Linda Hartley’s return to Neighbours made for interesting viewing over the last few weeks. In a storyline that had the potential to be ridiculous, Linda and the production team made it work - once you ignore the pathetically sensationalist kiss between Gabby and Harold. Linda carefully changed her voice to make Gabby sound different to Kerry, and her dress sense was miles away from the clothes Kerry used to wear. She did it so well that you never felt it was Kerry you were watching, and Gabby actually had the potential to be a decent character all on her own. The scenes with Sky were also quite poignant, and seeing Harold, ‘Kerry’ and a now grown-up Sky together on screen was quite sad in a way – it seemed to say “this is how it should have been…”

Bobby Hoyland continued to make his presence felt in Erinsborough. While Susan was unimpressed with him when she met him for the first time in the Scarlet Bar, Lyn and Janelle were both won over by his charm and good looks. Janelle even spent a night on the town with him, but was horrified the next morning to discover he was none other than Max’s dad. Meanwhile, Max was further annoyed with his father when he failed to set the alarm at the bar, which Max saw as further evidence of Bobby’s irresponsibility. Izzy, on the other hand, remained thrilled to have her father back in town, and was ecstatic when he invited her to paint the town red with him. They ended up indulging in a night of gambling and returned home the following morning with a stack of cash. Bobby offered the money to Steph to fund an appeal to quash her criminal conviction so that she would be eligible to adopt, but Max had reservations about the situation.

Stuart finally went to see Kelly Weaver when he discovered she resided at the Erinsborough Hospice (the grounds of which were suspiciously simlar to Harold’s allotment) and got to the bottom of this mysterious figure in Sindi’s life. He was rather surprised to find Kelly confined to a wheelchair, and that she knew all about his relationship with Sindi. It transpired that Kelly and Sindi were best friends, and Sindi apparently visited Kelly every week in the hospice. Kelly explained to Stuart that Sindi felt guilty about Kelly being paralysed, after Sindi had failed to stop her from falling down a stairs at a party some years beforehand. Sindi was furious when Toadie told her Stuart had visited Kelly, and Stuart told Sindi that he regretted being so suspicious of her. But Sindi remained uncomfortable about the whole situation.

After months of scheming and double crossing, Paul Robinson finally started to show signs of remorse this week as his deep love for Liljana began to take its toll. And further signs of an awakening conscience in Paul came when he overheard his protégé Dylan defending him to a critical Sky just as he was about to get him to carry out another dirty task for him as part of the plan by Affirmacon to pollute the wetlands of Erinsborough. Paul opted to pour toxic waste into the wetlands himself rather than implicate Dylan. But as soon as he had done the deed, Paul started questioning why he had become involved in Affirmacon’s plans to buy up Ramsay Street and the neighbouring area to build a shopping mall. After strolling around town and stopping off at Ramsay Street to look at his old family home, Paul ended up at the Scarlet Bar where he admitted to Izzy that he was being eaten up with guilt and regret over his actions of late – burning Lassiter’s down, framing David for fraud, polluting the wetlands and deceiving the local residents into thinking Ramsay Street was doomed. He attempted to redress the situation by persuading Affirmacon to forget the Erinsborough plan and opt for a more suitable (and available) site in West Waratah instead. But Affirmacon wouldn’t budge and Paul was told in no uncertain terms that Ramsay Street would be transformed into a Shopping Complex and he must finish what he started. In a final attempt at redressing some of his wrongs, Paul agreed to act as a character witness for David at his court hearing – despite the fact that it was Paul who had set David up in the first place.

Seeing the more caring and regretful side of Paul this week has been a relief to long-time viewers who had begun to wonder if any semblance of the old Paul Robinson was present in the 2005 version. Luckily, it seems Paul is slowly starting to come good – or as good as he can ever come, being Paul – and it has given the, at times, complex storyline a new angle now that it seems there’s a lot more to Paul than just being a baddie. The storyline was helped enormously this week by the use of a few flashbacks, namely to Paul’s wedding to Christina in 1991, and his final scene in 1993 with Helen just before he fled Australia for Brazil. Aside from being a wonderful treat, they also served to illustrate how truly tortured Paul must be deep down and perhaps, how lonely he is now that all the people he cares about have gone from his life. And of course, seeing the late, great Anne Haddy on screen once again, albeit in a flashback, as Helen was wonderful – if only to hear her utter the affectionate term she often used when talking to her grandchildren on the show – ‘Darling.’

While Paul was troubled with his actions this week, the Bishop family continued to come to terms with the effect his actions have, unknowingly, had on their lives. Serena stuck to her guns and refused to speak to Liljana, while also telling Harold that he could do with being more supportive of David. Lil, meanwhile, admitted to Susan that she had never really felt ‘alive’ with David. But when Lil revealed that Paul made her feel so much more excited than David had ever done, Susan seemed unconvinced that this was a good thing and pointed out that Karl hadn’t found life as exciting with Izzy as he at first thought. By the end of the week, Lil had decided that David didn’t commit fraud - evidently seeing him trying to get the morning’s newspaper out of Bob’s mouth was all she needed. If only Steph had enlisted Harvey’s services a few months back, she’d never have ended up convicted of manslaughter. Lil then demonstrated her support for her husband by showing up at his hearing, although getting back together with him wasn’t necessarily what she had in mind - and for the first time in weeks, David finally seemed to sense that there was a flicker of something between her and Paul. The week ended with Toadie declaring in court that the whole case should be dismissed in light of the fact that the warrant to search the Bishops house was incorrectly issued for No.34 Ramsay Street, not 24. David was proclaimed a free man, but celebrations in the Scarlet Bar were cut short afterwards when Liljana, in a moment worthy of an average episode of EastEnders, announced in the packed bar that her marriage to David was over for good.

Elsewhere this week, Dylan stripped off once again, Stingray wandered around Erinsborough with his drum kit in a shopping trolley and Lou collected the newspaper from his post box.