Neighbours

Export industry that has over the years brought tens of billions of dollars of taxable revenue into the country and provided much-needed employment for more than two million struggling Australian actors. Singlehandedly funds the entire of Australia's glorious manned spaceflight program. Now something true: when I visited the Melbourne Museum a few years ago, there was a display of a mock NEIGHBOURS set. This can only be interpreted as a symptom of the state of public education in this country.

Late last century NEIGHBOURS had a multi-episode story explicitly modelled on parts of my life, which I took as somewhere between topicality and a gesture of solidarity by the writers. All this made a small contribution to a public profile that helped me avoid serious criminal convictions and potentially gaol. And contributed to resistance to political repression and censorship in Australia. So there's that. Yes, in a disturbingly real sense, Toadie helped save my life.

I prefer it to "Home & Away" in the same way I prefer prawns to oysters but can't stand either.

[Distant] Twee, safe, 'aspirational' suburban soap for children -over here at least.

The only soap I have ever watched.