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Neighbours first: just 3 characters for an entire episode

Minor spoilers: A love triangle provides the perfect excuse for Neighbours to feature just 3 actors for a full episode.

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Minor Spoilers:

In a Neighbours first, next month it will screen an episode that features just three characters.

Episode #7202 will bring to a head a love triangle of two and a half years between Brad (Kip Gamblin, pictured centre), his wife Terese (Rebekah Elmaloglou, right) and Lauren (Kate Kendall, left).

Series Producer, Jason Herbison, has written the episode which sees Brad decide to tell Terese some home truths.

Staged in two households on opposite sides of Ramsay Street, the action manages to encapsulate 3 of the 5 stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining -with Fear thrown in for good measure.

It even reaches a crescendo in a classic soapie-style pool dunking.

Kip Gamblin, Rebekah Elmaloglou and Kate Kendall all get to chew the scenery, rather like a play and their commitment together with the unique approach is what separates this from other episodes. Fans will doubtless look back on this as one of the more memorable stories.

It’s rare for a drama to follow so few actors for the duration of an entire episode. In the US these are commonly referred to as “bottle” episodes, using minimal cast and sets. Star Trek, Breaking Bad, Community, The X Files have all featured episodes in which key characters are confined to few locations, although usually for budgetary reasons. In Australia it’s less common.

It airs at 6:30pm Tuesday September 1 on ELEVEN.

12 Responses

  1. This is quite common in EastEnders and Coronation Street.
    EE has often done two parters or even 3 parters.
    Should be interesting to watch as a Neighbours viewer.

  2. This will be a nice little touch. I love it when they do things like this.

    I’m sure Prisoner did the same thing once in a very oddly bizarre episode where the whole ep was set in the rec room and revolved around Judy coming up with a scheme where the women were to go around one by one and exposing their true feelings by telling each other exactly what they thought of each other with no holding back in a bid to ease tensions and bring the women closer together but instead invariably turned to chaos.

  3. I think the first time I’d seen something like this was in easterenders in the late 80s. It was very innovative, they do it well there. Looking forward to this, although am getting tired of Terase’s ranting.

  4. This should be a good episode, and a hopefully a successful way to play out a story line that’s been going on for two and a half years. I actually like that they have waited so long for it to happen.
    I recall Home and Away doing a one set episode many years ago, in the early 2000’s, I cannot recall the story line too well, but it was set in what was Leah’s house and and involved only very few characters.

  5. Sounds good. The double-hander and single-hander eps on the UK soaps are fantastic, so fingers crossed for Neighbours. The EastEnders single-hander in 2007 that showed just one character for the whole 30 minutes and was one of the most touching and brilliant moments in TV I’ve ever seen.

  6. Brilliant! A Three Hander episode….. This has been simmering ever since both families landed on the street!
    Home and Away should take note how Neighbours is doing things these days, they could learn a thing or two from their southern ‘neighbours’!

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