Home and Away

Home and Away is an Australian weeknightly half-hour television soap opera produced in Sydney by the Seven Network since January 1988. It is broadcast on the Seven Network and its affiliates in Australia and is exported to many countries, most notably the United Kingdom, where it briefly became the subject of a bidding war between ITV and Five (TV) (Five won). The show has more overall viewers in the larger UK market than it has in its home market, but a higher proportion of viewers in Australia, due to Australia's smaller population base, making it the highest rating locally produced drama. Five funds more than half of the production costs. It has run since January 1988 and is still in production.

Synopsis

It features the travails of the inhabitants of a fictional small coastal town in New South Wales called Summer Bay. The soap originally revolved around one family, which was Pippa and Tom Fletcher, and their foster children, who included Frank Morgan, Carly Morris, Steven Matheson, Lynn Davenport, & Sally Fletcher, who was adopted by Tom & Pippa. The family became bigger when Bobby Simpson (daughter of Donald Fisher & Morag Bellingham) came into the picture as well as her adopted younger sister Sophie years later. But it now has many different families: the Hunter family, the Holden family, the Fletcher/Saunders family, the Patterson/Bakers, and Alf Stewart (an original character) and his grandchildren, Ric & Martha.

As of 2004, the program concentrates on the family occupying and running the local caravan park who typically foster several teenagers.

Like Neighbours, Australia's other daily half-hour homegrown soap, it attracts a mainly teenage audience and features a constantly-rotating teenage cast with several older actors who tend to last considerably longer.

Cast

See main articles:

  • Current Home and Away characters
  • Past Home and Away characters
  • List of cast members of Home and Away

Current cast members

  • Nicholas Bishop (Peter Baker) (2004-2005, 2006-2007)
  • Holly Brisley (Amanda Vale) (2005-)
  • Tim Campbell (Daniel Baker) (2004-2006)
  • Lyn Collingwood (Colleen Smart) (1988-1989, 1997, 1999-)
  • Indiana Evans (Matilda Hunter) (2004-)
  • Mark Furze (Eric Dalby) (2004-)
  • Jodi Gordon (Martha McKenzie) (2005-)
  • Chris Hemsworth (Kim Hyde) (2004-2006)
  • Clarissa House (Beth Hunter) (2003-)
  • Ivar Kants (Barry Hyde) (2004-)
  • Isabel Lucas (Tasha Andrews) (2003-)
  • Amy Mathews (Rachel Armstrong) (2006-)
  • Lynne McGranger (Irene Roberts) (#2) (1992-)
  • Joel McIlroy (Flynn Saunders) (#2) (2003-2006)
  • Ray Meagher (Alf Stewart) (1988-)
  • Ada Nicodemou (Leah Patterson) (2000-)
  • Paul O'Brien (Jack Holden) (2005-)
  • Kate Ritchie (Sally Fletcher) (1988-)
  • Jon Sivewright (Tony Holden) (2005-)
  • Jason Smith (Robbie Hunter) (2003-2007)
  • Jessica Tovey (Belle Taylor) (2006-)
  • Sharni Vinson (Cassandra Turner) (2005-)
  • Rhys Wakefield (Lucas Holden) (2005-)

Recurring cast members

  • Daniel Collopy (Joshua "Josh" West)(Credited full time 2001-2003, recurring for 2005 to 2006 for one of the current storylines. Unlike Cornelia/Morag, his character's return will not constitute a long term recurance)
  • Cornelia Frances (Morag Bellingham)(Credited full time 1988 - 1989, recurring 1994,2001- The character of Morag Bellingham has become somewhat of a full-time recurring character making numerous visits since 2001, possibly due to her resurgance in television with her hosting the Weakest Link , Australian version in 2001, along with her popularity in Australia and her character being one of the most memorable despite being full-time for only a year)
  • Isaac Gorman (Ryan Baker) (2005-
  • Amy Mizzi (Kit Hunter) (2003-2004,2005,2006)
  • Tameka and Bojana Main (Pippa Saunders) (2004-
  • Emily Perry (Zoe) (2005-2006)
  • Doug Scroope (Graham Walters) (2005-2006)
  • Cameron and Nicholas Stevens (Vincent "VJ" Patterson, Jr.) (2002-

Cast Returns

All but five of the original cast have at some point reprised their role. Those characters who haven't returned are Lynn Davenport,Roo Stewart, Tom Fletcher (was killed off),Pippa (as played by Vanessa Downing, Debra Lawrance who took over the role until 1998 has made several returns since her own departure) and Neville Mcphee. Neville Mcphee was killed off-screen after Frank llyod, who played Neville refused to come back in 2000 for Sally's wedding. The reason why Frank Llyod refused to return was that his character was written out after the first year as producers felt that they needed more time for the younger characters, and wasn't imformed about this by producers, but rather from reading local tv magazines. When he refused to come back as he was still upset about it, the decision was made to kill his character off-screen. Sheila Kennely, who played Floss Mcphee was also cut after the first year, but agreed to return in 2000, despite not being told she was cut back in 1989. Ailsa and Bobby made returns, but as they were both killed off, they returned as ghosts.

Many other characters have made returns, many of which were either during Sally's wedding or the massive landslide/storm in 2000. In most cases, the more popular charcters have made more significant returns, while less received characters have either had a cameo like at sally's wedding or not returned at all.

Future cast members

  • Debra Lawrance (Pippa Ross) (returning February 16th)(The role of Pippa was an original charcter,in fact, one of the main ones, but Debra Lawerance is the second actress to play this role, up until the character was written out. Pippa has since made numerous returns to Summer Bay and it has been Debra Lawrance who has reprised the role, rather than the first actress)*
  • Amy Mizzi (Katherine "Kit" Hunter) (returning March 2006 for 7 week guest stint)(Credited full time 2003-2004, recurring 2005 and 2006 as stated)
  • Kimberly Cooper (Gypsy Nash) (2006 - )(Credited full time 1998 - 2002)
  • Emily Perry (Zoe McCallister/Eve Jacobson) (Returning Late 2006)
  • The character of Selina is thus far the only one to have been played by two actresses, where on her return to visit Summer Bay, it has been the original actress, Tempany Deckart, who has reprised the role.

Departing cast members

  • Chris Hemsworth has announced he will not renew his contract when it expires at the end of 2006.

Actors Kate Ritchie and Ray Meagher have been with the show since the first episode, the longest such run in Australian television history. Ritchie was aged nine and playing a character a year younger when the show began filming in late 1987. Her character, Sally, is now a teacher at the local high school, and became Acting Principal when Norman Coburn's character, Donald Fisher, the previous principal and fellow original cast member, left the show. She is now assistant principal.

Alf has been in several business ventures, many of which were either destroyed by storylines involving natural disasters or losses through bad choices. Some examples include a mini supermarket(early years), the Diner (worked in the old one with Ailsa and also in the new one until recently, that is around 2002-2003), and currently the Surf Club. In late 2005, he also ran for Mayor in an attempt to stop Josh West (Daniel Collopy), but was unsuccessful due to some scam Josh pulled through.

Successful former cast members include Isla Fisher, Naomi Watts, Heath Ledger, Dannii Minogue, Julian McMahon, Simon Baker, Melissa George, Tammin Sursok, Bec Cartwright, Daniel Goddard.

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. A normal shooting day is 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM, but can go later if shooting goes over time. There are 8 weeks between shooting and airing the program. The interior shots are filmed at a permanent set for the show in Seven Sydney's Epping studio. The exterior scenes are filmed on location at Palm Beach in Sydney's Northern Beaches region.

Australian Broadcast

Home and Away is broadcast in Australia on weekdays at 7:00pm. The show airs for 46 weeks each year (except for some years where Seven broadcast the Olympic Games in which only 44 weeks worth of episodes air). Each new season begins on the second Monday in January (an exception to this was the 2006 season where it returned on the third Monday), and the season finale airs on the last Friday in November.

During the broadcast there are three ad-breaks and immediately following the broadcast of each episode is a short promotional trailer for the next episode.

Repeat episodes of the series were broadcast between 1999 and 2002, with a one-year break in 2000. The first 623 episodes (except for Episode 469, which was overlooked when Seven were showing the tennis in September 2001) were shown in this run, before it was taken off in May 2002. and so far has never been returned.

International Broadcasts

As of 2006, in the UK, the show is broadcast weekdays at 6:00 PM, (repeated 12.00 PM weekdays).

In New Zealand, the show is broadcast weekdays at 5:30 PM, (repeated 11.00 AM weekdays and omnibus on Sundays 10:25 AM - New Zealand only).

In Ireland, the show is broadcast weekdays at 6:30 PM on RTÉ Two, regulary getting into the top 5 ratings for that week.

Other countries that broadcast Home and Away include: Belgium; Canada; Denmark; Estonia; Iceland; Israel; Lithuania; Norway; Poland; South Africa and Sweden.


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Other countries that broadcast Home and Away include: Belgium; Canada; Denmark; Estonia; Iceland; Israel; Lithuania; Norway; Poland; South Africa and Sweden. In 2005, Melendi released his second album, Que el cielo espere sentao ("Let heaven sit and wait"), which has already sold more than 300,000 copies. In Ireland, the show is broadcast weekdays at 6:30 PM on RTÉ Two, regulary getting into the top 5 ratings for that week. His song "Con la luna llena" ("With the full moon") has been a huge hit across Spain. In New Zealand, the show is broadcast weekdays at 5:30 PM, (repeated 11.00 AM weekdays and omnibus on Sundays 10:25 AM - New Zealand only). By May 2004, following an acclaimed concert performance in Madrid, Melendi reached the 50,000 discs sold plateau. As of 2006, in the UK, the show is broadcast weekdays at 6:00 PM, (repeated 12.00 PM weekdays). In May of that year, he embarked on a small tour of Spain, and in September his fan club formed, at this point in modest numbers.

and so far has never been returned. In February 2003, the album Sin Noticias de Holanda ("No News from Holland") was released, with twelve tracks highly regarded for their intelligent lyrics. The first 623 episodes (except for Episode 469, which was overlooked when Seven were showing the tennis in September 2001) were shown in this run, before it was taken off in May 2002. In 2002, he submitted his disk to Javier Valiño of Carlito records, who called him days later. Repeat episodes of the series were broadcast between 1999 and 2002, with a one-year break in 2000. In 2001, he joined a group called "El bosque de Sherwood" (Sherwood Forest), and soon after recorded a solo disc containing three tracks. During the broadcast there are three ad-breaks and immediately following the broadcast of each episode is a short promotional trailer for the next episode. He turned to soccer, playing for lower categories of Real Oviedo.

Each new season begins on the second Monday in January (an exception to this was the 2006 season where it returned on the third Monday), and the season finale airs on the last Friday in November. After a relatively normal childhood, it became to clear to his parents that the adolescent Melendi was not born to study. The show airs for 46 weeks each year (except for some years where Seven broadcast the Olympic Games in which only 44 weeks worth of episodes air). He was born in 1979 in Oviedo. Home and Away is broadcast in Australia on weekdays at 7:00pm. Melendi (Ramón Melendi Espina) is a flamenco-influenced Spanish pop musician. The exterior scenes are filmed on location at Palm Beach in Sydney's Northern Beaches region.

The interior shots are filmed at a permanent set for the show in Seven Sydney's Epping studio. There are 8 weeks between shooting and airing the program. A normal shooting day is 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM, but can go later if shooting goes over time. The crew is given a four week holiday at Christmas and a two week break for recuperation mid-year.

The show is filmed five days a week for 46 weeks of the year. Successful former cast members include Isla Fisher, Naomi Watts, Heath Ledger, Dannii Minogue, Julian McMahon, Simon Baker, Melissa George, Tammin Sursok, Bec Cartwright, Daniel Goddard. In late 2005, he also ran for Mayor in an attempt to stop Josh West (Daniel Collopy), but was unsuccessful due to some scam Josh pulled through. Some examples include a mini supermarket(early years), the Diner (worked in the old one with Ailsa and also in the new one until recently, that is around 2002-2003), and currently the Surf Club.

Alf has been in several business ventures, many of which were either destroyed by storylines involving natural disasters or losses through bad choices. She is now assistant principal. Her character, Sally, is now a teacher at the local high school, and became Acting Principal when Norman Coburn's character, Donald Fisher, the previous principal and fellow original cast member, left the show. Ritchie was aged nine and playing a character a year younger when the show began filming in late 1987.

Actors Kate Ritchie and Ray Meagher have been with the show since the first episode, the longest such run in Australian television history. In most cases, the more popular charcters have made more significant returns, while less received characters have either had a cameo like at sally's wedding or not returned at all. Many other characters have made returns, many of which were either during Sally's wedding or the massive landslide/storm in 2000. Ailsa and Bobby made returns, but as they were both killed off, they returned as ghosts.

Sheila Kennely, who played Floss Mcphee was also cut after the first year, but agreed to return in 2000, despite not being told she was cut back in 1989. When he refused to come back as he was still upset about it, the decision was made to kill his character off-screen. The reason why Frank Llyod refused to return was that his character was written out after the first year as producers felt that they needed more time for the younger characters, and wasn't imformed about this by producers, but rather from reading local tv magazines. Neville Mcphee was killed off-screen after Frank llyod, who played Neville refused to come back in 2000 for Sally's wedding.

Those characters who haven't returned are Lynn Davenport,Roo Stewart, Tom Fletcher (was killed off),Pippa (as played by Vanessa Downing, Debra Lawrance who took over the role until 1998 has made several returns since her own departure) and Neville Mcphee. All but five of the original cast have at some point reprised their role. See main articles:. Like Neighbours, Australia's other daily half-hour homegrown soap, it attracts a mainly teenage audience and features a constantly-rotating teenage cast with several older actors who tend to last considerably longer.

As of 2004, the program concentrates on the family occupying and running the local caravan park who typically foster several teenagers. But it now has many different families: the Hunter family, the Holden family, the Fletcher/Saunders family, the Patterson/Bakers, and Alf Stewart (an original character) and his grandchildren, Ric & Martha. The family became bigger when Bobby Simpson (daughter of Donald Fisher & Morag Bellingham) came into the picture as well as her adopted younger sister Sophie years later. The soap originally revolved around one family, which was Pippa and Tom Fletcher, and their foster children, who included Frank Morgan, Carly Morris, Steven Matheson, Lynn Davenport, & Sally Fletcher, who was adopted by Tom & Pippa.

It features the travails of the inhabitants of a fictional small coastal town in New South Wales called Summer Bay. . It has run since January 1988 and is still in production. Five funds more than half of the production costs.

The show has more overall viewers in the larger UK market than it has in its home market, but a higher proportion of viewers in Australia, due to Australia's smaller population base, making it the highest rating locally produced drama. It is broadcast on the Seven Network and its affiliates in Australia and is exported to many countries, most notably the United Kingdom, where it briefly became the subject of a bidding war between ITV and Five (TV) (Five won). Home and Away is an Australian weeknightly half-hour television soap opera produced in Sydney by the Seven Network since January 1988. Chris Hemsworth has announced he will not renew his contract when it expires at the end of 2006.

The character of Selina is thus far the only one to have been played by two actresses, where on her return to visit Summer Bay, it has been the original actress, Tempany Deckart, who has reprised the role. Emily Perry (Zoe McCallister/Eve Jacobson) (Returning Late 2006). Kimberly Cooper (Gypsy Nash) (2006 - )(Credited full time 1998 - 2002). Amy Mizzi (Katherine "Kit" Hunter) (returning March 2006 for 7 week guest stint)(Credited full time 2003-2004, recurring 2005 and 2006 as stated).

Pippa has since made numerous returns to Summer Bay and it has been Debra Lawrance who has reprised the role, rather than the first actress)*. Debra Lawrance (Pippa Ross) (returning February 16th)(The role of Pippa was an original charcter,in fact, one of the main ones, but Debra Lawerance is the second actress to play this role, up until the character was written out. Cameron and Nicholas Stevens (Vincent "VJ" Patterson, Jr.) (2002-. Doug Scroope (Graham Walters) (2005-2006).

Emily Perry (Zoe) (2005-2006). Tameka and Bojana Main (Pippa Saunders) (2004-. Amy Mizzi (Kit Hunter) (2003-2004,2005,2006). Isaac Gorman (Ryan Baker) (2005-.

Cornelia Frances (Morag Bellingham)(Credited full time 1988 - 1989, recurring 1994,2001- The character of Morag Bellingham has become somewhat of a full-time recurring character making numerous visits since 2001, possibly due to her resurgance in television with her hosting the Weakest Link , Australian version in 2001, along with her popularity in Australia and her character being one of the most memorable despite being full-time for only a year). Unlike Cornelia/Morag, his character's return will not constitute a long term recurance). Daniel Collopy (Joshua "Josh" West)(Credited full time 2001-2003, recurring for 2005 to 2006 for one of the current storylines. Rhys Wakefield (Lucas Holden) (2005-).

Sharni Vinson (Cassandra Turner) (2005-). Jessica Tovey (Belle Taylor) (2006-). Jason Smith (Robbie Hunter) (2003-2007). Jon Sivewright (Tony Holden) (2005-).

Kate Ritchie (Sally Fletcher) (1988-). Paul O'Brien (Jack Holden) (2005-). Ada Nicodemou (Leah Patterson) (2000-). Ray Meagher (Alf Stewart) (1988-).

Joel McIlroy (Flynn Saunders) (#2) (2003-2006). Lynne McGranger (Irene Roberts) (#2) (1992-). Amy Mathews (Rachel Armstrong) (2006-). Isabel Lucas (Tasha Andrews) (2003-).

Ivar Kants (Barry Hyde) (2004-). Clarissa House (Beth Hunter) (2003-). Chris Hemsworth (Kim Hyde) (2004-2006). Jodi Gordon (Martha McKenzie) (2005-).

Mark Furze (Eric Dalby) (2004-). Indiana Evans (Matilda Hunter) (2004-). Lyn Collingwood (Colleen Smart) (1988-1989, 1997, 1999-). Tim Campbell (Daniel Baker) (2004-2006).

Holly Brisley (Amanda Vale) (2005-). Nicholas Bishop (Peter Baker) (2004-2005, 2006-2007). List of cast members of Home and Away. Past Home and Away characters.

Current Home and Away characters.