I have to say, it didn't disappoint. The storyline, the production values, the conventions of the genre, the dance moves, the resolution and the final twist all combined to make it every bit as memorable and significant as the hype suggested it was going to be.
The wedding aired in Australian in the July of that year but, being on the other side of a world without an internet, UK audiences, eleven hours behind Melbourne in the real world were several months behind Erinsborough in the made-up one.
From the players' tunnel, we filed out onto the pitch and then along the centre line. The first pair were to walk to the marked spot about a third of the way onto the pitch. The next pair followed along the centre line and then turned ninety degrees to line up parallel to the touchlines. In short, we did exactly what you've seen hundreds of times before an international sporting fixture.
I remember standing in crowds that were maybe two-deep on Pepper Lane as the Carnival procession made its way along the route. I remember the gasps that swept those around me as Chris/'Brian' swung into view, waving from an open-top car. Moments later, he was gone. If we're being slightly unkind, we might say it was a portent of his career.
We got a taxi to Rajput's, a kebab shop on the 'Headingley Mile'. I'm so pleased to see that it's still going strong today. From there, we made our way from pub to pub until we arrived at the spiritual home of the Headingley pub crawl, The Original Oak. I've had some great times in this legendary place since then but none were better than that night.
I remember liking things that I knew were popular before Kenny Everett but I think it’s fair to say that his show was among the first things I liked because I knew it was ‘cool’. I also can’t think of anything before Ken that I loved specifically because it was subversive. You knew it often skated along the ragged edge of what humour could get away with - which made it all the more appealing.
In contrast, ‘KITT’ was installed with futuristic AI, the cutting-edge looks of an ’82 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am - and he was bullet-proof. It was as 1980s as it could be. What nine year-old could resist the conclusion that this was the future of TV entertainment?
I didn’t think much more about it, expecting to end up ‘on the cutting room floor’. A day later, I happened to have Sky Sports News on and heard the introduction to a piece about touch rugby. Surely, it couldn’t be last night’s footage, could it? And then there we were - and, if you look really carefully, there I was. The few seconds’ footage of our game against OSJ Ladies came from a time when I was on interchange, which is why I’m at the top of the screen, off the pitch.
On reflection, the phenomenon unleashed on the listening public in January 1978 was such a random collision of factors: a prodigy performance artist from Kent dancing expressively to her self-written song based on a (then) 140 year-old novel by Emily Brontë, set on the West Yorkshire Moors. Nothing about it fits any kind of formula for pop success but it got to Number 1 in the charts and stayed there for a month.
5 years ago | The Great Barrier Reef, off Queensland, AU | 4th January 2018 Five years ago, we snorkelled in the Great Barrier Reef. Let’s just let that just sink in for a moment… Even as I type those words, part of me can’t quite believe I’m able to. It’s a preposterous thing …
My Dad and I began to immerse ourselves into this brave new world, anticipating the many doors of wonderment that would open before us, as all the hype was suggesting. The reality was, I'm afraid, not entirely the kind of valuable experience we were hoping for.
Sadly, we didn't have time to venture out to Pin Oak Court - the real life name of 'Ramsay Street' - situated about eight miles east of the city centre. The closest I got to considering it was as we looked out over the sprawling suburbs from the top of the Eureka Tower. If I'm honest, I'd 'moved on' from Neighbours, years ago. It had served its purpose, both as adolescent entertainment and as a portal to another world. Thanks, in no small part, to the 1980s residents of 'Erinsborough', I was there, looking at it - sort of - from 975 feet up.
Resonation 
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