James Martin

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.

I agree there needs to be a better succession plan. Ray is 80, Lynne is 71. It's not unreasonable to believe both will be taking serious thoughts about retirement soon. Ada and Georgie play this generation's stalwart characters, but let's remember Leah started as a young adult and slowly evolved into the position she occupies within the show today. It's accepted the cast has a very high turnover, but it needs those long serving characters amongst the overall cast for the format to really work.

Although it's cosmetic, do you know what I would do? Restore the opening titles. The show has lost its identity since they got dropped in the late 2000's. The one thing Neighbours got right is keeping their title sequence, which is now very Home & Away in style. I just think having that call to arms would be a good start. I'm also no Script Producer, but to me it's insane that fostering isn't front-and-centre. My Mum died nine years ago, but in the back end of the first River Boys era she used to comment that "I much preferred it when that lady with the long wavy hair lived in the big house (referring to Debra Lawrence's Pippa) and she used to take in all the waifs and strays." The show did an incredible amount for fostering in its 90's heyday; being that back. The other thing I'd do is follow Neighbours and Hollyoaks in the UK by taking a Streaming First approach. Drop to 4 episodes a week, which suits Seven Network's linear transmissions, and then look to get the UK, Ireland and Australia all synced up. Then what I would do is have 7+, RTÉ Player and My5 all drop the week's episodes at, say, 17:00 Sydney time each Monday. The three networks would air the same episode; technically it'll still premiere in Australia unless Seven need to preempt an episode; and in the streaming era that's not the big deal it was twenty five years or so ago. All this would get the teen audience back on board, and the three networks would have an easy way to sell them to advertisers. @flea mentioned that "H&A used to be a beacon of promoting how family can be two things - the one you are born into, and the one that shows you love." God that is so true. That's exactly what's missing now. I'm all for sex, drugs, rock & roll if there's still a moral compass at the heart of it.

I wonder if the BBC would ever be interested in H&A to plug the Doctors gap? Channel 5 obviously want shot of it, and I'm aware the deal signed in 1999/2000 is a lifetime one, but there must be a deal to be done with a bit of solicitor assistance?

Sky Glass only I believe.

Very annoying that there'll be no way to watch those episodes in HD. RTÉ Player and a VPN to the rescue methinks.

Although Sarah Lewis was A LOT by the standards of 20 years ago, Dan Bennett was the real turning point, and of course 2004 into 2005 wasn't a cliffhanger, Bevan Lee ended 2004 everything resolved and tied up (Ric was on the run still but that was it) so 2005 was literally Day One. But it came back a very different show, and you had Zoe the Stalker from the get go plus Robbie's AIDS scare etc. By 2006 it was full-on Cop Drama. Jack Holden has to be the most bent cop in Soapland.

Sarah Lewis is the big one, also the Believers thing although that was just a bit bats**t. Dale's cot death wasn't dark but by God it hit you like a train at the time. It's just one of those storylines you really can't have any build-up to, it just happens and throws everything out of the window. I think that's why it was such a good piece of drama, because that's how that stuff happens for real. And our paper (The Times) never did synposes of episodes so I didn't even know it was coming. I do recall ITV doing one of those helpline slides off the back of the credits, which started to be done fairly often for the British soaps by the 90's (and still is) but rarely done on an import. Channel 5 ran some in the 2000's for stuff, notably Kane's Cancer storyline ISTR.

Do we know when the main show is resuming, now the Christmas schedules are confirmed?

Some we've seen before and a lot are Channel 5 era (but the majority of the show is C5 era now so...) but that's a decent lineup. The first Christmas episode is lovely.

Are these airing on 5 Star or just streaming?

My5 on a computer is HD, oddly - as is the feed of 5 Star! My5 does have some content in HD via Sky and Virgin, but you have to access the content through your provider's interface, not go into the app. ITV and Channel 4 used to work like this but because you can fast forward through the ads, they've followed the BBC in forcing you into the app - which is fine as both ITV X and Channel 4 Streaming are HD now. Channel 5 haven't gone there yet.

Interestingly although the picture does seem a bit "soft" the 5 Star showing via Virgin is significantly better quality than 5 Star "linear". Not sure what it's like for Sky. I know Sky Glass and Sky Stream get 5 Star in HD. Virgin definitely doesn't.

Am I right in saying the episodes now go on streaming after the 5 Star showing? Also, is it still HD if you watch through Virgin (as opposed to the app?)

Quick correction... am I right in saying Ireland run one day behind the UK?

I suppose with Hollyoaks, though, the main channel had a primetime showing. Channel 5 only has a lunchtime outing. I imagine it's a decent leadin for the movies.

Looks like the UK (and consequently Ireland) breaks for Christmas a bit earlier this year, on Friday 17th November. Once again, Seven are writing in a major storyline to give the UK & Ireland their own season finale cliffhanger. I assume it's unlikely we'll get any closer to Australia whilst this arrangement stands, as the show needs a decent amount time between two major events (a storyline for the UK and then the big one for Australia itself) late in the year. Assuming transmission resumes on New Year's Day, that gives us a six-week break. I wonder, though, if they'll start Channel 5 on Tuesday 2nd and put the blocks in-sync on 5 Star instead?

With Neighbours, my understanding was it was weekly drops of four. Incidentally, RTÉ are also resuming a linear showing in Ireland, on top of Australia screening it linearly on the Ten Network. I'm unsure whether Irish viewers will access the show though Amazon Freevee, or the RTÉ Player? With Hollyoaks, I understand Channel 4 is available in Ireland, I don't believe RTÉ or Virgin have that?

Yes, E4 will show the blocks properly rather than be a day ahead (a bit like how 5 Star operated after Prince Phillip's death moved everything back a day in 2021) instead. Personally that's how I'd do it; have 5 Star show the blocks in sync at 6:30pm with the main channel the "repeat" the following lunchtime, then do away with the 6pm on 5* entirely. Having a weekly drop on My5 sounds like a good shout too. Given that's how Neighbours is going to work, it's inevitable Home & Away will follow. I suppose the 7+ factor is why Seven can get away with the bat**** scheduling in Australia. I'm surprised they're not doing a morning drop of episodes yet.

An interesting development elsewhere today - Hollyoaks will come off Channel 4 on weeknights. Instead the 7pm showing on E4 becomes the "main" showing with "First Look" moving to Streaming. Good news for Home & Away, but I wonder if they'll follow suit, with the blocks moving in-sync on 5 Star and My5 being the home of First Look? AIUI E4 was outrating C4 by 3:1, helped by Emmerdale being moved.

Emmerdale wouldn't have survived without those changes, however. It was absolutely the right thing to do, and they were able to turn it into Dallas or Dynasty whilst still remaining a very British show, mostly by pivoting from the Sugdens to the Tates as a central family. The Dingles then bought in a lot of comic relief amongst the sex, money and power at Home Farm. That said, Emmerdale did borrow from Home & Away in the 90's, bringing in a Tate-owned Holiday Village and lots of aerobics classes, a swimming pool, and attractive teen/young adult characters. They also bought Kim Tate back from the dead and somehow got away with it without really needing to retcon that much; the only dodgy thing was Frank being charged with her murder only to get let out from remand and the charge dropped, but it then turned out a year later Frank had murdered the lookalike Kim had paid to drive her car, thinking Kim was in it.

I've got to go with Sarah Lewis. That storyline was wonderfully ahead of its time. We understand mental health a lot better now, but back in 2004 there was still a stigma. I don't think you could do it like that today. Plus, Bevan Lee to his credit had the balls to kill off a major character - not a guestie or randomer - and unleash the drama that followed through from that. Which in turn gave Beau's then girlfriend the opportunity to deliver the performance of a lifetime as a grieving Hayley. As it was, 7+ had the Olympic Siege up last Christmas (both broadcasters had 35th Anniversary best ofs on their streamers) and thanks to a VPN I was able to see it in HD for the first time. Still epic.

I miss the teen drama aspect, which hung on in some form right up until the late response 2000's. Even in 2005, I remember overhearing conversations at uni about the stalker getting revealed (which aired in the UK the same day as Neighbours' 20th Anniversary episode) and it was still water cooler TV. The original format would work today, but you'd have to make it for 7+ and 5 Star first and the actual linear networks second.

A note on the plans for Irene. As I recall from when Coral was on these forums in the mid-2000's, Bevan Lee wanted to write Irene out but was heavily talked out of doing it. Coral's version of events was that Seven did a ton of research that saw Irene as the most popular character. Infact I believe this all may have come out during BTTB's first Most Popular Character poll 19 (!) years back, as I distinctly recall it being mentioned, either by Dan or Chris, that Irene got an 11th-hour surge in votes. The two short stints Bevan Lee had as showrunner were first rate television but yeah, he got that one wrong.