Max Ramsay is a fictional character in the Australian television soap opera Neighbours, played by Francis Bell.
New Zealand actor Bell had wanted to appear in a major role in a long-running series for a while when he was cast as the head of the Ramsay family.
Max lives with his wife Maria Ramsay (Dasha Bláhová), and their sons Shane (Peter O'Brien) and Danny (David Clencie).
According to Robin Oliver from The Sydney Morning Herald, Bell brought "a splendidly manic style of comedy" to the role of Max.
Max Ramsay is one of the twelve original characters conceived by Reg Watson, the creator and then-executive producer of Neighbours.
[6] Bell told Tim Cribb of The Sydney Morning Herald; "One of the nice things about Neighbours is that it is about ordinary folk and the comedy/drama of everyday life without the melodrama.
[9] Neighbours: Behind the Scenes author James Oram also said Max likes to dominate situations, and is the type of man who will show his approval to those who agree with him and thinks those who resist are stupid.
"[4] Some British television critics said Max would not be able to afford the "comfortable" lifestyle Ramsay Street provided but at the time, plumbers in Australia earned as much as doctors and lawyers.
As the series begins, Max lives with his wife Maria Ramsay (Dasha Bláhová) and their sons, Shane (Peter O'Brien) and Danny (David Clencie).
[12] Problems for the family soon arise when Maria feels Max takes her for granted and Shane starts to resent his father for pushing him to train for the Olympic diving team.
[7] Max is "brutally single-minded" as he trains Shane; Margaret Koppe of TV Radio Extra wrote there is "deep-rooted conflict" between father and son.
[15] Patrice Fidgeon of TV Week noted that Max had enough problems when Maria walked out, but "his troubles are just about to start" because Madge is going to make his life "a misery".
[15] Charleston explained that off-screen Madge learns about Max and Maria's separation from a friend, so she immediately gets on a plane and arrives on his doorstep with a lot of luggage.
[16] Madge has no time for frivolity, waste or laziness, and she often fails to find things funny, especially jokes made at her expense, which Max thrives on.
[16] According to a writer for NZ On Screen, Max's and Madge's fights showcased "the culture clashes that drove the show's early days".
[19] Clencie said Bell's departure led to his own; he felt Danny had "nowhere to go" after losing both his best friend and father, leaving his character "a little adrift".
Max is outraged when stripper Daphne Lawrence moves in with Des Clarke (Paul Keane) and they clash several times because he feels her occupation lowers the tone of the neighbourhood.
Max and Shane learn Terry is married to Gordon Miller (Red Symons), the man who caused their car accident.
Maria tells Max she wants a divorce; he realises she has moved on when she begins dating Richard Morrison (Peter Flett).
Max convinces his family and friends he is dying, leading Jim to give him an old watch and Madge is persuaded to sign over her half of the house to him.
Helen Daniels (Anne Haddy), however, learns the truth from the doctor and tells the Ramsays, who play a prank on Max by pretending they cannot wait until he is dead.
In his review of Neighbours' first episodes, Mike Carlton of The Sydney Morning Herald said he had not seen Bell before but found his performance offered "the sort of underplayed subtlety made famous by Tony Packard and the fat bloke in the Beaurepaire tyre commercial".
[27] Thomas Myler of the Evening Herald called Max "a loud-mouthed ranting 'okker' with limited intelligence who communicates in a series of yells, snarls and shouts".
[13] Myler said the character showed "flickerings" of sensitivity but it was "a long way from discovering that King Lear is not some kind of light aircraft".
[13] While reviewing the serial, Nick Smurthwaite of The Stage wondered if Australian fathers could really get away with warning their adult sons from dating "the wrong type" of women.
[28] According to Smurthwaite: Max Ramsay is the cardboard cutout Ozzie clod who warns his son, Shane, against dating Daphne because she works as a stag-night stripper.
[28]According to Radio Times's Eithne Power, Maria cannot do much to restrain her "volatile" husband while his sons appear to be resigned to "the unpredictability of this self-employed, prosperous but insecure plumber".
Power also wrote; "In the early stages we all wondered why Maria stood for this disgusting favouritism ... when Max unleashed one of his terrible tirades on Danny.
[30] The Sydney Morning Herald's Robin Oliver praised Bell's performance in the early days of the serial, saying: there was a strong sense of approval for the leading role, taken by actor Francis Bell, who brought a splendidly manic style of comedy to the role of the nosey-parkering Max Ramsay, brother of Madge, a there-goes-the-neighbourhood-man always ready to have his hackles raised if there was the slightest chance that anything unorthodox might be happening across the street.
[31]According to Oliver, that type of comedy is funny, and he said it was "a pity" Bell left Neighbours because the action seemed stilted and the show "lost much of its fluid drive".