cymbaline

Frank was a shallow man who didn't want to be on his own, and who kept coming back to the familiar. That's why he bounced between Bobby and Roo until he ended up with neither. He was one of those people who would've benefited from being single for a while and growing as a person in his own right, rather than needing to have a woman at his side. Even though Bobby settled when she married Greg, he was still better than Frank.

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She appeared in an episode of G.P. and was a nice person in that. That was pretty jarring to me because I only knew her as nasty Morag.

Interesting. Can you remember what Cornelia Frances said?

TV and soap magazines are, by their nature, a throwaway thing. All the same, it's a pity that there isn't an archive of them. Perhaps the answers to some of our questions might lie within their pages. So many old issues have been lost forever, apart from random ones that people held onto. These days I love looking at scans of old magazine articles when they pop up. They're such a snapshot in time and can be quite entertaining. Especially when you read interviews with actors you barely remember but who were leaving a soap and planned to become the next big thing in Hollywood. The only time I cared about Floss and Neville was when they had that grandson storyline. That was well done and something people could relate to. On the other hand, I hate hate hate Floss's psychic flashes. It's bad enough that they did it in 1988 but they continued with that shtick on her return.

I think some people forget that actors age just like the rest of us and that some of the ones mentioned are very old now. Norman Coburn and Sheila Kennelly are in their late eighties, while many of the younger cast members are now middle-aged. I'd love to know who is watching Home and Away in 2025. Is it even worth bringing back anyone who hasn't been seen for 5 years or more for the nostalgia? Having said that, I think there is value in bringing back Irene's older kids. Finlay, especially, could be an interesting addition. Her children would now be their late twenties and wouldn't look out of place alongside the other cast members.

Michael Ross and Alf's missus and his ex-wife Cynthia went away for the weekend to the Sands Resort in the early nineties. They spent the evening sitting at the sort of tables and chairs you'd find on somebody's balcony, not an establishment that was supposedly the last word in opulence. A few years later, he and Pippa made a return trip when things were going wrong at home. She made a point of saying she'd booked them into the Second Best restaurant there. Unfortunately, we never got to see what this downgrade looked like. Were they sitting on crates and using plastic tableware?

That thread is a gem and I enjoyed it very much. Like a good book, I didn't want it to end and I wished "Mel O'Drama" had continued the commentary past what was available on Prime. At the same time, I got the impression that making it to the end of those episodes was as good a place as any for him to stop. He hadn't taken to newer faces such as Adam and Viv and wasn't looking forward to Dannii Minogue and Terence Donovan showing up.

It's be nice if they had a go at this again but as a hybrid live/online event. They could hold it in a venue in Sydney in front of a live audience (for the atmosphere). That would give people the chance to watch from almost anywhere in the world and to submit their own questions.

Do you have a link to that?

I watched from 1989 until 1996, though I wasn't tuning in as frequently after 1994 or so. I stopped watching altogether just after they killed Michael off. It wasn't because I was a die-hard Michael fan or anything, but because it felt like a good place to stop. Many of the old faces had moved on and I never took to the newer ones (e.g. Chloe, Alex). When Liam arrived, I realised I had no interest in getting to know him. Also, Michael being bumped off felt like deja vu. I'd already seen Pippa being widowed once and knew exactly how she'd react. By the time you're thinking that, it probably is time to move on.

Maybe the golden era depends on what age you were when you started watching. Sort of like how most people love the music from their younger years more than the modern rubbish...

It looks like the original plan was for Luke and Roxanne to be a hot, sexeeee couple. Their two appearances in the opening credits tells a story all of its own Roxy and Lucinda are interchangeable in my mind. Both were fiesty, dark-haired ladies who treated the (gorgeous) men in their lives badly and just couldn't be happy. Even though Shane and Angel were teenagers, the writers turned them into middle-aged people as soon as they conjured Dylan up. They leapfrogged the early twentysomething years and might as well have been 30 or 40 by the time Shane was killed off. Those were grim years for anybody who wasn't a teenager or an actual middle-aged person.

Adam is a character who well and truly outstayed his usefulness. It wouldn't surprise me if Mat Stevenson has regrets about how long he stayed. When they gave him something different to do, he was excellent. I'm thinking of when Karen caused David Croft's death or when he had to deal with the aftermath of Bobby dying. Then, you could see that there was a decent actor lurking underneath. As far as I know, Mat went off and got a proper job after this though he has continued to act intermittently.

So does that mean that "Catholics watch Home and Away" should've been on that blackboard in Derry Girls? Watching Home and Away has got to be more fun than putting your toaster in a cupboard or marching. That's exactly it. Corrie has ruled the roost for decades, though Emmerdale or Eastenders sometimes overtake it in the ratings. For many, it's still the first soap that will come to mind if they're asked to name a UK soap. It doesn't matter how good or bad it is in comparison to the others. It's the daddy of them all. That's why I believe Neighbours is so popular in the UK. It got there first and was well established by the time Home and Away came along. I also have a suspicion that Home and Away's fanbase is more fractured than the Neighbours one. Home and Away has changed direction so many times over its run, it's hard to imagine it has held onto a significant long-term audience.

ITV's way of operating didn't help Home and Away, but I think its biggest problem was that Neighbours got there first. By the time Home and Away finally made it here in 1989, Neighbours had become more than just a soap on TV. It had spawned pop stars, the cast was in just about every magazine going and it had become something of a cultural phenomenon. Early Home and Away is pretty ropey and it took a while for it to find its own voice. It was always playing catch up. Across the water in Ireland, it's the other way around. Home and Away was broadcast there quite early and it was huge. Neighbours wasn't picked up by Irish TV until much later. I have a feeling that if they'd tried to bring this show to Dublin, they'd have had no trouble selling it out. The Coronation Street vs Emmerdale example you mentioned is a good comparison. No matter how good Emmerdale might be, it is never mentioned in the same breath as Corrie. Neither is Eastenders. The early bird catches the worm I suppose.

That's a good point about the Neighbours cancellation and revival. That seems to have galvanised the fanbase in a way nobody could've predicted. Neighbours also has a core of longstanding cast members who are outgoing and are good at selling the show. They also do those silly and surreal "catchup" videos for social media which have taken on a life of their own. I can't see many of the current H&A cast gently taking the mick out of themselves or the show in the way the Neighbours actors do.

That's certainly what it looks like. What a disappointment for everyone involved. It was a tour which I felt was on a knife-edge anyway. Bringing those people all the way over from Australia for four gigs, plus all the other overheads involved. Was there much publicity for this outside of the Instagram account and a few online sites? The Neighbours shows sell well, but this didn't make it over the line. I also wonder should they have done a photo shoot with Carly, Bobby and Adam rather than Tim, Gypsy and Chloe? No disrespect to the latter 3 but I think people's interest would have been piqued by the older ones. The failure of this might also tell us something about Home and Away's British fanbase. It never emerged from Neighbours' shadow even though it had decent enough ratings back in the day. Perhaps the people tuning in never cared about it in the same way as the goings on in Ramsay Street?

It's not looking good, is it? The Home and Away page has vanished from Fane's website but you can still see it on the archive.org wayback machine. It was still live a few days ago. https://web.archive.org/web/20250114195529/https://www.fane.co.uk/home-and-away The London Palladium gig has been cancelled, as has the Birmingham Symphony Hall one. The page for the Lowry in Manchester has vanished, which adds up to the same thing. It's inevitable that the Bath one will be pulled as well.

I wonder how do actors feel when they are offered a return gig such as Kristy's in 2005. She came back knowing that Chloe would be no more. Because it closes the door on any future returns, is it really worth it for the sake of a handful of episodes?

Kristy Wright wasn't too happy when they introduced Chloe Anderson into the cast. Even if they had Rob Storey'd her rather than killed her off, this would've happened anyway.

Greg Benson was 20/21 when he started playing Matt Wilson. It's jarring to see him in a school uniform in the earlier episodes because he's obviously too old to be in the classroom. I think they can get away with it more with female actresses.

That seems like a good idea. If there are enough people around to keep the Bayside Diner forum reasonably active, surely the next decade has a fanbase too. Perhaps it's a case of "Build it and they'll come"?

They only reunited these couples when the writers knew the actors were heading for the door, right?

Alf and Ailsa. Even though Ailsa's later years were uneven, to put it kindly, it's a travesty that she has been erased from the show's lore. And because of how they've rewritten Martha's missing years, it makes a mockery of Alf's marriage to her.