James Martin

There was also that recent snooker tournament where the show was moved to 5 Star. In the very early days of Five Life an episode was moved there due to Europa League football.

Bevan Lee was very good at weaving the old into the new, I admired that. Floss forseeing Aden in the then old Diner for example, and the way Milco was retconned in without rewriting too much history. Bringing back Kirsty and then Fisher to work at the school. But like you say it was a different era, nearly itself 20 years ago.

I feel they've got to bring someone from the early years back for Irene's departure. Is it too late now for Kirsty and Kane to do a turn? Tasha and Robbie? They went full send when Sally left and I'd argue this is a bigger deal.

Makes sense, but I still feel they need to drop 5 a day behind if they want to make 5 Star the "flagship" transmission. That said, their socials still push the lunchtime 5 showing and not the evening 5 Star one.

So it's the 5 Star episode that drops? So for example an episode ending in 5 or 0 would drop on a Monday, not a 1 or 6? Does that make sense?

Really weird seeing the fans begging for ITV to take it on, given ITV's awful treatment of Home & Away through the 90's.

Home & Away's production model is vastly different to Neighbours'. Firstly, the lifetime deal with Channel 5 means they have a guaranteed international partner. Ben Frow would get rid of it if he could, no doubt about that. He's stuck with it, forever and ever. Secondly, they're not as reliant on the British market; that said Home & Away does remain a big deal in Ireland where Neighbours MK2 still gets a linear broadcast. And thirdly, it still does the numbers in Australia. I don't think streaming works for open ended soaps. Normally a streaming show is a season of 8-10-12 episodes. A soap just keeps on going, and it becomes very easy to simply fall behind. I'm trying to keep up with the rerun of Eldorado and it's impossible; I'm already ten episodes behind U&Drama. Also, it ended up behind a paywall. I don't mind paying to see The Grand Tour or Clarkson's Farm but who's going to subscribe to watch a daytime soap opera that had become deeply unfashionable? The fact ITV didn't step in to rescue it last time (when they bid against Channel 5 in 2007 when the BBC first dropped it) tells you all you need to know. It's had a good run. Let it rest.

I thought I'd park this here as although it's not on air on Channel 5 & RTÉ yet, it's nevertheless a big deal. I'm so glad someone's finally said, "let's put it back." The theme tune probably means little to younger audiences who won't have grown up with the call-to-arms playing every evening, especially in Australia where it won't have even aired at the end. However, it is iconic and in my not so humble opinion removing it was one of the single biggest mistakes the production made. I don't care for the slow male version but the upbeat female version is a really solid update, and it's the first time in over 21 years the "And from the very first day I saw you" verse has been included. Whilst it's been edited together with stock shots (albeit ones not seen outside Australia) it hasn't got the cheese factor the 2000's credits had. It just lifts the whole production. I'm so glad they've done this, it's such a positive move.

The Sun in the UK are reporting the story. https://www.thesun.co.uk/tv/33479098/neighbours-axed-again-amazon-two-years/ For their many ills, The Sun showbiz "firsts/exclusives" do tend to be correct. Feel it was inevitable; streaming isn't really designed for open ended soap opera because it's just so easy to constantly fall behind.

I wonder if they need to rationalise their episode counts in the way the British soaps are doing. In the streaming era, 5 a week is a lot if you fall a bit behind and need to catch up.

Alf is 80 in July...

All seems a bit odd, as the whole point of Seven plotting that storyline when they did was to give Channel 5 a cliffhanger to come off-air for Christmas with. The 6pm showing is a bit of a waste anyway, though. If it was on Channel 5 proper where you could watch in HD it would make sense, but there's no "incentive" to follow "normal" pace and not "first look" pace - so that might be why they've come off-air on the Thursday and aired the cliffhanger on Thursday teatime FL/Friday lunchtime. When are we back this year, the 6th?

Well, my last comment aged well. ITV are following the BBC's lead from Monday, and ITV X will have Corrie & Emmerdale from 7am. I just find the whole "First Look" thing a product of a bygone age. The idea was blatantly copied from Hollyoaks when Five Life first went to air 18 years ago but Hollyoaks have now dropped that model. I know My5 drop each episode at 7pm now, after the 5 Star showing has concluded, but I wonder if now's the time to give Home & Away some proper "digital first" treatment? I'm assuming, by the way, that 7+ don't do early drops like the British networks are doing/starting to do? Edit: there is an argument that the more targeted advertising (as streaming can be at user level rather than, at-best, regional level) means that an ITV X viewer is now worth more than an ITV1 one. Channel 5, with less regional splits, may choose to leverage the advertising advantages of IP.

I don't think Corrie or Emmerdale do it routinely, but episodes do go on ITV X at the "intended" time during football tournaments.

I wonder if they'll drop back a week rather than come back on New Year's Eve (Channel 5 pace?) Also worth noting some changes to the UK network by owners Paramount. Channel 5 are rebranding back to Five once more next year; the streaming service will follow Channel 4's lead in also being called Five. I just hope this means they'll finally get their streamer in HD; even 720p would be an improvement. (Although the My5 feed of 5 Star is nevertheless a serious improvement on the linear feed.) I say this every year but the other thing I'd like to see happen is 5 Star's 6:30pm transmission air the blocks "correctly", with Channel 5 being "a day behind" ie. Episodes ending in "1" or "6" are shown on Monday night. Hollyoaks' changes (which include the 7pm E4 "first look" becoming the main event, with the show taken off Channel 4 proper entirely) from what I understand, have yielded results and I wonder if the idea of a "first look" is a bit outdated in the era of early streaming releases.

Incidentally, since the joined-up thinking meaning Seven write in a major cliffhanger for when the UK comes off-air, does this mean we now get exactly 230 episodes per year, in effect staying a fixed distance behind Australia (haphazard Australian scheduling notwithstanding?)

It appears that Friday November 15th will be when the show comes off-air for Christmas, with the current Australian storyline being the UK season finale.

Crossroads' final years saw it move out of the hotel and into the village of King's Oak. Indeed, at the point of axe we were halfway through a transition to calling the show King's Oak, with the interim branding of Crossroads King's Oak having been around for the last 18 months or so. I'm too young to remember the original but the (first) reboot left me asking similar geographical questions. Could you walk from the hotel to the KO Café where the teens hung out? But the geography of the hotel itself was pretty fluid. And apart from the bar, there wasn't a central congregation point.

There's another interesting quirk of both shows; geography. Something Phil Redmond also recalls when he came into Emmerdale is apart from the locations filmed in what was then Esholt and now part of their purpose built outdoor set, nobody really understood the exact geography of Beckindale (as was.) How long does it take to get from the Woolpack to Home Farm? Where, indeed, is The Malt Shovel in relation to everything? Could I walk to the Woolpack from the Dingles' house, or do I need an Uber? Likewise in H&A, how long does it take to get from the Caravan Park to the Surf Club? Can I walk from the Diner to Irene's? In 2004 we know you needed to drive from The Palace to Leah's. There doesn't feel like that established sense of geography. That's before you ask in Emmerdale's case, "how long does it take to get to Hotten, or Leeds or Bradford?" In the Bay, I've no idea how far out Yabbie Creek is, let alone "the city" which I assume is Sydney? We assume Summer Bay is actually in New South Wales?

Next week marks 20 Years since one of Home & Away's most iconic storylines. As the show went off air to make way for Seven's coverage of the Athens Olympics, the deranged Sarah Lewis took the Bay hostage before killing Noah Lawson, and ultimately turning the gun on herself. It was only the show's second mid-season finale, after taking a similar break four years previously for the Sydney games in a dramatic mudslide storyline. Was this a major turning point for the show? Was it to H&A what the plane crash was to Emmerdale just over a decade previously, or the tram crash was to Coronation Street six and a bit years later? Or were there other events that significantly reset the show into what it is today; I think we can all agree it's a very different one to the H&A of 20 years ago. Of course the most audacious thing was the brave move of killing off an extremely popular character, but it created some amazing drama for Bec & Amy as Hayley & Kit bonded over their grief. I also recall the episodes for some truly epic production values which the British soaps just didn't have at the time. Finally, I can't go past Beau's final episode, clearly based on A Christmas Carol and on the face of it you wouldn't think would work but was in reality really effective; a trick then showrunner Bevan Lee would revisit in 2008. It also dovetailed into the Zoe/Eve stalker storyline which dominated Daniel Bennett's tenure in 2005 & 2006. Was that a bigger shift, as arguably there was more fallout (Kim/Kit/Rachel) but did they jump the shark in putting Peter into witness protection when they'd done that with Vinnie in said siege, Peter being a central part of that storyline? Was Sarah's final act 20 years ago a major line in the sand for H&A and was it the genesis of the show we have today for better or worse, or am I giving it too much credit?

It's worth noting that Home & Away did similar in 2000. The Stewart house was destroyed in the Olympic Mudslide and we lost the original Diner before going through a succession of Diners during the 2000's. It is, incidentally, 20 years next week since the Sarah Lewis Olympic Siege (it wouldn't air until Easter 2005 in the UK.) I might do a thread on that.

I mean if you wanted to do a complete reset, you'd need to do something very bold; like drop a plane on Summer Bay. That's how it happened in Emmerdale; Phil Redmond quickly worked out there's no major road or train line nearby which are available options if you need a big stunt in an urban soap. Summer Bay doesn't have those. You could potentially have a tsunami but the option to film that convincingly just isn't there. Like Emmerdale, Home & Away also has a very widespread geography compared to the tight setup of Corrie, EastEnders and Neighbours. It's ideal if you want to blow up random bits, revamp some sets and do a cast clear out.

I'd argue Emmerdale had to change to stay on air. The Phil Redmond reboot is a fascinating story; the ITV network gave Yorkshire Television an ultimatum; "You're going to have to do something quick, or get axed." Carlton in London in particular were spending what Phil Redmond described as "A Hell of a lot of cash on research to convince the network to scrap it and commission a new soap from them instead." When he was bought on board, Redmond quickly realised the whole business model of Yorkshire Television was dependent on Emmerdale. Take that out and everything from Calendar News to Countdown would be on shaky ground (remember they were paying an absolute fortune in annual franchise payments to the ITC.) So the top brass in Leeds basically said "You can have whatever you want Phil, whatever it takes; just fix it." And how. Phil's solution was "we need to do something that will firstly interest the viewer but secondly arrest the criticism from both the media and the industry itself." So a plane got dropped on the village, and that was followed up with the Post Office/Home Farm siege and the introduction of the Dingles. But the interesting thing Redmond talks about is how it was important to keep the rural USP; because that's what made it different from Corrie, EastEnders and Brookie. Even now I'd argue that whilst the drama has been ramped up far more than it ever was in the 90's, Emmerdale is still identifiably rural. I'd argue Home & Away has not held onto its USP as strongly. It isn't made to compete with British soaps but that seaside setting is surely what set it apart from Neighbours. The fostering USP set it aside from everyone, but whilst the production values have come on leaps and bounds since the show's 90's heyday, that's been lost now. It doesn't really have a USP over Neighbours (though Summer Bay is, I suppose, ruralish compared to Erinsborough) and certainly doesn't have any USP over the British soaps That said whilst Emmerdale has moved away from farming, the enormous success of Clarkson's Farm has shown that done right, farming storylines could still work.

Sally would have been 18 in 1998. Interestingly, Kate asked then show runner Coral Drouyn not to put her into SBH. When he took over in 2004, Bevan Lee did it anyway.

Part of the show's charm in the 2000's was when there was a major life event, people you would expect from history to be there were there; mostly for weddings but for funerals also. Sally's second stabbing saw Pippa fly in, which you'd expect to happen in real life. Jade made that weird brief return when Kirsty was sick, as did Shelley who also came back for Twingate. Diana and James came back when Chloe died. Celia came back for Roo's 2013 wedding. Will (or was it Nick?) came back for Hayley's wedding I seem to recall. But it was much more commonplace than it is now. In British soaps it never really happened, although amazingly ITV managed to coax Sheila Mercier to reprise Annie Sugden in her late 80s when Jack Sugden had an onscreen funeral after an offscreen death caused by the passing of the actor. What I particularly disliked is the way Morag went unresolved when Cornelia died. I felt they did Cornelia an injustice by not paying an appropriate in-universe tribute by having Morag die offscreen then having an onscreen funeral in the Bay.