Murder and mystery for new BBC Aussie soap

Bonza mate! The BBC has a brand new Australian soap opera to replace Neighbours in its daytime TV listings, and get ready for thrills and spills as the series started with a bang.

Set on the beautiful beach resort of Manley, Out of the Blue opened with the characters attending a high school reunion, only for the celebrations to be destroyed by murder. Now an almighty who-done-it is under way and the old classmates look set to have their friendships tested to the very limit.

The show has already distanced itself from brothers Home and Away and Neighbours, with an older cast and adult storylines. Its BBC debut produced a respectable audience figure of 1.2 million, and the corporation hopes that it will match its other daytime fixture Doctors.

Out of the Blue's characters are in their early thirties and bring colourful pasts to the action. Gabby West is at the centre of the group of friends and lives in an apartment just off Manley beach. She is having a secret relationship with Paul O'Connell who is something of a cricket whiz and is the brother of Gabby's best friend Jarrod. Jarrod is a genuine Mr Nice Guy and is married to Tracey.

Add to these Bec, Jarrod's first love, who is friends with female couple Poppy and Peta, the mysterious McManus family and a number of other preposterously good looking characters and factor in the fact that one of them is a murderer, then there is the potential for some serious drama.

It was undoubtedly a blow to lose Neighbours to Channel 5 for the BBC, but it will be hoping that the Aussie factor makes Out of the Blue a success. Explaining the decision to film the series in Australia, a BBC spokesman said: "The majority of drama shown across the BBC is UK produced. The BBC commissioned this new production to offer audiences a different flavour and perspective which complements existing UK series such as Doctors. "

A find the killer storyline is a fairly unique start to a new soap, but experienced viewers will know not to count out the unfortunate Jason making a return from the grave. Who can forget when JR stepped back out of the shower in Dallas, or the hapless Harold returning to Ramsey Street after being washed out to sea?

Its early days to tell whether or not the new show will do the business for the BBC and the first few episodes have been warmly received. But James Walton in The Daily Telegraph summed up nicely how hard it will be to surpass the legend of Neighbours: "If it's going to run as long, then yesterday's first episode does need to be followed by least 5399 more.

"Presumably, it won't take 5000 episodes to find out who was killed and who did it. Nonetheless, as a gimmick to lure us into a new soap, this one seems pretty neat to me."

In order not to miss an episode of Out of the Blue, check the UK Guide TV listings.