'Home and Away' (commonly abbreviated to H&A) is a
soap opera that has been produced in
Sydney by the
Seven Network since July 1987. The show first went to air on Sunday
17 January 1988 with a two hour
pilot and from then it premiered as a weeknightly program the night after on Monday
18 January 1988 at 6 p.m. before ''
Seven News'' which then aired at 6:30 p.m.. ''Home and Away'' has also aired at the 6:30 p.m. timeslot. However, from
1992 the 7 p.m. slot has been its stable time.
The show is broadcast on the Seven Network and its affiliates from Monday to Friday at 7 p.m. in Australia and is exported to many countries including
Ireland,
New Zealand,
Estonia,
France,
Norway,
Sweden,
United Kingdom,
Israel and many
Asian countries.
When the show began in January 1988 ratings were low but soon improved and gradually the show's popularity grew. Originally ''Home and Away'' focused primarily on the characters of Pippa and Tom Fletcher who ran the
Summer Bay Caravan Park and lived there with a succession of foster children, but eventually the show's focus broadened to focus on the lives and loves of the inhabitants of the rest of Summer Bay.
History
The Surf Club's Outside Eating Area
In 1985, Seven Network axed the poor rating soap ''
Neighbours''; they continued producing that series for its remaining contract, ultimately producing 170 episodes. However Seven Network was 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, on Ten, in 1986, it initially attracted low ratings.
[1] The Network worked hard to publicise ''Neighbours''
[2] by revamping the show and adding several new, younger cast members, and they launched a concerted publicity drive largely focused on these new actors.
[3] This paid off for ''Neighbours'' and its popularity grew; by the end of 1987 it was attracting high ratings in Australia.
[4] In October 1986, ''Neighbours'' started being broadcast in the UK, where it began to attract strong viewing figures. From about 1988 to 1991 ''Neighbours'' was regularly watched by 20 million viewers in the UK.
In late 1986 the Seven Network’s head of drama at the time
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.
20th Anniversary: 1988 - 2008
Bevan Lee, who is the Script Executive for the
Seven Network, revealed to the general public that he will be returning to the role of Script Producer for the first 6 months of 2008. He will replace Sarah Walker, who has just finished her period in the role, plotting storylines right up until the end of 2007.
Bevan had worked on the show for most of its run until 2004. During that time he was responsible for many memorable storylines including the Sarah Lewis saga and Kane's cancer battle.
Bevan has promised fans that nothing dramatic will happen in the 2007 season finale, but he said that ''"My material will start with a very startling cliffhanger at the end of this year that will make regular viewers re-evaluate something that they have always taken for granted about one of the characters in the show. This cliffhanger will turn the life of that character on its head and will lead to one of the major stories of 2008.''
''Unless I'm mistaken, this cliffhanger will makes the jaws of those who have watched the show from the beginning well and truly drop. And the story will lead to the return of many old faces to the show at various stages through 2008."''
[5]
In a later interview with Jesus, Bevan revealed that the character who will be involved with the 2007 season finale will be
Sally Fletcher (
Kate Ritchie). There were rumours that with
Brad Armstrong (
Chris Sadrinna) leaving the show at the end of 2007, Sally would be departing from the show as well. But Bevan clearly stated that Brad's departure has nothing to do with Sally but it is still unknown when Kate will still want to stay on the show! He said ''"As is always the case with the show, characters come and go so that the central core group can have fresh stories. Brad was always viewed on the landscape of Summer Bay as a long term guest rather than as a character stretching in to an indeterminate future."''
''As great as Chris and his character have been for the canvas of the show, Brad's departure is part of putting Sally in to a position that is more suitable for the Christmas cliffhanger revelation that propels her and other characters in to one of the major story arcs of 2008.''
''The way Brad leaves the show is very positive and satisfying and does not close the door on this character's return in the future to Summer Bay.''
[6]
This special occasion will began with
Ric Dalby (
Mark Furze) celebrating his 20th birthday. Here is what Bevan revealed to Summer Bay Journal ''"When Home and Away returns in 2008 after the usual Christmas break, it will be the show's 20th birthday. The episode itself takes place on Ric's birthday and will open TIGHT on an image of a cake that reads 'TWENTY GOOD YEARS'. It's actually Ric's birthday cake, but also a nudge and promise to fans that this entire year is going to focus enormously on paying homage in various ways to a glorious twenty year run. Twenty years and as healthy as ever - we're all so proud of that."''
[7]
Cast
Main cast members
Recurring cast members
Most recent episode
Departing & Upcoming cast members
Upcoming
Departing
Deceased cast members
Before they were stars
Due to the relatively high profile of the show, most actors and actresses who appear on the show find that their profile is heightened, at least for a short period, though most ultimately eventually slide back into relative obscurity. However a minority of the cast have subsequently gone on to achieve success that dwarves their success on Home and Away.
Heath Ledger, who played guest character Scott Irwin in 1997, was subsequently nominated for an
Academy Award for his role as
Ennis Del Mar in
Brokeback Mountain.
Naomi Watts, who played
paraplegic Julie Gibson in 1992, also went on to achieve an Academy Award nomination for her portrayal of Cristina Peck in
21 Grams as well as
Ann Darrow in the 2005 remake of
King Kong.
Guy Pearce, who also appeared in the show and on
Neighbours, has starred in numerous successful films, including
Memento,
The Count of Monte Christo and
The Time Machine.
Isla Fisher who played
Shannon Reed between 1994 and 1997 has subsequently gone on to appear in films such as
Wedding Crashers and
Scooby-Doo.
Tammin Sursok, who played
Dani Sutherland;
Justin Melvey, who played teacher Harry Keller and
Daniel Goddard who was guest character Eric Phillips have all gone on to appear in US soaps
The Young and the Restless and
The Bold and the Beautiful respectively.
Others have achieved success in US drama series such as
Julian McMahon, who played Ben Lucini, went on to star in
Nip/Tuck and
Charmed;
Melissa George who landed roles in
Alias,
Friends and the 2005 film,
The Amityville Horror.
Chris Egan went onto appear in
Empire after leaving the show in 2003 whilst
Ryan Kwanten, who played lifeguard Vinnie Patterson, went on to appear in
Summerland
Craig McLachlan was already well known from his role on
Neighbours, but went on to achieve continued success since leaving his Home and Away role.
Justine Clarke, who played Roo Stewart in the first two years of the soap, has been a presenter of
Play School since 2005.
Andrew McFarlane and
Alex Papps, who have both had roles on Home and Away, are also presenters of Play School.
Bec Hewitt, Tammin Sursok and
Dannii Minogue have all attempted to launch music careers with Dannii being the most successful, achieving 11 straight number one's on the UK Club Chart. She became a judge on 4th series of the UK talent show
The X Factor
Celebrity guest appearances
Over the years a few famous faces have appeared in Home and Away. The first of these was
John Farnham in 1988 where he visited an ill Sally.
Frente! appeared and performed a concert in 1993. Whilst filming his travelogue series,
Full Circle with Michael Palin,
Palin played a British surfer who interrupted a serious conversation between the recently engaged Donald Fisher and Marilyn Chambers.
Kostya Tszyu visited Summer Bay in 1997 at a fundraiser organised by Justine Welles.
In the run up to the
2000 Olympic Games, held in nearby
Sydney, a number of Australian athletes had cameo roles including
Ian Thorpe. During a visit to London in 2001, Nick Smith met UK band
Atomic Kitten and at his book launch, Donald Fisher was asked by TV critic
Tina Baker to sign her copy of his book. Later that year,
Dani Sutherland managed to attract five members of
The Wallabies to appear at drugs awareness event she had organised.
Josie Russell organised for
Paulini Curuenavuli to appear at
Pippa Saunders christening in 2004. In 2005, tennis player
Lleyton Hewitt, who had recently become engaged to Home and Away actress
Rebecca Cartwright had a cameo role where he play a customer in the diner that took an interest in Cartwright's character
Hayley Lawson.
David Koch, a presenter of
Sunrise has filmed a small role and which will air in September 2007.
Current Living Arrangements
As of
8 September2007
'Summer Bay House'
★
Alf Stewart
★
Sally Fletcher
★
Ric Dalby
★
Cassie Turner
★
Pippa Saunders
'Caravan Park'
★
Colleen Smart
★
Morag Bellingham
'Beach House'
★
Irene Roberts
★
Belle Taylor
★
Annie Campbell
'Hunter/Holden House'
★
Tony Holden
★
Lucas Holden
★
Matilda Hunter
★
Geoff Campbell
'Patterson/Baker House'
★
Leah Patterson-Baker
★
Dan Baker
★
VJ Patterson
'The Diner Flat'
★
Martha Holden
'The Pad (formerly the Holden House)'
★
Rachel Hyde
★
Brad Armstrong
★
Jack Holden
★
Sam Tolhurst
★ Rory Tolhurst
'Penthouse (formerly Amanda's mansion)'
★
Jazz Curtis
★
Drew Curtis
Locations
Aside from the residents' houses Summer Bay has several well-known locations including:
★ 'The Surf Club' - As with many real life Australian beaches Summer Bay has its own Surf and Lifesaving Centre. Over the years as well as serving its purpose as a centre for sea and land rescues it has been a place for the young people of the Bay to relax and socialise. Town meetings are often held in the Surf Club. It has also been used as a polling station and a private party/formal venue and has housed various food outlets. Several characters have been trained as lifeguards over the years and surf competitions take place occasionally. The real life location is in the coastal town of Palm Beach on Sydney's Northern Beaches in NSW. Latitude 33°35'27.06"S Longitude 151°19'29.27"E
★ 'Noah's Bar' - Located in and joined to the Surf Club. Originally intended to be a business venture between newly-weds
Noah Lawson and
Hayley Lawson, the bar was renamed after Noah's tragic death and changed hands after Hayley's move to France with
Scott Hunter. The only known licensed premises regularly shown on the show, it is also used for private functions.
Martha Mackenzie,
Cassie Turner and
Alf Stewart run the bar.
★ 'Summer Bay Super Bods' - The gym is also located next to the Surf Club. Currently owned and run by
Tony Holden. Previous employees include
Jesse McGregor,
Hayley Lawson and
Kim Hyde.
★ 'The Beachside Diner' - More commonly known simply as The Diner. Originally owned by
Bobby Simpson and her best friend and aunt
Ailsa Stewart, currently by
Leah Patterson-Baker and
Irene Roberts, although Alf still owns half the building, with Leah owning the other half. It was gutted by fire in 2000 due to
Colleen Smart pouring a drum of oil, which she mistook for water, on a raging fire. The diner was forced to move location. Above is a two-bedroomed flat where Martha currently lives. The Diner is the first port of call for any residents of the Bay who wish to have a "choccy milkshake", laid-back dinner or take-away. The diner also has an upstairs flat which is currently home to
Martha Mackenzie.
★ 'Summer Bay High' - The local co-ed high school. It is also used as an evacuation centre in extreme weather conditions such as hurricanes and has been the scene of a hostage situation. Most of the younger characters attend the school, and many of the adult characters have worked there as principals, teachers, admin staff and counsellors. These include
Donald Fisher,
Sally Fletcher,
Irene Roberts,
Amanda Vale,
Tony Holden,
Shauna Bradley, Brad Armstrong,
Dan Baker and
Noah Lawson.
★ 'The Beach' - The beach is an important part of the Bay and several major storylines have revolved around it. It is the main outdoor location, often used for casual encounters between characters. It also serves to showcase the looks of the cast, who are often seen wearing beachwear.
★ 'The Police Station' - Since the Zoe McAllister saga began Summer Bay Police Station has been an increasingly popular setting for scenes. Regular character PC
Jack Holden works there. Former officers include
Peter Baker,
Nick Parrish,
Joel Nash, Ashton Nader, Kim Mitchell, Detective Inspector Mike Carter and PC Pia Corelli. Other police officials are recurring characters (PC Lara "Fitzy" Fitzgerald, Detective Ken Harper and Senior Constable Darren McGrath) and regular viewers will know of their simple but recognisable characteristics.
★ 'Northern Districts Hospital' - Illnesses, accidents and emergencies have seen many characters brought to the hospital for treatment. Current hospital employees include characters Dr.
Rachel Armstrong and Nurse Julie Cooper. Former hospital employees include Dr. Charlotte Adams, Dr. Lachlan Fraser, the late Dr.
Flynn Saunders, physiotherapist Samantha Tolhurst, Dr. Kelly Watson and Hugh Sullivan.
★ 'The Garage' - First seen in 2006 although scenes are rarely shown here.
Ric Dalby works here.
Filming in the United Kingdom
A few episodes of ''Home and Away'' have been filmed in the United Kingdom.
In 1998, Selina Roberts and Steven Matheson who had left the Bay a year previous made a call to
Irene Roberts and were seen for the remainder of the episode.
In 2001, a storyline where
Donald Fisher had his book ''Letter to Byron'' (in honour of his late son, Byron, who died in infancy) published, saw him, along with
Hayley Smith and her brothers Will and Nick and their foster mother, Irene taking a trip to London. Whilst in London, Donald met up with his estranged wife
Marilyn Fisher (Emily Symons) and gave the audience some closure to their marriage. British pop group
Atomic Kitten made a cameo.
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 7:00am to 6:00pm, but can go later if shooting goes over time. There are an average of 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 mainly at
Palm Beach and at Fisherman's Beach, Collaroy in Sydney's
Northern Beaches region. Location filming normally takes place early in the week, though occasionally demanding schedules mean they can be on location for 4-5 days a week.
Australian broadcasts
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 begins on the second Monday in January, and the season finale airs on the last Friday of the
ratings period, at the end of November (the 2006 season however, started, and thus finished, one week later than normal).
The show rates very well in its timeslot, receiving between 1.1 and 1.5 million viewers per episode. The show's main rival is ''
Temptation'' on the
Nine Network, which usually comes second in this timeslot. In this timeslot
Network Ten screens, at various times of the year, programs such as the ''
Big Brother Australia''
''Daily Show'', ''
The Biggest Loser'', or repeats of ''
The Simpsons'', which usually come third in ratings behind networks Seven and Nine.
During the broadcast there are three ad-breaks and immediately following the broadcast of each episode there 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 returned. Restrictions due to contracts with actors who appeared in the early days of the series prevent the Seven Network from showing repeats of ''Home and Away'', or releasing DVD sets
[1].
United Kingdom broadcasts
The show has more overall viewers in the UK market than it has in its home market, but Australia, because of it's lower population, has a higher proportion of viewers than the UK.
The series commenced at 17.15 on Saturday 11 February 1989 (17.05 Sunday 12 February in LWT and Yorkshire regions). UK regions have historically had different timeslots for the programme. Most regions aired it at 5.10pm, however Central and Anglia originally showed it at 6.35pm, later 6pm. Thames and Granada then moved the show from 5.10pm to 6pm, Border at 6.30pm. TSW at 3.25pm from Wednesday 20 September 1989 after they had completed
Sons and Daughters (6:30pm from 1992) before their successor
Westcountry Television moved the series to 5.10pm in 1993. TSW's scheduling was controversial. In 1991 the lunchtime showing was 1.20pm with the repeat following at 3.25pm. TSW persisted with the 3:25pm slot for a long period (apparently to avoid having to schedule two quiz shows consecutively), despite the fact many of Home and Away's teenage followers would still have been at school at this time. By early 1992 TSW's argument was extremely hollow as they had five half hour Australian soaps follow each other from 1.20pm on some days - Home and Away, A Country Practice, The Sullivans, The Young Doctors and then the Home and Away repeat. All regions screened at 5pm from March 1999.
In the UK episode from 1993 onwards were sometimes censored for content. Two episodes were dropped in their entirety, one due to similarities to the Dunblane massacre, another due to similarities to the
James Bulger kidnap & murder.
Surf Club Sign
In 1999,
ITV2 began broadcasting an omnibus on Saturday Mornings and by 2000, episodes aired in the UK were aired only one week after first showing in Australia. However, the shift in the UK in June 2000 from ITV to
Five damaged the programme's ratings, as contract obligations kept it off air in the UK for a year. Also,
Five having a smaller audience share than ITV contributed to the show achieving ratings significantly lower. Five funds more than half of the production costs, and it is officially Five's second highest rated show.
In accordance with
European Union regulations for shows of this time-length, only one advertisement break is inserted into the programme at approximately the halfway point. An omnibus edition (when the week's episodes were repeated back-to-back) aired on Saturday mornings, until October 2005, and from October 2006
Five Life, a digital channel that started broadcasting on
2006-10-15, began airing the omnibus.
Home and Away on Five
From
16 July 2001, starting with the 2841st episode, Five aired a new episode of ''Home and Away'' at 6.00pm every weekday evening, with the episode repeated at 12.30pm, later 12.00pm, the following day, or in the case of a Friday episode, the following Monday afternoon. Furthermore, an omnibus aired on the Saturday from July 2001 to October 2005. It originally aired in an afternoon slot, then an early morning slot, before it was dropped from the schedules, later being picked up by
Five Life.
On
May 7 2007 this was/will be the same on
May 28 2007 and
August 27 2007, no episode was/will be aired on Five for the first time since it started showing the show. Since Five have aired episodes continuously, whilst in Australia Channel Seven take a six week break over December and January, Five caught up from over a year behind and are currently only 11 weeks and 2 days in arrears. Although as off
August 28 2007 this will change to 11 weeks 3 days behind as
Five are commissioning a film instead. No new/recent repeat episodes will be broadcast across the
five network, but see
Five Life for more details.
Home and Away on Five Life
In October 2006,
Five launched two new digital TV channels,
Five Life and
Five US. As part of the plan to gain viewers, ''Home and Away'' aired at 6:30pm, a day ahead of the normal
Five schedules. Home and Away'' on
Five Life rates well, with audience figures between 500,000 and 800,000. An omnibus of the episodes aired that week is shown on a Saturday.
From
May 21 2007,
Five Life also started repeating episodes from the 2000 season of ''Home and Away'', starting from Episode 2841, as they do not own rights to any episode previous. They air between 10.00am and 11.00am, meaning that 10 episodes are aired each week.
On
May 7,
May 28 and
August 27 2007, no new episode was aired on any Five channel. However on the latter two dates, themed afternoons were aired on Five Life. These were Weddings and Sally and Flynn's relationship respectively.
UK takes a revived interest
From May 2008 ''Home and Away'' will air on the same UK network as rival
Neighbours for the first time, after
Five won the UK rights to
Neighbours from the
BBC.
In the wake of this, it seems that more and more people are turning over to ''Home and Away'' at 6.00pm each night. As a result of the new interest,
Five began to put together advertising campaigns, the first for Home and Away since 2002. ''Home and Away'' is quickly rising from 2 million viewers per episode to roughly about 3.5 million.
Although confirmed earlier on
Wikipedia (before deletion) that
Home and Away would be moving slots because of this, at the moment it seems as though things have changed.
Home and Away's schedule timings on both channels are staying although timings of the Weekly omnibus are still not yet confirmed.
Neighbours will start airing at 6.30pm on
Five straight after
Home and Away on
12 May 2008 6 weeks after finishing on
BBC One. It is thought that why the distance between airing on
ITV1 and
Five for
Home and Away between 2000-1 because
ITV1 was extremely unhappy to lose
Home and Away as it meant their other daily import which was already not faring well with
Home and Away there-
Shortland Street- was about to lose more viewers because of this.
Freemantle Media decided to move
Neighbours as they felt it's slot was "invisible" and they wanted a quicker and easier move than ITV had done with
Home and Away
Recently another set of previews have aired. The most recent airing at 6.25pm on
Five on
September 4 2007 with
Jodi Gordon having a brief chat about the storyline with
Cam Reynolds and the dancing at his club, even though the story had finished in the UK at the beginning of August.
Sponsorship
Home and Away broadcasts have received sponsorship since they moved to Five. Sponsors include:
★
Bodyform, between mid-2001 and mid-2004; (UK only)
★
KFC, between mid-2004 and late 2005; (UK only)
★
Weetos and
Weetabix Minis since 2006. (UK and the Republic of Ireland)
Other international broadcasts
The Beach and Stewarts Point
In
New Zealand, the show used to be broadcast on
TV One, later
TV2 but now screens on
TV3 on weekdays at 5:30pm, (repeated 10:30am on weekdays and an omnibus airs on Sundays at 10:15am). 1995 episodes were briefly shown on Prime TV at 3:30pm weekdays. New Zealand is exactly 6 weeks behind Australia.
In
Ireland, the national state broadcaster
RTE has shown the programme since its inception. The pilot episode was screened over two nights at 6pm on Monday and Tuesday 3 and 4 October 1988. From 5 October it was shown at 6.30pm. It has continually been a highly popular show, that has attracted a very wide and loyal fan base. The show is broadcast weekdays at 1:25pm on
RTÉ One and repeated at 6:30pm on
RTÉ Two regularly getting into the top 5 ratings for that week. It is approximately 12 weeks (59 episodes) behind Australia. The show is now also repeated on
RTÉ Two on Saturdays and Sundays (subject to no live sport etc.) with two episodes on Saturday and three on Sunday. In an email statement dated 21 August 2007, the Director of Broadcast & Acquisitions for RTÉ, stated that
Five have negotiated a European premiere for the show, and there is nothing
RTÉ can do about this as
Five fund part of the shows production costs. This is the first time any broadcaster has over-taken the
RTÉ transmission as they were always first to screen the show after Australia. Currently
Five are 2 episodes ahead of the
RTÉ broadcast, but this stands to change, as
RTÉ will broadcast the same daily episode that
Five screen. The statement from
RTE also states that
Five is available to less than 5% of Irish households, and their playing the episodes first hasn’t affected
RTÉ ratings.
Dublin City University students set up a ''Home and Away'' society in 2006 and one of the society's biggest achievements was meeting Ray Meagher who plays one of Summer Bay's oldest and most important residents, Alf Stewart.
United Kingdom however did not start airing the show until
January 1989. The pilot was not shown by
ITV 1 and instead of starting on a Monday, the show had started on a Tuesday instead, but from there on in
Home and Away screened most Monday's except at
Bank Holiday Easter and
Christmas.
Bank Holiday and
Easter the show was taken off for 1 or 2 days at most whereas at
Christmas it could have been anything up to 2-3 weeks. However, in the last 6 months of it's stay with
ITV 1 Home and Away had a rather unsettled schedule pattern. Sometimes it will just air 3 or 4 times a week. The last 3 episodes of
Home and Away on that channel, 2838-2840 were shown starting on a
Tuesday evening and ending that
Thursday lunchtime. No more new episodes were allowed to be aired until
July 2001 after.
Estonia is quite behind various other countries. The show has screened on ETV in the 1990s and on TV1 in the 2000s. Currently episodes from 2003 are shown on Kanal 2 every weekday at 6:30pm. In summertime (June-August), two episodes are shown instead of one.
Other countries that broadcast ''Home and Away'' include:
Belgium on
Kanaal Twee with a double broadcast on weekdays;
Belgium are just 6 weeks into the 2006 season at present date;
Denmark;
Iceland;
Israel;
Lithuania;
Norway;
Poland;
Serbia;
Macedonia;
South Africa;
Sweden it is broadcast weekday mornings at 7:25 on
TV3 currently on the 2005 season;
France.
The series is also broadcast in the following countries via the
Australia Network:
American Samoa;
Cambodia;
Cook Islands;
East Timor;
Federated States of Micronesia;
Fiji;
French Polynesia;
Guam;
Hong Kong;
India;
Indonesia;
Japan;
Kiribati;
Laos;
Macau;
Malaysia;
Maldives;
Marshall Islands;
Mongolia;
Niue;
Northern Mariana Islands;
Norway;
Pakistan;
Palau;
Papua New Guinea;
Philippines;
Samoa;
Singapore;
Solomon Islands;
South Korea;
Sri Lanka;
Taiwan;
Thailand;
Tonga;
Vanuatu;
Vietnam.
Theme
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 sountrack 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.
★ Version 1: Mark Williams and Karen Boddington (1988-1995)
★ Version 2: Doug Williams and Erana Clark (1995-1999)
★ Version 3: The Robertson Brothers (1999-2003)
★ Version 4: The Robertson Brothers (2004-2006)
★ Version 5:
Israel Cannan (2007)
★ Version 6: Luke Dolahenty (2007-)
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, Channel Seven decided to re-do it, making it the shortest running theme tune in the programme's history.
Awards
''Home and Away'' has won many awards in the past, in particular at the
Logies. Below is a list on Logies won:
★ 2007:
Kate Ritchie, Gold Logie for Most Popular Personality on TV.
★ 2007:
Kate Ritchie, Silver Logie for Most Popular Actress
★ 2007: Most Popular Drama Series
★ 2007:
Amy Mathews, for Most Popular New Talent - Female
★ 2006:
Kate Ritchie, for Most Popular Actress
★ 2006:
Paul O'Brien, for Most Popular New Talent - Male
★ 2006:
Jodi Gordon, for Most Popular New Talent - Female
★ 2006: Most Popular Drama
★ 2005:
Bec Cartwright, for Most Popular Actress
★ 2005:
Chris Hemsworth, for Most Popular New Male Talent
★ 2004:
Kip Gamblin, for Most Popular New Male Talent
★ 2004:
Isabel Lucas, for Most Popular New Female Talent
★ 2001:
Tammin Sursok, for Most Popular New Female Talent
★ 2000:
Justin Melvey, for Most Popular New Male Talent
★ 1999:
Kimberley Cooper, for Most Popular New Female Talent
★ 1996:
Dieter Brummer. for Most Popular Actor
★ 1996:
Nic Testoni, for Best New Talent (Renamed retroactively Most Popular New Talent in 1998)
★ 1996: Most Popular Series
★ 1995:
Dieter Brummer, for Most Popular Actor
★ 1995:
Melissa George, for Most Popular Actress
★ 1995: Most Popular Series
★ 1994: Most Popular Series
★ 1993: Most Popular Series
★ 1991:
Craig McLachlan, for Most Popular Actor
★ 1991: Most Popular Drama Series
★ 1989:
Nicolle Dickson, for Best New Talent (Renamed retroactively Most Popular New Talent in 1998)
''Home and Away'' has also been nominated for awards in the UK in the past, at such events like the
BAFTAs,
The British Soap Awards,
Inside Soap Awards and
National Television Awards. ''Home and Away'' has been nominated every year it has been broadcast in the
UK from March 1988 onwards. However, it has so far been unsuccessful in all catergories nominated.
External links
★
''Home and Away'' on
Yahoo!7
★
''Home and Away'' on
five.tv
★
of Home and Away sites''
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