78-86

Fourth update means those on four points, which means we’re reaching the point where a character must have either had a few people vote for them or been really liked by one person.

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  78. Gina Austin/Palmer (4 points)

  Played by Sonia Todd

  A fairly high showing for one of the show’s fairly recently departed characters. Gina wasn’t one of the best Summer Bay High principals but wasn’t one of the worst either. Brought in as a relation of the Holden family, she stuck around, married John and was starting out on a career as a foster parent when she did a Tom Fletcher and dropped dead at the wheel of a car.

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  78= Indigo Walker (4 points)

  Played by Samara Weaving

  A reappearance for Indi, who dropped out of sight last time round. The oldest Walker youngster had a teen marriage and, um, was there anything else? Oh yeah, owned a gym. Maybe it’s not such a surprise that she isn’t higher…

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  78= Jesse McGregor (4 points)

  Played by Ben Unwin

  Long before the Braxtons and their ilk, Jesse was the bad boy who really seemed to want to turn good but kept getting involved in things that were just a little bit dodgy, one of which saw him take a few years out for a jail term. Ironically, what finally saw him head off to jail for good was when he accidentally killed a one-time main character, back in the days when it was considered a bad thing.

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  78= Kim Hyde (4 points)

  Played by Chris Hemsworth

  For Asgard! Thor continues to make his way into the lower ranks of the poll. Apart from his odd couple friendship with Robbie, Kim was most famous for the fact that he kept thinking he’d got women pregnant then finding out he wasn’t the father, and for having an initially troubled relationship with his own school principal father.

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  78= Melody Jones (4 points)

  Played by Celeste Dodwell

  Here’s a character I was pleased to see the return of: I’ve always had a fondness for Melody, not least because a lot of my early fan fics centred around her. She seemed to herald a new era of fostering but only stuck around a few months in which her main function seemed to be to try and cause trouble between Geoff and Nicole… who broke up for good about two weeks after she left anyway.

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  78= Peta Bradley (4 points)

  Played by Nadia Townsend

  Peta brought a refreshing no-nonsense attitude to Northern District Hospital in the latter part of 2013, including making April do some actual work for once. Some people would have liked her to stick around but the good news is that her leaving meant we got Nate instead. Er, that is good news, right?

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  78= Peta Janossi (4 points)

  Played by Aleetza Wood

  Apparently being called Peta guarantees you four points. This Peta was best friends with Hayley, briefly dated Will and tried to cover up her grandmother’s death to avoid being taken into care…but is mostly remembered for her relationship with dying Edward, which seems to get shown by Channel 5 every few years.

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  78= Rachel Armstrong (4 points)

  Played by Amy Mathews

  It seems to be the year of comebacks, as characters we assumed had dropped off the polls for good suddenly pick up points. Leah’s bestest ever friend that she had never mentioned before (or since), Rachel managed to get kidnapped about twice a year while marrying both a noticeably younger man and a noticeably older one.

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  78= Spencer Harrington (4 points)

  Played by Andrew J. Morley

  Meanwhile, we get the debut showing for a character who already seems like a distant memory. Spencer was another in the long line of attempts to introduce a new foster family, but once the show decided to abandon the idea of him and Maddy as young soulmates, he was left to spend a couple of years wandering aimlessly around the show being rejected by every girl in his age group in a kind of round robin. Is it any wonder he’s ended up in Neighbours as a priest?