How Neighbours was shunted off air by All Creatures Great and Small

Longest-running programme in Australian television history loses out to homegrown British drama

The residents of Ramsay Street have survived almost four decades of affairs, disasters and terrible haircuts - but in the end it might be the popularity of a 1930s Yorkshire vet that finally kills off Neighbours.

The long-running soap opera that launched the careers of Kylie Minogue, Guy Pearce and Margot Robbie faces the axe after Channel 5 confirmed it would stop airing the series this summer. The broadcaster no longer wants to spend millions of pounds a year on the show and is instead looking to use its programme budget to reach upmarket audiences with original British dramas - driven by the success of All Creatures Great And Small, its hit revival of the series about rural life in the Yorkshire Dales.