To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a webbrowser that supports HTML5video One of Neighbours’ most iconic couples – Jane Harris (Annie Jones) and Mike Young ( Guy Pearce ) have officially broken up, and our hearts are breaking. As fans of the Amazon Freevee soap know, Mike has been absent for almost a year whilst working in Europe as a motorbike tour guide. This is, of course, was to facilitate the fact that Pearce is a Hollywood actor and could never commit to being in the soap full time.
Originally joining the show at the start of the second season in 1986, Mike began working at Daphne’s (Elaine Smith) café, before setting up home in Ramsay Street away from his abusive father. After making friends with locals Scott Robinson ( Jason Donovan ) and Charlene Mitchell ( Kylie Minogue ), it wasn’t long before dowdy Jane, the granddaughter of Erinsborough harridan Mrs Mangel (Vivean Gray) caught his eye, and one of the serial’s most compelling relationships was born. It was following a school dance (in which ‘Plain Jane Superbrain’ was unveiled as a natural beauty after removing her glasses and donning some very 80s shoulder pads) that the two admitted their love for one another, but like most teenage loves, it didn’t last.
Jane fell for Des Clarke (Paul Keane), whilst Mike moved on with a number of locals, and at the end of 1989 he jetted off to reconnect with his estranged mother. It wasn’t until the supposed ‘finale’ in .
