

“We always knew he was a good actor but not long after he left Neighbours it looked like he disappeared and then, bang, he’s on LA Confidential with Russell Crowe and Kim Basinger.

“It was the same with Alan Dale, though he wasn’t just a surprise, he was a shock,” Dennis says of the actor who played single dad Jim Robinson on Neighbours and then went on to have recurring roles in The West Wing, 24 and NCIS to name just a few.

“He said to me once, ‘Stef, I don’t have to audition any more’ and I said ‘That’s what you call making it’.

“And then there’s Margot Robbie, who wasn’t a shock at all, a handful of us saw her and thought ‘Watch this space’.”

Dennis, now 60 and a father of three, never seems to tire of talking about the show that has been almost a constant throughout his adult life.

With a genuine enthusiasm, he looks back fondly over the different eras of the show. He believes its heyday was in the late 1980s, when he compares the popularity of Neighbours to Beatlemania.

Stefan Dennis with Margot Robbie celebrating 25 years of Neighbours.

Indeed, the show’s spike in ratings occurred in July 1987 with the episode in which Scott Robinson (Donovan) married his rough-around-the-edges sweetheart Charlene Mitchell (Minogue). It was one of the few episodes to include the entire cast and became the highest-rating soap opera episode in the country.

Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue played Scott and Charlene in Neighbours.

In the UK, where Neighbours has always enjoyed phenomenal success, almost 20 million people tuned in to watch the pair exchange vows — more than the entire population of Australia at the time.

“I consider the ’80s the golden years for Neighbours, it took everybody by surprise,” Dennis recalls.

“We had no idea, even when it was happening, how phenomenal the show had become overseas.

“I remember doing an appearance at the Royal Variety Performance in Belfast and they were expecting a few hundred to turn up, but shortly before I arrived, there were 5000 people there already and many more streaming in. It created a logistical nightmare for the organisers who were not prepared for such crowds and there was even talk of needing a helicopter to get me out.

“We came to expect the crowds overseas but then it started to happen here. We’d do an appearance at a Westfield and they’d expect maybe 1000 to show up but 10,000 would come; screaming fans like with Beatlemania.”

Margot Robbie, flanked by Ashleigh Brewer and Sam Clark, during her time on Neighbours.

What makes Neighbours stand out from the hundreds of other shows that have come and gone over the decades? It’s a question Dennis has struggled to answer.

Until recently. “You can sum it up in one word — entertainment,” he says.

“It’s as simple as that. It’s a half-hour of pure entertainment, whether it’s scandalous, dramatic, quirky or comedic, when you tune in to an episode, you are entertained.

“And we try to cast good actors who can appeal to the wide spectrum of people and the different generations who watch it. The producers make sure it’s entertaining for the audience who watch, whether they’re 15 or 105. I’ve had letters from little kids and even from one lady who was aged over 100 once.”

The cast of Neighbours in 1987: Stefan Dennis with Fiona Corke, Paul Keane, Anne Charleston, Jason Donovan, Kylie Minogue, Lisa Armytage, Ian Smith, Annie Jones, Craig McLachlan, (Front, left to right) Anne Haddy, Kristian Schmidt, Alan Dale, Katie Landers, Vivean Gray and Guy Pearce.

Dennis says he relished playing the nefarious Paul Robinson, the show’s villain who has over the years been held hostage, been jailed, had a brain tumour and been married five times. When the show celebrated its 6000th episode in 2010, the producers wanted to make Paul a central part of the action and so, in the milestone episode in which Margot Robbie’s character Donna Freedman gets married, an attempt was made on Paul’s life.

Long-time Neighbours stars Stefan Dennis, Jackie Woodburne, Alan Fletcher and Ryan Moloney. Picture: Channel 10

Neighbours has been nominated for 83 Logie Awards, winning 31, but Dennis says it’s no big deal to his children Darci, 10, Declan, 13 and Cameron, 16.

“My kids don’t give a rat’s arse about my involvement in Neighbours,” Dennis says.

“For them it’s just dad’s work, although occasionally they’ll use the fame game to their advantage.

“My 10-year-old became a bit of a fan recently and I’d sit down and watch the occasional episode with her. And 30-something years later I can say it’s still fun to watch. I got wrapped up in it quite fast and it says a lot if I can be entertained by something I have worked on for so long.”