Mike Young (Neighbours) Mike Young (Neighbours) Mike Young is a fictional character from the Australian soap opera "Neighbours", played by Guy Pearce. He made his first on-screen appearance on 20 January 1986. Mike's storylines included being physically abused by his father, moving in with Des and Daphne Clarke, making friends with Charlene Mitchell and Scott Robinson, his relationship with Jane Harris and becoming a teacher. Mike departed Erinsborough to be with his mother on 6 December 1989. When he was 18, Pearce's drama teacher advised him to write to TV companies asking for auditions and he wrote to the Grundy Organisation, which produced
Soap opera and "Neighbours" and "Home and Away" remained the most visible and consistently successful Australian soap operas in production. In their home country, they both attracted respectable although not spectacular ratings in the early 2000s. By 2004, "Neighbours" was regularly attracting just under a million viewers per episode – considered at that time a low figure for Australian prime time television. By March 2007, the Australian audience for "Neighbours" had fallen to fewer than 700,000 a night. This prompted a revamp of the show's cast, its visual presentation, and a move away from the recently added action-oriented emphasis to refocus the