Nothing is more interesting than a family paternity drama, or at least that's what Coral Drouyn though during her brief reign as Home and Away script writer between 2002 and 2004 when we were treated a never-ending succession of people who had children they didn't know about, as well as some other interesting relationship stories.
Brett/Martha/Roo
Within the first few month of the show, Roo Stewart, Alf's daughter had already fell pregnant. With everyone believing it to be Frank's, Roo and Frank were about to get married. However Roo's Auntie Morag gave Roo a guilt trip and all was revealed during the wedding and the aftermath, the father was actually Brett Macklin's. There was something about mumps in the storyline as well. Recycling ideas after 20 years?
Fisher/Morag/Bobby
I can't categorically say if this was a storyline that that they had planned out from the moment that the show began or an idea that grew over the first few months of the show. Like, how about we make Bobby's two parents the two people she hates most in the world and they hate her. In 1989 in the truth came out and whilst over time Bobby and Fisher grew close together, Bobby died with mutual resentment between her and Morag. In what became quite common in these half-sibling stories, Bobby and Alan Fisher, Don's late son had a brief relationship before he died of an aneurysm.
Sally and "Ross and Louise" Keating
Sally thought that once her grandmother had passed she had has much family as Louis XV had in the 18th century when he became King of France. Therefore Sally, Pippa and Tom were suitably surprised wher Ross Keating turned up in Summer Bay saying he was Sally's uncle. Ross and Louise came with the intentions of taking custody of Sally, but Sally, unwilling to go, was adopted by Pippa and Tom and Ross and Louise left Summer Bay without Sally.
Marilyn/Her Parents
Originally brought in as a character of complete comedy, an additional member of the buffonery of Lance and Martin. However, whilst she always remained her slightly ditzy element throughout the years we often saw what a tragic character Marilyn was. In 1991 Marilyn went searching for her real parents and after finding one couple who claimed to be her parents, another turned up claiming to be her parents. Unfortunately for Marilyn as opposed to the high hopes she had had for her parents they turned out to be lazy layabouts.
Alf/Quinn
An American named Quinn Jackson began snooping around Summer Bay in late-1995 looking for Alf Stewart. At first we were slightly bemused as it seemed that suspicious character was going to leave town after a few days. However, like all good American westerns, there was a showdown at the bus stop where it was revealed that Quinn was Alf's daughter, the result of a relationship he'd had with an American woman during the war in Vietnam. Unfortunately for Alf, it came at a time when he was wanting to know Summer Bay down and build a resort so he wasn't the most popular guy around. She soon left the Bay and hasn't really been mentioned since.
Joey/Saul/Alex
After the great Summer Bay earthquake of 1996, Alex and Joey ended up sitting around the same table at Summer Bay House. Both discovered that they shared the same father, the Dick Dastardly of Home and Away, Saul Bennett and that they were indeed half-brothers. I'd like to make it sound more interesting than that, but as I have read and remember it can't be said that there was much more than that. Alex left within a month and despite a few more dalliances with Saul, Joey grew up.
Ailsa/Shauna
Since 1988, when it had been revealed that Ailsa had been in prison for killing her father, there had always been a slight air of mystery about the character. In 1999, the head lifeguards position was taken by Shauna Bradley. In 2000, Shauna's aunt Kate came to visit her in the bay and Ailsa recognised her and the mystery began to come out, Shauna was Ailsa's daughter. This was extremely embarrassing for Duncan who had fancied Shauna, about 10 years his senior and now discovered she was his half-sister. Unfortunately their time together was all too short, with Ailsa dying before the year was out.
Fisher/Seb
An incredibly emotional storyline and one which I don't feel is mentioned enough is the tear-jerkers/powerful discussions, began with the Sutherland twins discovering that Anna Miller and her son Seb were secretly living in an old, dilapidated caravan in their father's park. The original impression we were given was that Anna was a junkie, due to the discovery of syringes, but it was later revealed that she was dying and had brought Seb to Summer Bay in search of any links to Alan, Don's son, who had mentioned the Bay in his book (On the Crest of a Wave). We discovered that Alan had fathered Seb and when his mother sadly died, Don took him under his wing.
Rhys/Dylan
Of the most recent paternity storylines, I guess this one is my favourite. Rhys' old girlfriend, Angie Russell had turrned up in Summer Bay in late-2002. Her son Dylan turned up a few weeks later.From the start she always appeared to be a stirrer and she certainly threwthe cat among the pigeons when she revealed to Rhys at the surf club that he was Dylan's father. For some reason, which I can't remember why, Max had left a tape recording in the surf club and Shelley found out from a tape, sparking the famous "I found out from a tape" scene. In the end, it turns out that Rhys wasn't Dylan's father after a boat fell on top of Dylan and their blood type's are incompatible.
Colleen/Maureen
When one character is going through a crisis after finding out they had a child that they didn't know they had, what better storyline to add than a character revealing they had a child that no one knew they had. Certainly no one had expected Colleen to reveal that she had in fact given away a daughter half a century before. How coincidental then that 100 episodes later, with Colleen now famous, her daughter Maureen turned up. They didn't exactly get on like a house on fire, but neither did they leave on bad terms. The most frightening thing is that Colleen could have ended up Alf's mother-in-law out of it all.
Angie/Tasha
Angie had wreaked havoc on Summer Bay during the early part of the year. Some strange feral girl turned up a few weeks later. Coincidence or what! The moment when it was revealed that Angie was Tasha's mother, there was a fantastic slow motion flick of Tasha's blonde head, which left us in no doubt that she was indeed her mother's daughter. When you see pictures of Laurie Foell at 18 it's scary how similiar they look.
Sutherland Twin Swap
It's fair to say that this isn't the favourite storyline amongst Home and Away fans. It had never felt quite as if Jade was one of the Sutherland's. For instance, she had only had a minimal number of storylines over the years, playing a supporting role to Kirsty and Dani. Whenever she did get one it was usually dire. So, when Mr and Mrs Degroot turned up in 2004 with an identikit daughter to Kirsty, it turned out that Jade was not Rhys and Shelley's daughter, she was the Degroots. Emotional fallout ahoy you'd think. Nope, why don't we drive a car off a cliff and send Jade packing 3 epiosdes later. The idea might have been decent, the way it was carried out, dire.
Tasha/Ian Osbourne
Perhaps Tasha's parentage should be one, but firstly the storyline was a completely different one to the revelation of Angie as her mother and secondly, this list needs to be made up to twenty. The revelation of Ian Osbourne as Tasha's father was a slow process and if I were rating it, it would lose points for the fact that father turned out to be a relative non-entity, though fascinating, to the viewers. Tasha only ever saw her father face to face once, and seeing the happy life she had in the bay, tried, succesfully to keep her away from his poisoned world.
Kim/Charlie
Kim had found out about a son he never knew he had when Robbie and Seb accessed Barry's computer during the dire school lock-in of 2004. Kim confronted his father. In an effort to get close to his son, Barry began to facilitate visits from Brooke and Charlie. For a period of time during 2004, Barry got Brooke to look after Baby Pippa. During this time, Sally discovered that Charlie was in fact not Kim's son and Brooke was sent packing.
Josie/Angie
The identical twin-cousin type thing that is so popular with storyliners with it's sensationalist plots and stuff. With Tasha apparently settling down, Irene, using reliable Dylan and senile Monica tried to work out what family Tasha still had, with the help of old-dozy Pam Soames. Monica remembered Josie on a good day and Dylan and Irene went to visit her...in the city. Josie turned out not to be a bad egg in the end.
Alf/Ric
It's strange how the same names seem to come around again and again and again. Not only must it show a tendency to sleep around and certain disregard to contraception, it can occasionally make for good stories. This was probably the best of previous years. Viv, Alf's girlfriend of 50 years or so past, was writing her manuscripts with Dani as she was dying, and Alf found out that they had a child together. With the help of that local fountain of knowledge Colleen, they were able to peace together Alf's son must be Owen Dalby. So, should they hop in a car and meet him. Well they could have, but Ric Dalby, local thug of the previous 30 episodes had just beaten up his dad and Owen was now dead. A period of Ric in the city followed and when he returned, Alf though it his duty to take Ric in. However, Ric was convienently diabetic for a few weeks and when Alf saw him with a needle he was kicked out the flat quicker than you can say "Strike me Roan"!
Olivia/Diana
This is slightly different to most of the other ones which usually involved having careless sex and stuff like that. This was a tug-of-war of an 8-year old child between her grandmother, her foster-type grandmother and with the decisive blow, her uncle. After Chloe's death at the hands of Jesse and some careless doctors, Olivia was left an orphan. Irene looked to take care of Chloe, however late-90's super bitch Diana rolled into town and started to claim Olivia as her own. Irene ran away with Olivia before mediation decided Diana should have her, but, just at that moment, Michael Picadilly rolled back into town playing James and said he had Chloe's will and Olivia was his.
Kim/His Mother
You may notice that Kim seems to pop up a startlingly large number of times here. For whatever reason in mid-2005 he began to investigate his mother. Since Barry knew the truth (he had killed her), he did everything he could to stop Kim finding. However, in a long emotional scene in the Beach House, the truth came out. When Morag cornered Barry the following year, the truth came out and Barry was up on multiple counts of murder.
Kim/Noah/Scott
Oooh, who can forget this? It started in the first few weeks of 2005 and finished in the final weeks of 2005 and had more twists and turns than a 24-hour race around the Nurburgring. (For Australians, think Bathurst, but better.) Kim and Scott had both slept with Hayley during the first few months of the season and since Hayley didn't know who the father was, she decided a paternity test was in order. It would have ended there had nasty Zoe/Eve not decided to swap the results around. It wasn't until storming out of a mediation session with Scott and Hayley, that Kim discovered that he wasn't the father of a child that he thought was his for the second time. Sort of part Rhys/Dylan ending, part Kim/Charlie ending. Kim cried, the fans cheered.
Amanda/Belle
Belle, who was first found by Ric in the bush, came to the Bay to discover who her birth mother was. The only thing she had to help her search was an old picture of her, but that wasn't of much help. After settling down in Summer Bay, Belle continued to search for her real mother, to no real success. However, Kitty, Amanda Vale's mother, knew something that neither Belle or Amanda knew. Belle and Amanda often argued over one thing or another when they came into contact with each other, but were they in for a surprise when they were to find out that they were mother and daughter! When the news came out that she was 'sold' to a foster family after Amanda had given birth to her when she was fourteen, Belle was shocked, and continued to say that she wanted to leave the Bay. However, after many, many feuds, Belle began to accept Amanda as her mother. Amanda also came to love Belle as her daughter. When Amanda left the Bay, Belle hugged her mum signalling that all the issues they had in the past were now well and truly in the past.
Brad/Tam/Rachel
When Brad walked into Rachel's place and said that he had something shocking to tell her, it was clear that what he had to say was important. That ''shocking'' news was that Rachel and Brad had a younger half-sister that they knew nothing about, in the shape of 15 year old Tamsyn. Tam, as she liked to be called, was trouble from the start. Heather, Tam's mother, had an affair with Brad and Rachel's father, and was left in a tight financial spot when he stopped giving them money. Heather left Tam in Summer Bay after admitting that she had a gambling addiction, and enrolled in a retreat program. After Heather left Tam in Brad and Rachel's care, something they had already said they weren't in the right situation to do, it was up to them to look after her. However, Tam wouldn't have a bar of it, and much preferred doing her own thing. Only time will tell if the three Armstrong's will get along...