Home and Away

Home and Away
File:Home and Away Logo.jpg 2007 - present opening credits
Genre	Soap opera
Created by	Alan Bateman
Starring	See cast section below
Opening theme	Home and Away - Luke Dolahenty
Ending theme	Home and Away - Luke Dolahenty
Country of origin	Australia
Original languages	English, subtitled in Dutch for episodes that air in Belgium or The Netherlands. These episodes have an English soundtrack.
No. of seasons	21 [Current 2008 Season]
No. of episodes	4640 [as of week ending May 16 2008]
Production
Executive producer	John Holmes
Producer	Cameron Welsh
Running time	22 minutes [Approx.]
Original release
Network	Seven Network
Release	17 January 1988 – present

Home and Away (also commonly abbreviated in writing to H&A) is a Logie-winning soap opera that is produced in Sydney by the Seven Network since July 1987. It premiered on 17 January 1988 and is now one of the longest-running series on Australian television.

The show initially focused on the characters of Pippa and Tom Fletcher who ran the Summer Bay Caravan Park and lived there with a succession of foster children, most notably Sally Fletcher (Kate Ritchie), but the show has expanded and now focuses on the Stewart family along with the rest of the residents of Summer Bay.

Home and Away is most successful television series in Australian history having won 31 Logies since 1988. It took this title at the 2008 Logie Awards where the show won an impressive four awards.

History

The Surf Club's Outside Eating Area

In 1985 the Seven Network axed the poorly-rating soap Neighbours, but they were unaware that Network Ten, a rival television network, was in talks with the production team to air the soap on their network in 1986.

When Neighbours returned to television on Network Ten in 1986, it initially attracted low ratings. The Network worked hard to publicise Neighbours and their hard work was paid off when its popularity grew, by the end of 1987 it was attracting high ratings in Australia.In October 1986, Neighbours started to broadcast in the UK, where it began to attract strong viewing figures.

In late 1986, Network Seven's head of drama, Alan Bateman was tasked with creating a pilot for a soap opera that was in no way a copy of Neighbours. Bateman soon found his inspiration when he stopped in Kangaroo Point, New South Wales on a family outing. Chatting to locals, Bateman discovered that the townspeople were angered over the construction of a home for foster children from the city. Seeing the degree of conflict the plan for the new youth centre had produced within the community, Bateman recognised the drama that could be generated by this situation and began to develop it as the basis for the new soap opera.

Storylines

The soap originally centered around Pippa Ross (Debra Lawrance) and foster children, right up until Pippa's departure in 1998. Notable foster children include Bobby Simpson (Nicolle Dickson), Sophie Simpson (Rebekah Elmaloglou), Carly Lucini (Sharyn Hodgson), Steven Matheson (Adam Willits), Shannon Reed (Isla Fisher), Justine Welles (Bree Desborough), and one of the longest-serving cast members, Kate Ritchie who has grown up on screen as Sally Fletcher. The Stewart family was also featured since the series' premiere. Town veteran Alf Stewart (Ray Meagher) lived in the bay with his daughter Roo Stewart (Justine Clark) and sisters Celia (Fiona Spence) and Morag (Cornelia Frances). He married Ailsa Hogan (Judy Nunn) in 1988 and this couple was a mainstay in the show up until Ailsa's death in 2000.

From 2000-2004 the show centered around the highly dramatic Sutherland family, who provided many storylines, including a mine shaft collapse, long-lost children, switched-at-birth babies, a sexual assault, criminal charges, and fake miscarriages. 2003 saw the emergence of the Hunter family and the eventual merging of these two families through the marriage of Rhys Sutherland and Beth Hunter. Since the divorce of Rhys and Beth, the Sutherland-Hunter clan has seen its numbers dwindle in the Bay; Matilda Hunter (Indiana Evans) is the sole remaining member.

In 2004, the show returned to its roots with Sally Fletcher and her now late husband Flynn Saunders (Joel McIlroy) fostering children at Sally's childhood home; Summer Bay House, in a similar arc to how Pippa once fostered Sally herself. The fostered children included Alf's long-lost grandson Ric Dalby (Mark Furze) and orphan Cassie Turner (Sharni Vinson).

2005 saw Summer Bay in the clutches of the Summer Bay Stalker and Sally was later kidnapped by Zoe (aka Eve Jacobsen). Zoe was revealed to have a connection to Sarah Lewis, a psychopath who had years before shot and killed Summer Bay local Noah Lawson (Beau Brady) and then herself. Zoe later returned in 2006 to wreak havoc on Jack Holden (Paul O'Brien) and Martha Mackenzie's (Jodi Gordon) wedding, injuring many but was killed herself.

In early 2006, Flynn died from skin cancer, with Alf Stewart moving in to help run the Caravan Park. Sally later found love with Brad Armstrong (Chris Sadrinna). In the 2006 season finale she was stabbed; a culmination of Sally fostering a young teen, Rocco, whose family had connections to gangs and who pressured him to rid Sally from their lives. By the end of 2006, Jack and Martha had also separated.

As 2007 drew to a close, Dan Baker (Tim Campbell) departed Summer Bay, Brad Armstrong left Summer Bay for a teaching job in Tasmania along with his half-sister Tamsyn and her mother Heather McCabe, while Jack and his new love Sam were wed, despite there being unresolved feelings between Jack and Martha, his ex-wife. Meanwhile, Ric's relationship with Matilda was all but over after newcomer Viv Anderson, who successfully lured Ric from her, fell pregnant with Ric's child. Matilda found out at Jack and Sam's wedding, and told Ric to stay out of her life for good.

In 2008, Sally Fletcher (Kate Ritchie) who has been in Summer Bay for 20 years departed with daughter Pippa.Lucas Holden (Rhys Wakefield left for university, Cassie Turner (Sharni Vinson) also left with Sally & Pippa. Sam Holden (Jessica Chapnik) helped Summer Bay villian Johnny Cooper get back on his feet and ended up murdering him, she also commited suicide and made it look like murder.Drew Curtis (Bobby Morley) left Summer Bay.Jazz Curtis (Rachel Gordon) returned as a main cast member.

With the current season expected to have ceased airing in Australia on December 12 with episode 4790, it means that in 2009, episode 5000 will be airing in November 2009, with the season finale of 2009 looking quite likely to be episode 5010.

Cast

Main article: List of Home and Away characters

Current cast members

Main article: List of current Home and Away characters

Actor	Character	Duration
Ray Meagher	Alf Stewart	1988 -
Cornelia Frances	Morag Bellingham	1988 - 1989, 2001 - (recurring: 1993)
Lyn Collingwood	Colleen Stewart	1999 - (recurring: 1988-1989,1997)
Lynne McGranger	Irene Roberts	1992 -
Ada Nicodemou	Leah Patterson-Baker	2000 -
Indiana Evans	Matilda Hunter	2004 - 2008
Mark Furze	Ric Dalby	2004 - 2008
Jodi Gordon	Martha Mackenzie	2005 - 2008
Todd Lasance	Aden Jefferies	2005 -
Jon Sivewright	Tony Holden	2005 -
Paul O'Brien	Jack Holden	2005 - 2008
Amy Mathews	Rachel Armstrong	2006 -
Jessica Tovey	Belle Taylor	2006 -
Lincoln Lewis	Geoff Campbell	2007 -
Charlotte Best	Annie Campbell	2007 -
Conrad Coleby	Roman Harris	2007 -
Josh Quong Tart	Miles Copeland	2007 -
Celeste Dodwell	Melody Jones	2008 -
Tessa James	Nicole Franklin	2008 -
Jordan Rodrigues	Jai Fernandez	2008 -

Recurring cast members

Main article: Recurring characters of Home and Away

Actor	Character
Katrina Risteska	Danielle Hay
Liz Alexander	Christine Jones
Errol Henderson	Edward Jones
Bob Baines	Martin Bartlett
Felix Dean	V.J. Patterson
Paul Gleeson	Larry Jefferies
Rebecca George	Const. Lara Fitzgerald
Lisa Hayson-Phillips	Nurse Julie Cooper
Kim Knuckley	Sgt. Darren McGrath

Coming cast members

Actor	Character
Esther Anderson	Charlie Buckton	Debuts June 6 2008

Going Cast Members

Actor	Character
Indiana Evans	Matilda Hunter	August 18 2008
Mark Furze	Ric Dalby	September 4 2008
Jodi Gordon	Martha Mckenzie	November 2008	Deceased cast members Actor Role Duration Year of death Source Megan Connolly Rebecca Nash 1998 (temporary recast) 2001 Gwen Plumb Doris Peters 1988 (guest) 2002 Belinda Emmett Rebecca Nash 1996-1999 2006 Richard Morgan Donahue 1989 (guest) 2006 Heath Ledger Scott Irwin 1997 (guest) 2008 Production and broadcast schedule The show is filmed five days a week for 46 weeks of the year. The crew is given a four week holiday at Christmas and a two week break for recuperation mid-year. There are an average of eight weeks between shooting and airing the program. All interiors for the show are filmed at Seven Sydney's Epping studios. The exterior scenes are filmed on location mainly at Palm Beach and at Fisherman's Beach, Collaroy in Sydney's Northern Beaches region. Australia on Seven Jodi Gordon and Ben Guernens during filming Home and Away is broadcast in Australia on weekdays at 7:00 p.m. The show airs for 46 weeks each year (except for occasions where worldwide events take priority such as the Olympic Games). Each new season usually begins on the second Monday in January, and the season finale airs on the last Friday of November (the 2006 season started and finished one week later than this schedule). The 2008 season will begin in the last week in January, on January 28 with episode 4561. The show rates extraordinarily well and is consistently the highest rating programme in its time slot, usually receiving between 1.3 and 1.8 million viewers per episode (nightly). In special circumstances, storylines have the ability to attract a national audience of well over 2 million. Belgium on 2BE The show in Belgium has been showing since Kanaal Twee opened in 1995. Episodes currently being shown, aired in Australia in September 2006 . The show originally aired once a day at 6.30pm (5.30pm GMT and 4.30am Sydney), but now since January 2008 airs twice a day at 1.30pm (12.30pm GMT and 11.30pm Sydney) (25 minute episode) and repeats that show at 5.55pm (4.55pm GMT and 3.55am Sydney). The next episode scheduled to air is episode 4301 which aired in Australia on 23 October 2006 and in the UK on 12 February 2007. The 2006 season finale is expected to air in Belgium on May 30 2008. The 2007 season will be starting on June 3 2008, with Australia and the UK's current season beginning in June 2009 Ireland on RTÉ One and RTÉ Two In Ireland, the national state broadcaster RTÉ has shown the programme since its inception. In Ireland, the show airs every day of the week, but there are no new episodes on Saturdays or Sundays. New episodes air at 1.25pm-1.55pm most weekdays, but on special occasions such as Christmas, episodes have been known to start airing as early as 11.15am. The Omnibus unlike the way Five airs it is played over two days. The 2008 season commenced in Ireland on 4 March at 1.25pm on RTÉ One. It is approximately one month behind Australia. Dublin City University students set up their very own Home and Away society in 2006 which garnered a huge response from DCU students. One of the societies biggest achievements was meeting Ray Meagher who plays one of Summer Bay's most important residents, Alf Stewart. New Zealand on TV3 (New Zealand) Episodes of Home and Away currently screen in New Zealand on Channel 3 weekdays at 5:30pm (with replays on 10:30am the following morning, and a week's worth of omnibus from 10:15am on Sunday). Current New Zealand episodes are 4 weeks behind Australia. United Kingdom on ITV and Five Five and Fiver's current schedule: Day Fiver Five Fiver 10.30am† 2.15pm 6.00pm 6.30pm† Monday E A A B Tuesday A B B C Wednesday B C C D Thursday C D D E Friday D E E A Saturday Omnibus edition on Fiver†* Sunday No episodes (new or old) air Template:Fnb Timeshifted by an hour on Fiver+1 Template:Fnb Times vary From 1989 until 2001, Home and Away aired throughout the United Kingdom on ITV stations. The rights to screen the show were purchased by Five in 2001. Five subsequently purchased the rights to Neighbours from the BBC, and now shows the two popular Australian soaps together. For Analogue viewers the next new episode is: 4613 which aired in Australia on Wednesday 9 April 2008 at 7.00pm local time (9.00am in the UK as it was aired in their summer (2 hour time difference from the winter schedule, as Australia gains an hour and the UK loses one) ). This episode will be airing in the UK on Monday 19 May 2008 at 2.15pm For Cable and Satelite viewers the next new episode is: 4614 which aired in Australia on Thursday 10 April 2008 at 7.00pm local time (9.00am in the UK as it was aired in their summer). This episode will be airing in the UK on Monday 19 May 2008 at 6.30pm, following Five's repeat of the previous episode. Elsewhere in the world During the 1990s, Home and away was a runaway hit in Canada and saw audience figures that Neighbours would never see over there. However, it doesn't show there anymore, likewise with the USA, which just like Neighbours, Home and away had only lasted for 6 weeks because of competition from other afternoon soaps such as The Bold and The Beautiful and Days of our Lives Due to phenomenal public demand, Canadian television networks are locked in a battle for current broadcasting rights. This ultimately means that Home and Away will return to television screens across Canada in the not too distant future. Similar discussions have also been occurring amongst the major U.S. networks. It has been suggested that a commercial relaunch of the show throughout North America is on the cards following its consistent primetime success in Australia. The Seven Network has welcomed this support announcing that expansion into the international market will allow for a larger production budget (and ultimately better viewing). Theme song Indiana Evans, Mark Furze and the crew during filming The theme's lyrics have remained the same since the pilot episode, but have been gradually reduced in length to keep newer versions of the song at a shorter length. The theme was released as a single in the UK in 1989 and peaked at #73 on the UK single charts. The single track includes the opening and closing themes and an additional saxophone section. Since the launch of the 1995 version of the theme tune, extracts from the second verse of the full-length soundtrack have been used to close the show, as opposed to an edited version of the opening song which was used until this point. The theme was shortened in 1996, and again in 2004. The current theme was recorded by 20-year-old actor and musician Luke Dolahenty. Originally, Israel Cannan sang the theme in early 2007, but due to complaints from fans, Network Seven decided to re-record it, making it the shortest running theme song in the program history. Version Artist Duration 1 Mark Williams & Karen Boddington 1988-1995 2 Doug Williams & Erana Clark 1995-1999 3 The Robertson Brothers 2000-2003 4 The Robertson Brothers 2004-2006 5 Israel Cannan 2007 6 Luke Dolahenty 2007 - present Merchandise Books & Annuals: Name Release Date/Year Type Of Annual/Book Home and Away Annual 1989 Annual Home and Away Special 1989 Annual Home and Away Annual 1990 Annual Home and Away Special 1990 Annual The Official Home and Away Annual 1992 Annual Home and Away Annual Authorized Edition 1992 Annual Home and Away: Behind The Scenes 1989 Book The Frank Morgan Story 1989 Book The Carly Morris & Steven Matheson Stories 1989 Book The Bobby Simpson Story 1989 Book The Matt Wilson Story 1989 Book Home and Away: Carly's Crisis 1989 Book Home and Away: Bobby & Frank 1989 Book Home and Away: 2 In 1 1990 Book Home and Away: Dangerous Ride 1989 Book Family Matters 1990 Book Home and Away Volume 1: Summer Bay Blues 1990 Book Home and Away Volume 2: Scandal At Summer Bay 1990 Book Hearts Divided (Novel) 2003 Book Dani On Trial 2004 Book Prisoner No. 2549971 2004 Book A Place In The Bay October 2004 Book The Long Goodbye November 2004 Book Mayday June 2005 Book Second Chances September 2005 Book DVD, VHS & Soundtracks: Name Release Date/Year Type Of Annual/Book Classic Home and Away 1993 VHS Home and Away: The Official Summer Bay Special 1996 VHS Home and Away: Secrets And The City 2003 VHS/DVD Home and Away: Hearts Divided 2003 VHS/DVD Home and Away: Romances (Includes Pilot Episode) 2005 DVD Home and Away: Weddings 2006 DVD Home and Away Hits 2002 Soundtrack Home and Away Hits 2 2003 Soundtrack Other: Name Release Date/Year Type Of Annual/Book Fan Cards 1988 - present Cards The Game Of Home and Away ??? Board Game Home and Away The Magazine: Issue 1 1993 - 1994 Magazine Home and Away Calendar 2005 Calendar Awards and accolades Main article: List of Home and Away awards Home and Away has been nominated for, and won numerous awards throughout its twenty year broadcast history. Most notably, the show has won 31 Logie Awards making it the most successful television series in Australian history. Surf Club Sign Australian Nominees and awards Digital Spy Soap Awards The first set of nominations the UK has nominated for Home and Away 2008 were the Digital Spy Soap awards. Home and Away was up for 12 out of 14 awards- the most in the UK Home and Away has ever been nominated for. However, Home and Away obtained no awards. Here are the categories Home and Away was elected for. Best Soap- beaten by Eastenders Best Actor- Ray Meagher, (Alf) (nominee)- Beaten by James Sutton, Hollyoaks Best Actress- Kate Ritchie, (Sally) (nominee)- Beaten by Jo Joyner, Eastenders Best Single Episode- Disaster at Sea, (aired in UK October 2007- the episode where Brad is turned down by Sally, and the boat disappears) - Beaten by Eastenders Storyline of the year- Kelli's revenge (nominee)- Beaten by Hollyoaks Best on screen Partnership- Martha and Jack (nominee)- Beaten by Eastenders Villain of the year- Kelli Vale (nominee)- Beaten by Coronation Street Best Newcomer- Jazz Curtis (nominee)- Beaten by Eastenders Best child actor- Ed Wills (Rory Tolhurst) (nominee)- Beaten by Hollyoaks Sexiest Male- Mark Furze (Ric Dalby) (nominee)- Beaten by Eastenders Sexiest Female- Jodi Gordon (Martha) (nominee)- Beaten by Hollyoaks Best Exit- Kim Hyde (Chris Hemsworth) (nominee)- Beaten by Hollyoaks British Soap Awards Home and Away, for the 7th year (out of 10), has not been nominated for any awards at the British Soap Awards. Fellow Australian soap, Neighbours, was still up for the awards, but they too got dropped in 2005. The reason is because ITV1 is still seething with Five for taking away Home and Away, which used to be the foundation of their daytime audience. Due to this move, ITV1 have had to replace Home and Away with chat-shows such as Jeremy Kyle and Ricki Lake, which attract a significant amount less than what Home and Away was achieving before June 2000, when it began the 13 month move to Five. Classic showings in the UK Although, ITV are allowed to show episodes 1-2840 (episodes which aired between January 17, 1988 and May 30 2000 in Australia), ITV had only decided to play. During the year-long abscense of new episodes during the move, ITV had decided to fill the void with airing 2 episodes per day on sister channel ITV 2, from late 2000, with classic episodes from 1996-7 airing. Home and away on this channel was given a slightly earlier slot than what it had enjoyed on ITV 1 (where it was 1.25pm-1.55pm most days (ITV always aired early as they didn't want a ratings war with Neighbours as the results of Daytime TV were already low) of 1.00pm-2.00pm, 5 days a week. When new episodes recommenced airing on Five on July 16, 2001, ITV 2 had a completely new revised schedule, and had Home and away gradually removed from it by early 2002. Living had then purchased the rights to air the show. However, on both Living and it's timeshift channel, the show was not fareing well in it's mid-morning and mid-afternoon slots (when it was repeated.) (episodes from 1988-1990 were used on this channel), and bosses had decided to put the episodes on at 1.30AM. This had completely dropped numbers even more, as most viewers would be in bed at that time. Living then decided to axe the show, but then in 2004 Teen Channel Trouble had picked it up. It wasn't enjoying the same ratings it was having with classic Hollyoaks episodes, and therefore was ditched in a short amount of time. In 2007, Five Life- (now known as Fiver) began reairing episodes 2841+ (they are not allowed any prior to that as they are still in contract to ITV 1). Episodes ceased airing on December 28 2007 as with airing 2 episodes per day, it was calculated that within a 3 year timeslot these "classic" episodes would be up-to-date with the present storyline. The episode they finished with was the 2001 season finale. It is not known when the show will be returning, but it is likely to be returning at some stage in 2009 with the 2002 premiere. References