Nightmare on Ramsay Street

This nice little site offers a terrifying insight into what's coming up later in month as Neighbours undergoes a serious revamp.

The most distressing element has to be the music - hopefully it will grow on me, but Home and Away's recent dalliance with crazy vocals had to be retracted a few months later. And though it's nice that the series will now be filmed in HD, it would be good to consider non-HD TV viewers who'll find it hard to make out who the characters whizzing by will be.

My only other quibble, is that Neighbours was supposed to be getting back to be being about families, friends and a lighter way of life. As Mark Little and Kyal Marsh have both said in recent interviews, the series has got way too depressing, obsessed with cheap stunts, backstabbing and psychos. But already the new Neighbours has a major car smash, another woman arriving to play mind games with Paul and further heartbreak for Susan. Where's the comedy?

Still, there are one or two promising signs. The return of Valda could be the comic touch we need and it's nice that Toadie and Steph look set to be happy. So long as the new family aren't too irksome and there aren't too many irritating kids arriving, things could work out for the best. Though someone really needs to explain to me where all those twentysomethings living at number 30 came from...