Rewatching Neighbours Episode #2 - The One Where Daphne Is Fantastic

Air date (Aus): March 19, 1985

Air date (UK): October 28, 1986

Season: 1 (1985)

It's Episode 2. Des has just been dumped by his fiancee whose dad knows the stripper somehow.

Daphne is fantastic

As Paul Robinson says himself, Daphne Lawrence really is fantastic. She’s a breath of fresh air as a character, even by modern standards. I can’t recall a Ncharacter in recent times who is written as authentically and unapologetically as Daphne. (Maybe I'm already forgetting the show...)

She’s not a stripper cliche or someone looking for a man to rescue her from that life. She’s confident in herself, she’s not ashamed of what she does, and she understands that just because she works in the sex industry it doesn’t mean she’s not valuable as a person. Was this seriously groundbreaking at the time? It feels like it would have been.

Although Des says she doesn’t have to explain herself, Daphne comes right out and tells the Kinghams that she was the stripper at the Buck’s party. She does the same to Max Ramsay. There’s no big apology for it or cover up. She just says it like it is.

Bit of a shame that they set her to work cleaning up Des’ house for most of the episode, but I can see that they needed a reason to keep her around so the other characters can interact with her. It does give Daphne a chance to express her desire to live in a house like Des’. As luck would have it, by the end of the episode Des is thinking about taking on a housemate….

Random character info: On her date with Shane we find out that Daphne was brought up in New Zealand and left five years ago.

Mr Kingham is a pervert

We find out that Daphne knows Mr Kingham because she worked as a receptionist at his firm for a short while.

“That was before the sexual harassment act,” quips Daphne like the badass that she is.

Later she tells Shane Ramsay that Mr Kingham was “the last in a long line of gropers” and that she walked out on the job. With workplace harassment sadly still not a thing of the past, it’s great to see a character having stood up for herself.

It seems that Mrs Kingham knows all about her husband, telling Daphne that “I’m sure you had nothing to do with it. I know exactly what he’s like.” Pity then that she stays with him (although I get that it was a different time and she may not have had the means to leave.)

Lorraine Kingham sucks

She may be beautiful, but Lorraine Kingham is not the most attractive person.

She continues to act as though she owns the place at Number 24. While I can see that she might be wondering who Daphne is, the way she says “What was she doing in our bedroom?” really got my back up.

“Our bedroom?” Des quite rightly exclaims. “You’re not going to marry me but it’s still our bedroom, is that right?” You tell her Des.

Also, according to the grapevine (as conveyed by Paul) Lorraine only got engaged to Des in the first place to spite her dad because he didn’t like Des. Which is a pretty horrible thing to do.

Des doesn’t seem too upset about being dumped

They keep telling us that he’s gutted, but we don’t see it in any of the acting.

There are no tears or any sort of emotional response. By the end of the episode, it’s like it never happened.

In fact, the biggest reaction comes when Des remembers about the honeymoon and finds out he can’t get a refund on the AU$800. Although he does get dressed just to lie on his bed and drink coffee which might be a stab at showing some sort of low mood.

Shane Ramsay needs better date ideas

Shane moans at Daphne for standing him up. “I thought we had a date. You were supposed to come and watch me train this morning.” What a dreadful date idea. Who would want to stand around and watch some guy they met the night before jump into a pool?

Daph says she didn’t think he was serious as all guys hit on strippers. Shane asks her again to come watch him train as he’s an Olympic hopeful. I don’t care what he is, it still sucks as a date idea.

Luckily, when they do end up on a date later that evening it’s in a restaurant and Shane isn’t wearing his speedos.

Paul Robinson is an OK cheerleader

Paul tells Des that “Women fall over themselves to get to you.”

Guess we have to take your word for it Paul. I’m not sure I see it but it’s definitely a nice thing to hear when you’re feeling low.

Julie Robinson is right (yep really).

She’s incredibly annoying, nosy and smug/superior about the whole cancelled wedding thing, but she actually speaks a lot of truth in this episode.

Helen basically blames Julie for the wedding being called off, which seems quite unfair. While I don’t like the needling way Julie went on, I think that it is better that Lorraine and Des didn’t get married if they didn’t really love each other. But it seems that in the 80s the general vibe is that it is preferable just to be married.

“It is far better to be honest if the relationship isn’t working than to get married and regret it.” Can’t fault that advice.

It does have to be said that everyone seems to think Julie wants Des back. She unconvincingly claims otherwise. Pretty sure this is going to come up again.

Max Ramsay is a jerk

Max decides to stop by Des’ so he can laugh at him for being stood up.

Jim and Paul are there trying to work out how Des can pay the mortgage and bills without Lorraine’s income. Max suggests that he get some housemates to help cover the extra AU$100 a week, which isn’t a bad idea. Can you imagine being able to rent a room for just AU$50 a week? This is the real 80s dream.

This is the extent of Max’s usefulness this episode. He gets very huffy that Shane is the one that booked Daphne. Maybe it’s because he wasn’t invited to the party.

“Start letting girls like that onto a street like ours and it starts getting a bad name,” he rants.

He also has a go at Shane before his date with Daphne as she’s the ‘wrong type of girl’. I am sure that a lot of people agreed with him in those days - and hell I have my own conflicted feelings and prejudices on the sex industry that I have to keep working on - but I won’t hear a word against Daph. She’s the best and I already respect the hell out of the character.

Danny Ramsay nails the Neighbours triforce (light-hearted weirdness, unspoken family drama, inner turmoil)

We get all of it from Danny this episode.

First, it’s some dodgy dancing while doing the vacuuming. And then later on he makes the disturbing decision to show his mum how strippers perform - luckily he keeps his clothes on.

Then he questions Maria about the time she walked out on Max when Shane was four - something that she denies calling it a ‘holiday’.

Finally, Shane wants to know why Danny is always staring at him, which is fair enough. I’d feel the same.

Danny asks Shane what he dreams about.

Shane says Max yelling at him.

And that’s the end of that for another episode.

Maria Ramsay needs to work on her appropriate responses

When told that the wedding is cancelled, Maria Ramsay smiles/laughs. Who does that?

END