ITV no episode days (1988-1993+)

[dan]

Nearly 11 years ago I posted a very similarly named thread to this, where I was attempting to trace all the occasions when Home And Away was not shown on any particular weekday during ITV's time broadcasting the soap, along with the reason, if known. I was able to get a relatively verifiable list from around mid 1996, mostly using the barb website for tv ratings (which only starts in July 1998), and old homeandaway sites about the cuts that were being made by itv to the various episodes at that time. The original thread is still archived on this forum (see link below). Now all these years later (and where exactly did those years go?) I'm having another bash at this, as I now have access to weekly ratings figures from the early years of itv to around May 1994. The difficulty I'm having is finding anyway of verify any specific episode numbers for any date, as most of the home and away websites I used back in the day are gone, and I no longer have the email address I used at the time for Home and Away mailing lists and the like, so don't have the old emails anymore. Even youtube has only yielded a limited number of clips, most of which either can't be dated with 100% accuracy or else the if the UK airdate of the clip can be verified then the episode number cannot be determined with certainty from the short clip available. Based on http://ukchristmastv.weebly.com/itv-1990,html episode 481 aired on 24th December 1990, and based on the attached youtube clip 21st December 1993 was episode 1256, which allowed me to work out the required number of non-episode days, and cross-tally that with the times that Home And Away did not make ITV's top 30 weekly ratings chart in that same period. The result is a list of the likely days when episode were not shown during that era (although I seem to have one too many non-episode days between 481 and 1256, so something must be wrong?). I would love any help or input about what I have right or wrong, or any suggestions of any other sources I could try to further supplement what I have already. The list I have is as follows:

1988-1990
Tuesday 26/12/1989 – First ever skip, for Boxing Day (possibly regions had a choice to either broadcast 25^th or 26^th Dec?) [ukchristmastv.weebly.com]
Monday 01/01/1990 – New Year’s Day – Probable skip, as does not appear in weekly ratings
Monday 28/05/1990 – Probable skip due to Telethon ’90, as does not appear in weekly ratings
Friday 08/06/1990 – Skip due to World Cup Italia ’90 (which aired that day from 16:00)
Thursday 22/11/1990 – Apparent skip, presumably due to coverage of the resignation of the Prime Minister
Thursday 25/12/1990 – Xmas Day [ukchristmastv.weebly.com]
Friday 26/12/1990 – Boxing Day [ukchristmastv.weebly.com]

1991-1993
Tuesday 01/01/1991 – New Year’s Day, probable skip, as does not appear in weekly ratings
Wednesday 25/12/1991 – Xmas Day [ukchristmastv.weebly.com]
Thursday 26/12/1991 – Boxing Day [ukchristmastv.weebly.com]
Friday 25/12/1992 – Xmas Day [ukchristmastv.weebly.com]
Monday 03/05/1993 – Probable skip for Bank Holiday Monday, as does not appear in weekly ratings
Wednesday 03/11/1993 – No episode is shown in the weekly ratings, however I believe this to be a lunchtime only showing of the episode in which Dale was discovered to have died, which has been noted online in the past for having not had an evening showing, due probably to coverage of the European Cup Winners Cup, thus leaving many fans confused as to what had happened.

1994
Monday 02/05/1994 – Probable skip for Bank Holiday Monday, as does not appear in weekly ratings
Monday 30/05/1994 – Probable skip for Bank Holiday Monday, as does not appear in weekly ratings
 

 

 

[home and away 1988-2000]

Really interested in helping you with this, will send you a message!

 

 

[nenehcherry2]

Great post (and rather scary that it's been 10 years since the previous thread - where has the time gone?!).

Dan, I THINK (and I MAY be wrong here) that, at some point, there is actually one non-episode day which hasn't been accounted for somewhere! You may still be one too many net but I've cross-checked against some definite dates that I know episodes aired between 850 - 1305 inclusive and this alone would mean that there were four skips between June 92 - Feb 94, where you only have one... 

My local rag used to have a great TV guide and (until it moved to Five) there was always a description of the H&A ep. I'm happy to visit the library and use the microfiche to verify this date (and whether any eps aired). We picked up two regions in my area - Anglia and Central - and our paper listed both, so this would iron out any regional discrepancies.

Without ANy doubt, I can itemise the following eps against definite UK transmission dates:-

850 - 860: 28/05/92 - 11/06/92

1146 - 20/07/1993 (first day of summer holidays = new credits! Funny the things that you remember )

1298 - 1305: 17/2/94 - 28/2/94 (The lunchtime transmission of Bobby washing up on the riverbank was shown during my birthday party and we were all playing "kiss of life" afterwards; we had a fun time as kids!)

 Back in 2005/6, I made a list of all episodes shown on Anglia between 1991 - 95 (now lost) and the only definite date I remember there not being an episode was Christmas Day (but you've provided citation for the Boxing Day TV guide). 

The plot thickens...!!!

P.S. Just let me know if my maths has gone a bit Pete Tong somewhere here 

[dan]

Thank you homeandaway1988-2000 and nenehcherry2 for your replies, it'd be great if we could get to the point where we have the uk broadcast dates of every itv episode. Looking back at the old thread we probably already have from 12th Sept 96 until the end on 8th June 00 (give or take a bit of fine tuning during late 96), and we might now be able to crack the 88-94 ish bit, so we could be left with a two year hole to fill. Looking at the episode numbers in nenehcherry2's post and comparing to my spreadsheet for the conjectured date of each episode, I find that my reckoning varies slightly in all three cases. Firstly I had 850 on 29th May 92, one weekday later, so the one skip too many is now somewhere between 481 and 850. Then I currently have 1146 as 22nd July 93, two weekdays later, meaning that I need one additional skip between 850 and 1146 (assuming the two in the first post are correct), but as I have almost 'wall to wall' viewing figures in my spreadsheet for that period I can narrow down that skip to one of two places, either in the week of 22nd-26th June 92, or else in the seven week period between 10th May and 25th June 93, both of which are periods for which I could not find the relevant issues in the newspaper archive in order to get the viewing figures. My guess is that this extra skip is the late May bank holiday on 31st May 93, but that is just a guess without any evidence. Finally I have 1298-1305 on 21st Feb - 2nd Mar, two weekdays later, meaning there are no extra skips between 1146 and 1298. From 28th Feb to 3rd June 94 I have viewing figures for all weekdays except the two bank holiday Mondays in May that are listed above, so if they were skipped days then Friday 3rd June 1994 would have been 1372. At this point I have no information until the old thread's information kicks in, which starts with episodes 1953 and 1955 being, I think, shown on 11th and 12th Sept 96. I've extrapolated the episode numbers down to cover the gap and, without any skips or complications, I would have expected 1965 and 1966 on those dates, so there were probably 12 skipped days between 1305 and 1953, with 1954 not getting a broadcast at all.

[dan]

Ok so I just typed up a summary of the broadcast schedule from February 1989 till June 1994, and it revealed that I had already accounted for a skip on 31st May 1993 on my spreadsheet, I just didn't put it in the original post as I was just guessing to make the numbers work. The thing is the list as detailed on this post ties in with all previous evidence I've found, including a couple of youtube videos, the Christmas schedules site cited previously, and all the viewing figure data I have used. The dates do not however tie in with the definite dates for episode numbers in NenehCherry2's post, and I can't see any possible changes that wouldn't contradict previous evidence, so I'm struggling to figure out what's gone wrong. Here's the list as I have it up to Friday 3rd June 1994.

Saturday 11^th 1989 or Sunday 12^th February 1989 (regional differences) – pilot episode
Monday 13^th February 1989 – Monday 25^th December 1989 – Episodes 1 – 226 [226 eps]
Tuesday 26^th December 1989 – NO EPISODE [BOXING DAY]
Wednesday 27^th December 1989 – Friday 29^th December 1989 – Episodes 227-229 [3 eps]
Monday 1^st January 1990 – NO EPISODE [NEW YEARS DAY]
Tuesday 2^nd January 1990 – Friday 25^th May 1990 – Episodes 230-333 [104 eps]
Monday 28^th May 1990 – NO EPISODE [TELETHON ‘90]
Tuesday 29^th May 1990 – Thursday 7^th June 1990 – Episodes 334-341 [8 eps]
Friday 8^th June 1990 – NO EPISODE [WORLD CUP ’90 – ARG VS CAM IN EVENING SLOT]
Monday 11^th June 1990 – Wednesday 21^st November 1990 – Episodes 342-459 [118 eps]
Thursday 22^nd November 1990 – NO EPISODE [THATCHER’S RESIGNATION, EXTENDED ITN SLOTS?]
Friday 23^rd November 1990 – Monday 24^th December 1990 – Episodes 460-481 [22 eps]
Tuesday 25^th December 1990 – Wednesday 26^th December 1990 – NO EPISODES [XMAS BREAK]
Thursday 27^th December 1990 – Monday 31^st December 1990 – Episodes 482-484 [3 eps]
Tuesday 1^st January 1991 – NO EPISODE [NEW YEARS DAY]
Wednesday 2^nd January 1991 – Tuesday 24^th December 1991 – Episodes 485-739 [255 eps]
Wednesday 25^th December 1991 – Thursday 26^th December 1991 – NO EPISODES [XMAS BREAK]
Friday 27^th December 1991 – Thursday 24^th December 1992 – Episodes 740-999 [260 eps]
Friday 25^th December 1992 – NO EPISODE [XMAS DAY]
Monday 28^th December 1992 – Friday 30^th April 1993 – Episodes 1000-1089 [90 eps]
Monday 3^rd May 1993 – NO EPISODE [BANK HOLIDAY]
Tuesday 4^th May 1993 – Friday 28^th May 1993 – Episodes 1090-1108 [19 eps]
Monday 31^st May 1993 – NO EPISODE [BANK HOLIDAY]
Tuesday 1^st June 1993 – Friday 29^th April 1994 – Episodes 1109-1347 [239 eps]
Monday 2^nd May 1994 – NO EPISODE [BANK HOLIDAY]
Tuesday 3^rd May 1994 – Friday 27^th May 1994 – Episodes 1348-1366 [19 eps]
Monday 30^th May 1994 – NO EPISODE [BANK HOLIDAY]
Tuesday 31^st May 1994 – Friday 3^rd June 1994+ – Episodes 1367-1370+ [4 eps+]

And looking back through my previous sources I may have found the one that might have misled me. Have a look at the brief description of an episode on this old tv schedule and see what episode number you guys think it is. https://www.transdiffusion.org/2014/10/18/tonights-tv-in-1991

[dan]

I've decided to try a one day subscription to the Guardian newspaper archive and have a look at the tv listings they published at the time to try and confirm what I already have. I'm gonna go through bit by bit as I confirm it. Note that 'confirmed' refers to the existence of a broadcast of H&A (or not) that day, not to which specific episode it was. In rare instances the 'confirmed' planned episode may have been unexpectedly dropped on the day for some reason (see for example 22/11/1990).

Here's 1989-1990
Saturday 11^th 1989 or Sunday 12^th February 1989 (regional differences) – pilot episode {Confirmed in Guardian listings}
Monday 13^th February 1989 – Monday 25^th December 1989 – Episodes 1 – 226 [226 eps] {Confirmed only from 23rd Jul-22nd Dec with viewing figures, 25/12 confirmed in Guardian listings, and from the link in the first post . Pre 23rd July I have odd days confirmed with viewing figures, but as BTTB already has these dates in the episode guide I assume them to be already considered confirmed.}
Tuesday 26^th December 1989 – NO EPISODE [BOXING DAY] {Confirmed in Guardian listings, and from the link in the first post.}
Wednesday 27^th December 1989 – Friday 29^th December 1989 – Episodes 227-229 [3 eps] {Confirmed with viewing figures}
Monday 1^st January 1990 – NO EPISODE [NEW YEARS DAY] {Confirmed in the Guardian listings}
Tuesday 2^nd January 1990 – Friday 25^th May 1990 – Episodes 230-333 [104 eps] {Confirmed with viewing figures, except 22nd-26th Jan and 23rd-29th Apr confirmed in Guardian listings.}
Monday 28^th May 1990 – NO EPISODE [TELETHON ‘90] {Probably confirmed in Guardian listings, certainly Telethon was broadcasting continuously all day until 10pm.}
Tuesday 29^th May 1990 – Thursday 7^th June 1990 – Episodes 334-341 [8 eps] {Confirmed with viewing figures}
Friday 8^th June 1990 – NO EPISODE [WORLD CUP ’90 – ARG VS CAM IN EVENING SLOT] {Confirmed in the Guardian listings}
Monday 11^th June 1990 – Wednesday 21^st November 1990 – Episodes 342-459 [118 eps] {Confirmed with viewing figures, except 13th-17th Aug confirmed in Guardian listings.}
Thursday 22^nd November 1990 – NO EPISODE [THATCHER’S RESIGNATION, EXTENDED ITN SLOTS?] [The Guardian listings show that an episode was planned as normal on that day, but I have no viewing figures for it. I think therefore it was either dropped due to the days news events, or else did especially badly in the ratings due to news coverage on other channels. Not sure how to establish which though..... }
Friday 23^rd November 1990 – Monday 24^th December 1990 – Episodes 460-481 [22 eps] {Confirmed with viewing figures, except 24th Dec which is only confirmed from the link above.}
Tuesday 25^th December 1990 – Wednesday 26^th December 1990 – NO EPISODES [XMAS BREAK] {Confirmed only from the link above.}
Thursday 27^th December 1990 – Monday 31^st December 1990 – Episodes 482-484 [3 eps] [27th and 28th Dec confirmed in the Guardian listings and 31st Dec with viewing figures.}

Friday 8th June 1990 was a particularly interesting listing. The evening showing was not possible due to ITVs coverage of World Cup Italia '90, which I had already confirmed from that week's viewing figures was being broadcast from 1600, but this had begged the question of whether there might have been a lunchtime only showing that day. The answer turned out to be 'sort of'. The lunchtime slot was occupied by a programme called 'Frank Bough goes Home and Away' which involved him broadcasting live via satellite from the set of Home and Away and interviewing Minogue's sister Dannii, as she was apparently billed. This was only the 4th time they hadn't broadcast an episode for one reason or another, but the first time that the reason for the skip only affected one of the two timeslots, so it was nice to see that ITV did used to try to appease viewers,  by using the one available slot without showing an episode that the teatime audience would potentially never see.
 

------

 

1991-April 1993

Tuesday 1^st January 1991 – NO EPISODE [NEW YEARS DAY] {Confirmed in Guardian listings}
Wednesday 2^nd January 1991 – Tuesday 24^th December 1991 – Episodes 485-739 [255 eps] {Confirmed with viewing figures, except 7th-11th Jan, 25th-29th Mar, 22nd-26th Apr and 13th-17th May 1991 confirmed in the Guardian listings.}
Wednesday 25^th December 1991 – Thursday 26^th December 1991 – NO EPISODES [XMAS BREAK] {Confirmed in the Guardian listings, and in the link in the first post.}
Friday 27^th December 1991 – Thursday 24^th December 1992 – Episodes 740-999 [260 eps] {Confirmed with viewing figures, except 22nd-26th June confirmed in the Guardian listings.}
Friday 25^th December 1992 – NO EPISODE [XMAS DAY] {Confirmed in the Guardian listings and in the link in the first post.}
Monday 28^th December 1992 – Friday 30^th April 1993 – Episodes 1000-1089 [90 eps] {Confirmed with viewing figures.}

 

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At this stage I have looked again at the first dates and episode numbers in nenehcherry2's post. I have the episodes 850-860 as being on one weekday later than what nenehcherry2 says, so assuming I'm the one who's incorrect then it means I have one too many skips so far. As far as I can see the only real possibility is that 22/11/1990 was not in fact a skip, it was probably just that the audience fell enough to miss the top 30 for ITV that week, which was probably due to other unscheduled news programming on other channels competing for the timeslot, presumably parents in single-set households who were wanting to find out about Thatcher's resignation were preventing the teens who normally watched from tuning in.

 

------

 

I can now add that I do believe that the lack of a viewing figure for 22/11/1990 was probably down to other channel's news programming competing against it, specifically BBC1. I have found a youtube video with over 3 hours of continuous, and apparently unedited, footage from BBC1 that day which I have been able to work out the time for using parliamentary minutes. The video runs from about 2:26pm-5:34pm. According to the week's viewing figures Neighbours was aired at 14:03 and 17:36 that day, and so the soap effectively bookended that live news program. The Six O'clock News also aired an extended program, I'm guessing from 6-7. The 3+ hour live news program would have been too long, and began too early, to get an average audience high enough to have appeared in the top 30 for BBC1 that week, so I can't gauge exactly how many more viewers were switched to BBC1 instead of H&A. All of this has gone a bit off-topic I know.

[dan]

May 1993 - June 1994

Monday 3^rd May 1993 – NO EPISODE [BANK HOLIDAY] {The Guardian listings reveal a planned episode that day, airing at 12 noon and 16:00}
Tuesday 4^th May 1993 – Friday 28^th May 1993 – Episodes 1090-1108 [19 eps] {Confirmed in the Guardian listings, except 4th-7th May confirmed with viewing figures.}
Monday 31^st May 1993 – NO EPISODE [BANK HOLIDAY] {The Guardian listings reveal a planned episode that day, airing at 12 noon and 17:15}
Tuesday 1^st June 1993 – Friday 29^th April 1994 – Episodes 1109-1347 [239 eps] {Confirmed with viewing figures, except 1st-25th June, 6th-10th Dec and 10th-14th Jan confirmed in Guardian listings.}
Monday 2^nd May 1994 – NO EPISODE [BANK HOLIDAY] {The Guardian listings reveal a planned episode that day airing at 12 noon and 16:15}
Tuesday 3^rd May 1994 – Friday 27^th May 1994 – Episodes 1348-1366 [19 eps] {Confirmed with viewing figures.}
Monday 30^th May 1994 – NO EPISODE [BANK HOLIDAY] {The Guardian listings reveal a planned episode that day airing at 12 noon and 16:00}
Tuesday 31^st May 1994 – Friday 3^rd June 1994+ – Episodes 1367-1370+ [4 eps+] {Confirmed with viewing figures.}

As far as the 3rd November 1993 goes there was a planned lunchtime showing, but no teatime showing was planned by the time the Guardian published the day's listings, this was due to televised football, Galatasaray vs Manchester United.

 

[dan]

Yet another update from me..... I've now used a second simplified spreadsheet and double-checked episode numbers against dates for the whole period from 13th February 1989 to 3rd June 1994. I have only a few sources that give me an episode description for a particular date. The Christmas tv guide linked above for 24/12/1990 has a description that is word for word the same as bttb's episode guide for ep 481, but this can only be the correct episode if 22/11/1990 was a skipped episode (or got reshown on 23/11/1990), otherwise we would have seen 482 on 24/12, therefore I am now very much leaning back towards 22/11/90 being a skipped episode. Then the transdiffusion link to a tv guide for 18/10/1991 seems to be describing ep 692 (though the description is vague enough for some doubt), and 692 is exactly what I would expect with the 22/11/90 skip included. I have then extrapolated the ep numbers down for the rest of the period, up to episode 1374 falling on 03/06/1994, having allowed for only three skipped days: 25/12/1991, 26/12/1991 and 25/12/1992. Next I checked 03/11/1993 as I recalled reading somewhere that the episode in which baby Dale was revealed to have died from cot death was only shown in the UK at lunchtime, due to football, which had left many uk fans confused the next evening as they had missed an episode. Sure enough that very episode, 1222, was the one that now fell on 03/11/1993 on my spreadsheet, and previous research in the Guardian listings had already shown that it was a lunchtime only showing that day. Finally then I compared the spreadsheet against the information NenehCherry2 had given me, and whilst my spreadsheet now agrees perfectly with his dates for 1146 and 1298-1305, the dates for 850-860 are all out by one on my spreadsheet, being a day later by my reckoning. If the dates for 850-860 were to be correct then I would need to gain a broadcast beforehand (and probably somewhere after 481 on 24/12/1989) and drop one somewhere afterwards, with 22/11/90 being the most likely candidate for the possible gain, if I were to again change my mind in that instance, but with no real possibilities for the subsequent drop, since I have verified the existence (or in some cases I already detailed in a previous message, the planned existence) of episodes on all dates between 11/06/1992 and 20/07/1993, the date I have for 1146 that already agreed.

For the sakes of clarity I will relist the broadcast episode blocks, and corresponding periods of consecutive weekdays, as I now have them, and now believe to be correct.

Pilot - 11th or 12th February 1989 [region dependent]
1-226: 13th February 1989 to 25th December 1989
227-229: 27th December 1989 to 29th December 1989
230-333: 2nd January 1990 to 25th May 1990
334-341: 29th May 1990 to 7th June 1990
342-459: 11th June 1990 to 21st November 1990
460-481: 23rd November 1990 to 24th December 1990
482-484: 27th December 1990 to 31st December 1990
485-739: 2nd January 1991 to 24th December 1991
740-999: 27th December 1991 to 24th December 1992
1000-1374+:28th December 1992 to 3rd June 1994+
 

[dan]

After far too many hours of trawling through the Guardian online and comparing against the information I already had I believe I now have the complete broadcast history of Home and Away on ITV. I will now post the whole thing and actively invite anyone interested to use any source they can think of to try and poke holes in what I have worked out.

Pilot - 11th or 12th February 1989 [region dependent]
1-226: 13th February 1989 to 25th December 1989
227-229: 27th December 1989 to 29th December 1989
230-333: 2nd January 1990 to 25th May 1990
334-341: 29th May 1990 to 7th June 1990
342-459: 11th June 1990 to 21st November 1990
460-481: 23rd November 1990 to 24th December 1990
482-484: 27th December 1990 to 31st December 1990
485-739: 2nd January 1991 to 24th December 1991
740-999: 27th December 1991 to 24th December 1992
1000-1779: 28th December 1992 to 22nd December 1995
1780-1847: 2nd January 1996 to 4th April 1996
1848-1866: 9th April 1996 to 3rd May 1996
1867-1880: 7th May 1996 to 24th May 1996
1881-1889: 28th May 1996 to 7th June 1996
1890-1891: 11th June 1996 to 12th June 1996
1892-1894: 14th June 1996 to 18th June 1996
1895-1941: 20th June 1996 to 23rd June 1996
1942-1953 & 1955-2026: 27th August 1996 to 20th December 1996
[NB 1954 was never broadcast terrestrially in the UK]
2027-2085: 6th January 1997 to 27th March 1997
2086-2108: 1st April 1997 to 1st May 1997
2109-2122: 6th May 1997 to 23rd May 1997
2123-2186: 27th May 1997 to 22nd August 1997
2187-2270: 26th August 1997 to 19th December 1997
2271-2339: 5th January 1998 to 9th April 1998
2340-2353: 14th April 1998 to 1st May 1998
2354-2367: 5th May 1998 to 22nd May 1998
2368-2380: 26th May 1998 to 11th & 12th June 1998
[NB 2380 appears to have been shown on 11th June at lunchtime and repeated on the 12th June at teatime]
2381: 17th June 1998
2382-2391: 22nd June 1998 to 3rd July 1998
2392-2395: 6th July 1998 to 9th July 1998
2396-2399: 13th July 1998 to 16th July 1998
2400-2403: 20th July 1998 to 23rd July 1998
2404-2407: 27th July 1998 to 30th July 1998
2408-2411: 3rd August 1998 to 6th August 1998
2412-2415: 10th August 1998 to 13th August 1998
2416-2417 & 2419-2420: 17th August 1998 to 20th August 1998
[NB 2418 was never broadcast terrestrially in the UK]
2421-2424: 24th August 1998 to 27th August 1998
2425-2427: 1st September 1998 to 3rd September 1998
2428-2431: 7th September 1998 to 10th September 1998
2432-2435: 14th September 1998 to 17th September 1998
2436-2439: 21st September 1998 to 24th September 1998
2440-2499: 28th September 1998 to 18th December 1998
2500-2563: 4th January 1999 to 1st April 1999
2564-2568: 26th April 1999 to 30th April 1999
2569-2587: 4th May 1999 to 28th May 1999
2588-2651: 1st June 1999 to 27th August 1999
2652-2679: 31st August 1999 to 7th October 1999
2680-2686: 11th October 1999 to 19th October 1999
2687-2732: 21st October 1999 to 23rd December 1999
2733-2816: 4th January 2000 to 28th April 2000
2817-2829: 2nd May 2000 to 18th May 2000
2830-2833: 22nd May 2000 to 25th May 2000
2834-2836: 30th May 2000 to 1st May 2000
2837-2840: 5th June 2000 to 8th June 2000

In addition there were programmes billed as 'Home And Away Special' in one or both of the show's usual slots on the following dates:
27th December 1995 - Shane And Angel: A Love Story - Specially made highlights and outakes show
28th December 1995 - Shane And Angel's Wedding - i.e. a repeat of episode 1662 which had been shown originally on 12th July that year
29th December 1995 - Sophie's baby - presumably a repeated episode
10th June 1996 -
13th June 1996 -
19th June 1996 -
23rd December 1996 -
26th December 1996 -
30th December 1996 -
31st December 1996 -
2nd January 1997 -
3rd January 1997 -
31st March 1997 -
2nd May 1997 -

Finally there was a special live broadcast on 8th June 1990 in the lunchtime slot, called 'Frank Bough goes Home And Away'

With that I have to head off for some very overdue zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Just one more list that might be interesting. These are the blocks of episodes when I believe ITV managed to show the Mon-Fri episodes (as seen in Oz) on actual Mon-Fri slots in the UK, allowing the weekend cliffhangers to actually hang over the weekend.
1-225
461-480
741-995
1871-1880
1946-1950
2191-2335
2656-2675
2821-2825
That's a total of 137 weeks out of 568 that were completely in sync with the week, or just over 24%.

[Jeremai]

That's some impressive research; well done!

Regarding those "specials" in 1995/6, they were collections of the relevant scenes from across several episodes, and had 30 second introductions by Donald and Pippa (in character and on set but talking directly to the camera) at the start. I have still have the following on my computer, converted from old VHS recordings:

Adam's house burns down
Christmas 1994
Shane and Angel's wedding
Sophie's baby
The bush fire
The flood part 1
The musical

I have no way of knowing which ones were shown on which date now though.

Unfortunately I didn't record the flood part 2 at the time (I have absolutely no idea why) and I was absolutely gutted because it was the first time the full closing with the second version of the theme tune was played on ITV.

I don't know if there's any place for these on the site, or any interest in them. I could make screen captures and transcribe the intros.