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Home and Away
2007 - present opening credits
Genre	Soap opera
Created by	Alan Bateman
Starring	See cast
Opening theme	Home and Away - Luke Dolahenty
Ending theme	Home and Away - Luke Dolahenty
Country of origin	Australia
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	21 [Current 2008 Season]
No. of episodes	4710 [as of 4 September 2008
Production
Executive producer(s)	John Holmes
Producer(s)	Cameron Welsh
Running time	22 minutes [Approx.]
Broadcast
Original channel	Seven Network
Picture format	PAL (576i), 1080i (HDTV)
Original run	17 January 1988 – present
External links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

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 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 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

The Surf Club's Outside Eating Area

In 1985 the Seven Network axed the poorly-rating soap Neighbours^[1], 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.^[2] The Network worked hard to publicise Neighbours^[3] and their hard work was paid off when its popularity grew, by the end of 1987 it was attracting high ratings in Australia.^[4]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.^[5]

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

Main article: List of Home and Away characters

Current cast members

Main article: List of current Home and Away characters

Recurring cast members

Main article: Recurring characters of Home and Away

Notable former cast members

Deceased cast members

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). It is now confirmed that the Beijing 2008 Olympics in China will continue with this tradition, as it will also be affecting UK transmissions of the show, as Five need episodes to air throughout December and January, when in Australia, the show is on its summer break. 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 began 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.

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). The show will return with 4701 on Monday 25 August 2008, which, coincidentally, happens to be one day before episodes return to the UK. Just like with the 2004 Olympic cliffhanger, in which a character was killed off, there is to be a cliffhanger of a similar sort in 2008. Due to a late start in 2008, as well as the Olympic break, fans can expect the 2008 season finale to occur on December 12, 2008: two weeks later than normal.

 France 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  Belgium at the moment. The timeslot is currently afternoon/evening

 Belgium 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 April 20, 2007.

 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 7 weeks (36 episodes behind Australia), it was originally 6 weeks 1 day (31 episodes) to start with, but due to Five having the rights to premiere the show in Europe and them taking 3 days off, it has meant that RTE will also be behind. 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.^{citation needed}

 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 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.

 United Kingdom 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 after each portion of the weeks episodes has been shown.

Home and Away first appeared on British television on ITV in 1989. It remained on the channel 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.

Five, the BBC and Channel 4 were at a table meeting in February 2000 to discuss the future of the show on British television. The show's contract with ITV ended four months after this discussion because they had been outbid by Five, who subsequently acquired Neighbours, from the BBC, seven years later.

The Hiatus had began at 5.35pm on Thursday June 8, 2000 after episode 2840 had finished its daily repeat. At the time, ITV were 9 episodes behind Australia, hence the reason for the regular breaks at Christmas and Easter. The Hiatus had finished at 6.01pm on the evening of Monday July 16, 2001 when Five had began showing episode 2841.

Episodes were broadcast 50 weeks (250 episodes) behind the Seven Network, where episode 3091 had been shown that day. 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 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. This change in the timeslot was due to Five's other soap (which was home-made in London where The Bill is made) Family Affairs having to be pulled due to ratings figures at an all time low and not even getting at least half of Home and away's 2 million UK viewers.

There have only been 14 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 July 16, 2001 (episode 2841) until May 4, 2007 (episode 4355). Subsequently, it hasn't been shown on Bank Holidays or during the Christmas and New Year period. The next date no episodes are expected to be aired on is on August 25, 2008 to make way for special Bank Holiday programming.

No episodes were shown on the following dates:

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

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

2009: Thursday January 1; Friday January 2.

* Note 1: The reason why the show is taking its first summer break of three weeks (the same as in New Zealand) is because the production team take that amount of time off filming for their summer (winter in Australia & New Zealand) break. It is now confirmed that Five will NOT be removing Neighbours for that reason, except for August 25 for bank Holiday. The last episode to air on Five before the intermission will be episode 4666 which aired in Australia Monday June 23, 2008 (1 August in the UK). The one on Fiver will be episode 4667 which aired in Australia on Tuesday June 24, 2008. Upon Return, the first episodes will be 4667 on Five, and 4668 on Fiver respectively

* Note 2: The programme will not be shown between December 22 and January 2 to avoid loss of viewers over the Christmas period. It is likely that transmissions of Neighbours will also be affected. The last episode on analogue shown before this intermission will be 4750 and cable will be 4751. None of these episodes have aired in Australia yet and are most likely to be shown there near the middle of October.

Home and Away was first shown on Five Life (now Fiver) on 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 was shown in Australia on June 20, 2006. By this time, Five was 85 episodes (17 weeks) behind Australia, whilst Five Life (now Fiver) was 84 episodes behind.

The final lunchtime repeat, to be broadcast on Five, was on 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 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 7 weeks behind Australia with Five 35 episodes behind and Fiver 34 episodes behind. If these breaks in transmission had not occurred, Five would be only 15 episodes behind (3 weeks) and Fiver 14 episodes behind. The reason why Five has had these breaks is so viewers don't have to wait too long for the 2009 season.

After the Olympics, Five will be inserting Home and away into an extra slot that will run from Tuesdays- Saturdays in the early morning slot of 5.35am, straight after the early morning rerun of Neighbours. These episodes will have aired on Five the previous day. This has proved to be a hit with Neighbours and therefore Home and away's introduction to this slot on 27 August (due to no episode to repeat on 26 August) has been caused by this. Re-runs will however, be 5 minutes shorter than the Fiver shows and the 6.00pm show on Five, and 10 minutes shorter than the lunchtime show on Five.

According to a BBC news report found in July 17, 2001, the return of Home and Away had given Five its best audience to date at the time. ^[7]

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.

Changes to the UK Schedule for August 4 - August 22, 2008

The 2.15pm slot on Five will temporarily be used for a new U.S. drama during the 3 weeks intermission, which is called Medical Investigation. This is an hour long show, so it's not just Home and away that will lose out on this timeslot, but Zoo Days 15 minute special and a 3.pm news bulletin will lose out as well.

The 6.00pm slot on Five will temporarily be used for 15 1-hour long documentaries called Vets in Action.

Home and away: The early years is making a temporary return meaning that the 10.30am slot on Fiver is to be temporarily extended from 10.00am-11.00am, forcing repeats of Neighbours to move to an earlier timeslot of 9.30am. However, unlike last time, these episodes won't air in order. They will be themed.

These episodes will then be repeated in a early evening slot on Fiver, 1 of which is already belonging to Home and away. The first of the two episodes will air at 5.55pm with the second airing at 6.30pm. The show will take a five minute break at 6.25pm in order to air popular teenage mini-drama Sofia's Diary which airs every night normally before new episodes of Home and away.

It is unknown yet, how Fiver are to fill the Saturday afternoon slots in which the omnibus airs. It could be likely that for the 3 weeks Home and away is off, to fill the timeslot they may add an extra edition of Neighbours omnibus.

Changes to the Irish Schedule for August 13 - August 28

Due to the fact that Britain has the rights to make the European debut of every single episode, Ireland must be around 1-2 days behind the UK at the bare minimum. Due to the fact RTE had taken Home and away off for a couple of weeks in June, but have almost caught up, being 7 episodes behind, they will continue airing all episodes Five has aired until Monday August 12 when the last episode will air. It is unclear as to how RTE intend to fill the schedule, but Home and away will return with new episodes on either Wednesday August 27 or Thursday August 28

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

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. ^[8] 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, an softer Piano instrumental of the theme was played.

Merchandise

Books & Annuals:

DVD, VHS & Soundtracks:

Other:

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.

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 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 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 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 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

• IMDb page