Neighbours was taken for granted before its episodes were cut down to just two a week, according to Channel 5 boss Ben Frow.
In wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the Australian soap reduced its weekly output to two episodes a week. It then went back up to three, and will return to five from May 11.
With filming back underway, and the show now returning to normality, Frow noted that viewers seemed to take the soap for granted until its regular amount of episodes was reduced.
"It's really funny, isn't it? All those things that everyone takes for granted. Nobody really talks about Neighbours, nobody really celebrates Neighbours, nobody's really proud of Neighbours – apart from the team of course and the people who make it," he said during the Edinburgh International Television Festival.
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"It's not a flagship show particularly, but suddenly you lose Neighbours three days a week and suddenly all anybody talks about is Neighbours.
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"It's been a great experience for the things that we take for granted that can now be appreciated – whether it is being together, being able to get a takeaway coffee, or whether it's your favourite television programme existing or coming back again."
On resuming filming, he said: "Neighbours is now functioning again in Australia. I appreciate they [Australia] had much less of a crisis than we did – it was managed very well by the government there. It has a huge plot of land, Neighbours – they've always invested so much in their infrastructure, so they have a lot of space.
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"But I'm sure there are lessons that can be learned from the team there that we can share with people who are looking to make drama again – how are they making social distancing work in terms of storylines and how do they make it not look plonky?"
Neighbours will return to airing five episodes a week from May 11, as will Home and Away even though the Summer Bay soap hasn't yet returned to filming.
Neighbours currently airs Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 1.45pm and 5.30pm on Channel 5 (UK) and weekdays at 6.30pm on 10 Peach (Australia).
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