by Thinus Ferreira
When the liquid gold opening theme of Isidingo starts for the last time after 21 years on SABC3 tonight, the entire cast will be huddled together in a secret Johannesburg location to watch the cancelled soap's series finale together.
The South African public broadcaster abruptly axed the long-running soap in November 2019 because the SABC's struggling and ratings-challenged sole commercial TV channel can no longer afford to make expensive local shows like Top Billing or ones that support a large ensemble cast like Isidingo.
When the cancellation decision was made by SABC top brass with little notice to the production company the last Isidingo episode was already written by that time and in production with little that could be changed. The cast had to hear on Twitter that their show was cancelled by the SABC.
Just before the final Isidingo episode filmed last scenes on 24 January 2020, the Pomegranate Media production, helmed by executive producer and director Pumla Hopa, however rushed to rewrite some scenes.
The last Isidingo episode is largely however exactly how it would have been originally since the SABC's cancellation axe came down with too little advance warning for the show to do anything properly to wrap up the show or any of the major storylines since the writing team already wrapped for the season.
After thousands of episodes since the Gray Hofmeyr created soap launched on 7 July 1998 - giving South African viewers some iconic characters like Cherel de Villiers Haines, Barker Haines and Hlubi Mboya who portrayed the HIV-positive Nandipha Sithole - the series finale tonight will include some shockers and surprises ... including gunshots as "one man avenges himself".
The show is however staying tight-lipped as to whether any characters might get killed off or whether the final Isidingo scene will leave longtime viewers with a satisfying conclusion or on a shocking and never-to-be-resolved cliffhanger ending.
Filming on the day of the last Isidingo episode the cast and crew knew it was the end but kept up appearances, choosing to focus on getting the work done and getting the last scenes in the can, instead of what it all meant as the fictional mining community of The Deep and real-life TV-making community saw their tight-knit group being dismantled after two decades on the air.
"They have always been a very positive cast and crew to be around and they're all just crazy and laughing all the time usually. On the last day emotions were there but we didn't really dwell on the situation," Isidingo publicist Catherine Sidyiyo tells TVwithThinus.
"People were happy and good and fine on set. On the last day - it wasn't everybody who was there - but it concluded with a jovial spirit and a spirit of togetherness really."
After Thursday SABC3 will broadcast themed Isidingo repeat episodes for the next few months during its primetime timeslot until the channel figures out what it can or wants to do during the 19:00 half hour where the soap's viewership has plunged to between 900 000 and a million viewers per month at most.
