LIVERPOOL looks set to miss out on the chance to stage a new soap to replace BBC1’s Neighbours, which is moving to Channel 5 next year.

The Daily Post revealed in June that film producer Colin McKeown, who worked on Coronation Street and was one of the original creators of Channel 4’s Brookside, was in detailed talks with the BBC about a pilot series for a new soap, to be shot on location at his Kirkdale base.

Bafta-winning writer Jimmy McGovern, whose The Street collected an Emmy last month, was also reported to be involved as executive script writer/ producer, heading a team of talented local writers, in a project which had the potential to create hundreds of jobs.

Neighbours leaves the BBC in March after a higher offer was made by Channel 5, but a replacement was being sought for the lucrative early-evening prime-time spot, with McKeown’s LA Productions thought to be one of the favourites to win the contracts.

However, it appears that the Antipodean-sized hole left by the long-running Ramsey Street favourite will in fact be filled by another Aussie-based soap, after it emerged that BBC1 has commissioned Out of the Blue, a new show set in the Sydney beach resort of Manly.

The news will come as a blow to those who believed the new soap could have a major impact on the Liverpool arts scene.

Mr McKeown had said of the plans: “I think this is a great opportunity and we are very hopeful that we will be given the programme.

“It will mean a lot to Liverpool, particularly in the year that it is celebrating European Capital of Culture, to be the location of a soap that reflects the changing face of our major cities.

“It would certainly mean the recruitment of a lot of people, with lots of spin-off work in the service sector.”

Out of the Blue is being made by Southern Star Entertainment, the company behind hits such as The Secret Life of Us and Love My Way, and the BBC has ordered 130 half-hour episodes, which will run in an as yet unspecified daytime slot.

lizawilliams