Most Popular Character 2016

[Slade]

I'm surprised Alf wasn't higher.  He is a character who I actually see as iconic.  And I also find him hilarious sometimes when he bites people's heads off e.g. when he was having a go at Duncan after Duncan returned to the bay not too long ago, although whilst I did find the way he was to Caroline funny at first it did start to feel a little uncomfortable especially when Bryce picked up on it.  For me when I think of Summer Bay the first person who springs to mind is Alf.

 

12 minutes ago, dee123 said:

I'd love an upset and Sally not be number 1.

Sally is to this competition what the Germans are to penalty kicks...virtually unbeatable!

 

7 minutes ago, Edward Skylover said:

The thing is Sally is the best character of all time, not just on Home and Away, but on any soap IMO! I know that's a big statement to make but I believe it to be true. I didn't vote for her because I knew she'd probably win by an overwhelming majority and I really wanted to vote for my favourites who I know don't have such a following.

Yes in your opinion - Which is not necessarily fact.  I also don't think it's an accurate statement to make because it requires you having seen (a) every soap and (b) every character in every soap.

And I also think the fact that you didn't vote for her despite thinking she's the best character on any soap defeats the whole point of this poll.  That would be like me voting for someone like Irene just to try and stop Sally from winning!

[Angelica]

51 minutes ago, Slade said:

And I also think the fact that you didn't vote for her despite thinking she's the best character on any soap defeats the whole point of this poll.  That would be like me voting for someone like Irene just to try and stop Sally from winning!

It brings up an interesting point though. If people are voting tactically rather than truly only on favourites,it may explain some of the surprise scores - if someone votes for a character because they think they need the votes more than a character that people prefer. 

I think it is hard to compete with Sally's storyline - seeing her grow up from a bratty child to a mature young women, capable of running a school and being a solo mum. She truly grew up on the show (and unlike other characters never changed actress). 

[Skylover]

1 hour ago, Slade said:

Yes in your opinion - Which is not necessarily fact.  I also don't think it's an accurate statement to make because it requires you having seen (a) every soap and (b) every character in every soap.

Of course I know it's my opinion. But I'm sure many others would agree with me. No, of course I haven't watched every character on every soap but I would have thought that for the soaps i do watch, I'd be aware of which characters are the best from each of them, if I don't know them they couldn't surely be that good as even if I hadn't watched them because they were from earlier eras when I wasn't born, they would be iconic enough to the general public that I'd know who they are and subsequently should have at least seen clips of them on YouTube. I watch Neighbours, EastEnders and H&A; obviously these all provide stiff competition to the ultimate soap character of all-time Sally, in the form of perhaps Ben Mitchell or Dot Branning on EE or Harold Bishop on Neighbours. However, Sally's story was flawlessly-written, and I find it hard to believe that any other soap characters had such a strong 8-year old actor who transitioned to an adult character so well, by such a strong and capable actress. The Milco story is unparalleled by any soap storyline for its sheer brilliance. And she had the best soap scene of all time when she broke down on the beach to Leah when Pippa was in hospital after Alf had run her over.

As for other possible characters who i mightn't be aware of from the other soaps - well lets face it Hollyoaks surely doesn't have any characters who would challenge Sally for the title, because well...it's Hollyoaks. Coronation St does have people like Ena Sharples but Sally pips her to the post. Emmerdale is like a sort-of more sophisticated version of Hollyoaks so I don't see it challenging Sally either. The American soaps are a bit of a joke in comparison to the UK and Australian ones, they're even a joke compared to Hollyoaks so I don't see them challenging Sally either.

1 hour ago, Slade said:

And I also think the fact that you didn't vote for her despite thinking she's the best character on any soap defeats the whole point of this poll.  That would be like me voting for someone like Irene just to try and stop Sally from winning!

I had a feeling that might have been a controversial point to make public. i wasn't sure whether to but in the end I decided oh well. It was my choice and I went for the tactical option. Perhaps I shouldn't have. However, the people I did vote for like Jack and Melody wouldn't affect Sally's position much anyway and I doubt many others had my mindset. Sally always wins by miles, however this poll hasn't gone the way i expected it to so perhaps I will be surprised.

Jack, Melody, Carly and Celia needed the love more.

[Dan F]

8 minutes ago, Angelica said:

It brings up an interesting point though. If people are voting tactically rather than truly only on favourites,it may explain some of the surprise scores - if someone votes for a character because they think they need the votes more than a character that people prefer. 

Not saying that anyone in this discussion did, but there's always going to be a few people who either vote tactically, for who they think is the 'sexiest', or just putting characters in for 'the lols'.

When you look at some of the scores, particularly today's update, you can see how 1 single point could make all the difference to the Top 10 - and you have to wonder whether people genuinely thought some of their 1-2 point characters were the 5th/4th greatest Home and Away character of all time compared to say Morag, Marilyn or Alf

[Spinach]

Thanks for doing this. I've been away without internet so have been able to read them all in one go (well, apart from the remaining 3)! Not sure if I missed out on something by reading it more or less all in one go.

This was the first time I voted (I've wanted to before but always found it really difficult to choose only 5). I still struggled but I'm happy with the list I chose. It turns out I'm pretty mainstream because all of my characters did well: I voted for Sally, Celia, Chris Harrington and Heath - and I can't remember if the other one was Irene or Marilyn... Or was it Angie?

If I'd had more votes I would've definitely gone for Billie. She's had an extremely compelling storyline and the actress is brilliant - so I'm really glad she placed high. I wish Selina had done a bit better - she had some memorable (if sometimes unbelievable) storylines. Can't wait to see all the Saul stuff again in a few months on 7Two.

Surprisingly, I'm disappointed no-one voted for Roxy. Watching her in The Early Years, I feel she really grew as both an actress and a character towards the end of 1994 with the cancer storyline. To be fair she did leave immediately after this. Obviously I didn't value her highly enough to give her a vote but I think she deserved at least 1 - from someone. But then, there are many characters who deserved a vote... 

[Dan F]

7 minutes ago, Spinach said:

I voted for Sally, Celia, Chris Harrington and Heath - and I can't remember if the other one was Irene or Marilyn... Or was it Angie?

Irene

[Spinach]

Thanks Dan F! Too many great characters to choose from, that's the problem!

[Skylover]

1 hour ago, Spinach said:

Surprisingly, I'm disappointed no-one voted for Roxy. Watching her in The Early Years, I feel she really grew as both an actress and a character towards the end of 1994 with the cancer storyline. To be fair she did leave immediately after this. Obviously I didn't value her highly enough to give her a vote but I think she deserved at least 1 - from someone. But then, there are many characters who deserved a vote... 

I'm not surprised no-one voted for her. I really liked her when she first arrived at the end of 1992. And I enjoyed her for quite a bit of 1993 but I feel a lot of the time she came across as extremely arrogant, she always thought she was right and never seemed to be satisfied with her boyfriends always thinking she could do better than them. Of course my opinion has nothing to do with the actress herself who I think was very strong (even if I don't agree with her off-screen attitude).

[Spinach]

30 minutes ago, Edward Skylover said:

I'm not surprised no-one voted for her. I really liked her when she first arrived at the end of 1992. And I enjoyed her for quite a bit of 1993 but I feel a lot of the time she came across as extremely arrogant, she always thought she was right and never seemed to be satisfied with her boyfriends always thinking she could do better than them. Of course my opinion has nothing to do with the actress herself who I think was very strong (even if I don't agree with her off-screen attitude).

I agree with all of this but, as I said, I found myself warming to her a lot during the cancer storyline. I think it softened her and I'd have been interested to see how she'd have developed if she'd stayed. I think the thing that really impressed me however was her acting. I thought she was OK for most of her stint but her acting in the cancer really impressed me.

[Slade]

2 hours ago, Angelica said:

I think it is hard to compete with Sally's storyline - seeing her grow up from a bratty child to a mature young women, capable of running a school and being a solo mum. She truly grew up on the show (and unlike other characters never changed actress). 

When you put it like that I guess I can understand why some people voted for her (I still don't see it personally) even if all of this is over a period of 20 years.  We would never have this information but I would like to know the demographic of the people who voted for Sally over the various years because she has always done well although going back to the poll in 2004 she wasn't even in the top 5.  I mentioned yesterday this was BTTB's first year but I would like to know why she didn't perform that well (relatively speaking) and Irene won by a comfortable margin.  If Sally's been popular throughout the whole show then there's very little chance of her not finishing top anytime in the foreseeable especially now that you have the early years as well.  The only chance of that happening is if another character comes along that is universally liked and good enough for a certain amount of people to vote for them.

 

1 hour ago, Dan F said:

Not saying that anyone in this discussion did, but there's always going to be a few people who either vote tactically, for who they think is the 'sexiest', or just putting characters in for 'the lols'.

Regarding the 'sexist' bit, I mentioned this previously but IMO appearance is very important to some people.  This is an undeniable fact as far as I'm concerned.  So some posters will like or give preferential treatment to certain characters because they are physically attractive.  I personally don't see a problem with that.  And I don't think characters like Brax, Aden, Casey, Heath, Jack Holden etc would have done so well if they were physically unattractive - not saying that's the only reason but it is a major factor for some people the way I see it.

 

2 hours ago, Dan F said:

When you look at some of the scores, particularly today's update, you can see how 1 single point could make all the difference to the Top 10 - and you have to wonder whether people genuinely thought some of their 1-2 point characters were the 5th/4th greatest Home and Away character of all time compared to say Morag, Marilyn or Alf

I guess this comes back to the demographic question again so it's possible some of the younger voters will identify more with the younger characters than they would with the older ones.

 

No surprise that Marilyn came fourth - So it's Sally, Irene and Fisher left (assuming nobody else is tied with any of them).