Home and Away

Home and Away (also commonly abbreviated in writing to H&A) is a Logie Award-winning Australian soap opera that has been produced in Sydney by the Seven Network since July 1987. It premiered on January 17, 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 their adopted daughter Sally (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 the most successful television series in Australian history, having won 31 Logie Awards since 1988. It took this title at the 2008 Logie Awards where the show won an impressive four awards.

History

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; Kirsty Sutherland, (Christie Hayes) 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 the year 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 (Dan was later killed offscreen in February 2008), 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 villain Johnny Cooper get back on his feet and ended up murdering him, she also committed suicide and made it look like murder.Drew Curtis (Bobby Morley) left Summer Bay. Jazz Curtis (Rachel Gordon) returned on a recurring basis but left again in May 2008. In July Matilda Hunter (Indiana Evans) left Summer Bay to study in Western Australia and was soon followed by her boyfriend Ric Dalby (Mark Furze).

The Beijing Olympics saw Home and Away take a two week break in Australia.

Cast

Current cast members

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

Recurring cast members

Actor	Character
Elizabeth Alexander	Christine Jones
Bob Baines	Martin Bartlett
Oliver Davis	Oliver Phillips
Felix Dean	V.J. Patterson
David Downer	Ross Buckton
Lisa Hayson-Phillips	Nurse Julie Cooper
Maria Matteo	Nurse Gloria
Christie Hayes	Kirsty Phillips
Luke Jacobz	Angelo Rosetta
Joy Smithers	Bridget Simmons

Notable former cast members

Actor	Role	Duration
Simon Baker	James Healey	1994
Chris Egan	Nick Smith (#2)	2000-2003
Indiana Evans	Matilda Hunter	2004-2008
Isla Fisher	Shannon Reed	1994-1997
Melissa George	Angel Parrish	1993-1996
Daniel Goddard	Eric Phillips	1994-1995
Bec Hewitt	Hayley Lawson (#1)	1998-2005
Bobby Morley	Drew Curtis	2006-2008
Heath Ledger	Scott Irwin	1997 (guest)
Julian McMahon	Ben Lucini	1990-1991
Dannii Minogue	Emma Jackson	1989-1990
Justin Melvey	Harry Reynolds	1999-2001
Tammin Sursok	Dani Sutherland	2000-2004
Kate Ritchie	Sally Fletcher	1988-2008
Naomi Watts	Julie Gibson	1991

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.

on Seven

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 usually airs on the last Friday of November. The 2008 season (which started and will end two weeks later than usual) began on 28 January with episode 4561 and will end on December 12 with episode 4780. 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.

During the 2004 Olympics, there was a 17-day gap beginning after episode 3805 on Friday 13 August 2004 until Monday 30 August 2004 when episode 3806 had aired. The same is to be said for the 2008 Olympics, with the 18-day gap beginning after episode 4700 on Thursday 7 August 2008 (there is a double episode on that day due to the Olympic opening ceremony taking Home and away's slot on Friday 8 August). Just like with the 2004 Olympic cliffhanger, in which a character was killed off, there was a cliffhanger of a similar sort in 2008.

on NT1

In France, The show is not referred to as Home and away, but is referred to as Summer Bay. The Digital network NT1 has been showing episodes from Monday 4 September 2006. It is unclear how far behind they are, but it is thought that episodes currently airing are running at a similar pace to those airing in at the moment. The timeslot is currently afternoon/evening.

on 2BE

The show has been showing in Flanders (northern Belgium, with Dutch language subtitles) since Kanaal Twee (VTM's commercial sister channel, renamed 2BE in 2008) 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 since January 2008 airs twice a day; currently each 25 minute episode first shows at 5.55pm (4.55pm GMT and 1.55am (3.55am between October and March) Sydney) and is repeated the next day about 1.30pm (12.30pm GMT and 9.30pm Sydney (late March/Early April-late October) in some cases the time in Sydney could be 11.30pm (Late October/Early November- late March). The next episode scheduled to run is episode 4346 which aired in Australia on 5 February 2007 and in the UK on 20 April 2007.

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 and was 6 weeks and 1 day (31 episodes) behind Australia. Due to Five having the rights to premiere the show in Europe, it was not shown on RTE when it was not shown on Five. 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.

on TV3 (New Zealand)

Episodes of Home and Away currently screen in New Zealand on Channel 3 weekdays at 5:30pm (with replays on 11am the following morning, and a week's worth of omnibus from 10:15am on Sunday). Current New Zealand episodes are exactly 4 weeks (20 episodes) behind Australia.

Norway on TV2 (Norway)

Home and away has been aired on TV2 Norge since 1990. The are aired every weekday at 15.40pm.

on Five and Fiver

* NOTE: F is the omnibus compiled of Fiver's 6.30pm Monday-Friday episodes. The omnibus runs for about 1 hour 45 minutes, with the rest of the slot being filled up with advertisements.

Home and Away first appeared on British television on Saturday, February 11, 1989. It was broadcast on ITV for the first 11 and a half years of its British history, showing episodes 1-2840. The last episode on ITV aired on Thursday June 8, 2000. At the time, ITV were 9 episodes behind Australia, hence the reason for the regular breaks at Christmas and Easter.

Five acquired the rights to broadcast the show in February 2000, four months before the contract with ITV ended. However, a clause in ITV's original contract meant the network could delay transmission by another broadcaster for around a year. It finally returned to British television at 6pm on Monday, July 16, 2001 with episode 2841 and, at the time, gave Five one of its best audiences to date.

Episodes at this stage were broadcast exactly 50 weeks (250 episodes) behind the Seven Network, where episode 4591 had been shown on the day of the show's return to British television. As there was a two-week break in Australia for the 2000 Summer Olympics and a seven-week break the following Christmas and New Year, the episodes broadcast in the UK were exactly 59 weeks behind their original airing date. Each episode was repeated on Five the following day at 12.30pm, although this later changed to 12pm when Five's other soap, Family Affairs, was dropped from its schedule after a fall in ratings.

There have only been 30 instances when the show hasn't been shown on Five. In order to catch up with Australia, it was broadcast on Five every weekday (including during the Christmas and New Year period) for 303 consecutive weeks from 16 July 2001 (episode 2841) until 4 May 2007 (episode 4355). Subsequently, it hasn't been shown on Bank Holidays or during the Christmas and New Year period as well as taking a summer break during August 2008.

No episodes were shown on the following dates:

2007: Monday 7 May; Monday 28 May; Monday 27 August; Monday 24 December; Tuesday 25 December; Wednesday 26 December; Thursday 27 December; Friday 28 December; Monday 31 December.

2008: Tuesday 1 January; Friday 21 March; Monday 24 March; Monday 5 May; Monday 26 May; Monday 4 August-Monday 25 August; Monday 22 December-Wednesday 31 December.

2009: Thursday 1 January; Friday 2 January.

* Note 1: The reason why the show took its first summer break of three weeks (the same as in New Zealand) is because the production team took that amount of time off filming for their summer (winter in Australia & New Zealand) break.

* Note 2: The programme will not be shown between Monday, December 22, 2008 and Friday, January 2, 2009 to avoid loss of viewers over the Christmas period.

* Note 3: Due to the unexpected success of the early morning slot on Five at 5.35am from Tuesday to Saturday, Home and away is now repeated on Fiver in a breakfast time slot of 7.35am on weekday mornings. Both programmes run for 25 minutes.

Home and Away was first shown on Five Life (now Fiver) on Monday, October 16, 2006, the day after the channel's launch. It began with episode 4212, which was first shown on Five the following day and repeated the day after. This episode had been shown in Australia on Tuesday, June 20, 2006. By this time, Five was 85 episodes (exactly 17 weeks) behind Australia, whilst Five Life (now Fiver) was 84 episodes behind.

The final lunchtime repeat, to be broadcast on Five, was on Friday, February 8, 2008. The following episode, shown later that day in the 6pm teatime slot, was only broadcast once. When Five began showing Neighbours on Monday, February 11, 2008, the lunchtime episode changed its timeslot from 12pm to 2.15pm and it was the first of the episode's two daily transmissions on Five. The repeat was shown in the teatime timeslot for the first time later that day at 6pm. Episodes currently being shown on Five and Fiver in the UK and are around seven weeks behind Australia, with Five 35 episodes behind and Fiver 34 episodes behind.

Home and Away is currently sponsored by Ragú in the United Kingdom, Alan Dale is the voice of the sponsor whose famous for the role of Jim Robinson in rival soap Neighbours between 1985 and 1993.

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. However, due to intentional competition with other afternoon soaps such as The Bold and The Beautiful and Days of our Lives, both Home And Away and Neighbours were taken off the schedule.

Due to phenomenal public demand, Canadian television networks are locked in a battle for current broadcasting rights of the show. 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 re-launch 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

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.

In the first part episode of the two-parter where Sally Fletcher left Summer Bay in 2008, a softer Piano instrumental of the theme was played.

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

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.

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.

Classic showings in the UK

Although, ITV are allowed to show episodes 1-2840 (episodes which aired between 17 January 1988 and 30 May 2000 in Australia), ITV had only decided to play. During the year-long absence of new episodes during the move, ITV had decided to fill the void by 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 16 July 2001, ITV 2 had a completely new revised schedule, and had Home and away gradually removed from it by early 2002. Living, who had been airing the show since early 1999, 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 its mid-morning and mid-afternoon slots (when it was repeated.) (episodes from 1988-1991 were used on this channel and later episodes from 1996-1998), 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 2003 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 28 December 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

• IMDb page