61-79
The Home and Away Most Popular Character countdown continues. Things start to get a bit more spaced out as this selection covers those who got 14-21 points.
61. Kat Chapman (21 points)
Played by Pia Miller
Kat’s one of those characters who seems to be a lot more popular now than when she was on the show. One of those police officers who wouldn’t recognise a rule book if you whacked them about the head with it, she was killed helping her latest boyfriend escape from jail, after crashing into a car driven by his future wife.
62. Angie Russell (20 points)
Played by Laurie Foell
The perennially popular Miss Russell is usually in these polls somewhere. She spent a few months in town harassing Nick, trying to trigger a mental health crisis in Sally and possibly ordering a hit on Shelley, leading to everyone being a suspect when she wound up dead.
62= Nikau Parata (20 points)
Played by Kawakawa Fox-Reo
The first Parata to appear in this poll, absence has apparently made Nikau fade from people’s minds, resulting in a big drop from his Top 20 appearance last time out. After initially being a bit sulky, he eventually went through a conveyor belt of careers including bait shop assistant, lifeguard and male model before getting back with Bella for about the fourth time.
64. Steven Matheson (19 points)
Played by Adam Willits
Another of the original foster children, Steven was the studious one who nevertheless seemed rather successful with the girls, attracting the attention of people from Sandra to Emma. He later ended up as a teacher at the school and continued to make guest appearances up to Sally’s departure, usually coinciding with weddings, birthdays or boating disasters.
65. Angel Parrish (18 points)
Played by Melissa George
I guess it’s kind of appropriate that Angel is the lowest ranked character to get a place all to themselves. A street kid taken in by Donald Fisher who turned out to be a surprising intellectual and even more surprising teenage mother, she famously married long-term boyfriend Shane straight out of school, before leaving with an English millionaire.
66. April Scott (17 points)
Played by Rhiannon Fish
Surprisingly finishing way ahead of her husband, April came in as a quirky environmentalist, then became a rather meek character, then a minx, and then got stuck in a rather strange co-dependent relationship with Dexter until it was hard to work out exactly who she was meant to be. Ultimately ended up moving to Paris for reasons that I can’t be bothered to look up.
66= Kim Hyde (17 points)
Played by Chris Hemsworth
Kim recently added a young Optimus Prime to the movie stars that look or sound suspiciously like him. He started out as a bit of an Alan Fisher clone, a surly teenager who was the son of the strictly disciplinarian school principal. Unlike Alan, he got to live, get married and become a father… just not with his wife.
66= Kyle Braxton (17 points)
Played by Nic Westaway
Three points below the first Parata is the first Braxton, which feels vaguely symbolic. Kyle was the late arrival of the Braxton brothers, his era bookended by an odd introduction staking his brother out in the desert to die and an odd exit deliberately going to jail for something he didn’t do. In between, he worked in a pizza restaurant and played guitar a lot.
69. Frank Morgan (16 points)
Played by Alex Papps
And three points lower than his one-time room-mate, we have Frank, the first character seen in Home and Away, albeit in a prologue where he was played by a different actor. He was the show’s first heart throb but has possibly never recovered from a guest stint where he broke up with second wife Roo and tried to woo first wife Bobby away from future second husband Greg.
69= Kirsty Sutherland (16 points)
Played by Christie Hayes
The more sporty of the Sutherland twins, Kirsty dated first Nick and then Seb, both of whom ended up dating Jade once they’d finished with her. Had a famous (and possibly infamous) teen marriage to Kane, an odd exit where she went on the run with him and an even odder exit where she moved to the city while everyone was out.
69= Ruby Buckton (16 points)
Played by Rebecca Breeds
Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby. She came in like a breath of fresh air, got turned into a rather annoying pseudo-stalker, and ended up a rather tragic broken character whose string of failed relationships and habit of having parental figures drop dead on her saw her snap and cut the brakes of her latest love rival’s car. It could happen to anyone.
69= Selina Roberts (16 points)
Played by Tempany Deckert
Surrogate daughter of Irene, which somehow meant getting pregnant by her son. Actually, it’s hard to think of anyone in her age group that she didn’t date at one point or another. Turned from a wild child into a school captain and trainee nurse while dodging the attention of a cult leader who kidnapped her about three years running.
69= Tom Fletcher (16 points)
Played by Roger Oakley
Tom was arguably the show’s main character originally, as the show centred around him and wife Pippa dealing with their foster children, running the caravan park and struggling to make money after he was made redundant. After being made a high-powered business executive, a series of health crises led to him being the first main character to die.
74. Indigo Walker (15 points)
Played by Samara Weaving
Well, who saw this coming: Apparently Indi is now the most popular Walker! She started off as your bog standard snarky city girl who saw Summer Bay as a bit of a come-down, before a close encounter with a glass table at the end of her original stint saw her grow up a bit, at least until she never quite recovered from the death of teen husband Romeo and disappeared to go travelling.
74= Nate Cooper (15 points)
Played by Kyle Pryor
Nate was a good-looking doctor with an English accent and…yeah, that’s pretty much it. He came in picking an argument with John and Marilyn and seeing his transfer to Summer Bay as a bit of a demotion, so it’s perhaps no wonder that he eventually left for the offer of something better, leaving broken hearts (and sometimes minds) in his wake.
74= Ricky Sharpe (15 points)
Played by Bonnie Sveen
Ricky finishes on the same number of points as her husband, although it’s easy to forget they were ever married, seeing as it only lasted about a week. She spent most of her time being on and off with Brax as the latest in a long line of women getting dragged into his messes, and ended up back with him after he somehow recovered from being convicted of murder and officially dead.
77. Blake Dean (14 points)
Played by Les Hill
One of the big characters of the early 90s, Blake had short-lived romances with a number of girls, including Sophie and Fin, and became the first of Alf’s surrogate teenage sons. He had an increasingly difficult relationship with sister Karen that saw him leave to try and keep her on the straight and narrow, later having a number of guest appearance in the 00s.
77= Matt Page (14 points)
Played by Alec Snow
A strong showing from Matt, another character who romanced a lot of girls, got taken in by a mainstay character and ended up leaving to look after his younger sister. And unlike Blake, all his girlfriends are actually alive, which is some achievement given that people seemed to be dropping around him like flies at times.
77= Miles Copeland (14 points)
Played by Josh Quong Tart
Sally’s imaginary friend who turned out to be her long lost twin brother. Miles was brought in to take over from Sally in running the caravan park, which he did for about three years before moving out as part of an ill-fated romance with Leah.