Number 96 turns 50: the mayhem and mishaps behind Australia’s trailblazing soap

Commemorating the 50th anniversary of Australian soap Number 96, the cast say the show’s success was in large part due to its raucous humour. Photograph: Cash Harmon productions

Fifty years ago, Number 96 revolutionised Australian television drama, dripping with sex and licentiousness, entwining murders and explosions with trailblazing portrayals of sympathetic queer characters, and winning stratospheric viewer ratings five nights a week.

Airing from 1972 to 1977, and set in a building of flats, the country’s first prime time soap opera was also leavened with catchphrases, malapropisms, and the sitcom trope of trapping people together – or, as the late Bunney Brooke, who portrayed Flo Patterson, put it: “Dorrie and Flo and Herb arguing about a teabag in flat 3 while homosexuality, rape, black magic, nudity, incest, breast cancer, letter bombs and knicker snippers were running amok in the other flats.”