Rewatching The Early Years

[CaptainHulk]

11 hours ago, adam436 said:

I did not know this. Do you happen to know if it was the same situation for Rob Storey and Steven?  

Matthew (Rob) took off to play Dad and didn't renew his contract.

[nenehcherry2]

Not sure how long her contract was for but there was an interview in Inside Soap at the time where she said it allowed her to focus on building her music career, so she seemed quite okay with it all. 

Bit of trivia: Nicola then came to the UK to do panto (Xmas 95) & had a fling with actor Ian Kelsey (who played Dave Glover in Emmerdale). He also confirmed this in, guess what, Inside Soap. Lucky woman!

No idea RE Rob / Steven but agree that it was bizarre how Kelly then arrived afterwards if budget truly was the reasoning. I personally really liked Kelly. It was the first time in years that we had a truly professional, career-driven woman in the show (since Stacey & Morag were around). And I liked how that often put her at odds with some other characters, besides Travis. 

[adam436]

9 hours ago, nenehcherry2 said:

agree that it was bizarre how Kelly then arrived afterwards if budget truly was the reasoning. I personally really liked Kelly. It was the first time in years that we had a truly professional, career-driven woman in the show (since Stacey & Morag were around). And I liked how that often put her at odds with some other characters, besides Travis. 

I liked Kelly too, but I definitely would say I warmed to Donna more in the shorter time she was there. I've also seen Donna's episodes more recently and was probably a little young (I was 7/8 when Kelly was onscreen) to truly appreciate her as a character back then. 

As for bringing in Kelly after ditching Donna for budget reasons, I guess there may have been other factors. Maybe the producers wanted a doctor in the regular cast - given the ramped-up drama and stunts, it made sense - or maybe the producers didn't know what else they could do with Donna? 

[nenehcherry2]

On 04/06/2024 at 09:29, CaptainHulk said:

Matthew (Rob) took off to play Dad and didn't renew his contract.

I didn't know that either! Still doesn't explain the lack of even a temporary exit story... Did his wife go into prem labour and there wasn't time to rewrite scripts? Or was it only supposed to be for a couple of weeks paternity leave which he never came back from? We can only wonder 29 years on! 

[CaptainHulk]

4 hours ago, nenehcherry2 said:

I didn't know that either! Still doesn't explain the lack of even a temporary exit story... Did his wife go into prem labour and there wasn't time to rewrite scripts? Or was it only supposed to be for a couple of weeks paternity leave which he never came back from? We can only wonder 29 years on! 

I'd love for him to walk into the Pier Diner day like nothing happened and casually greet Alf, Irene, Roo (went to SBH with her), Maz (Still lived locally when she came back) and John (probably knew his parents) and reveals he moved no further than Reefton Lakes sometime in the 2000s

[adam436]

6 hours ago, nenehcherry2 said:

I didn't know that either! Still doesn't explain the lack of even a temporary exit story... Did his wife go into prem labour and there wasn't time to rewrite scripts? Or was it only supposed to be for a couple of weeks paternity leave which he never came back from? We can only wonder 29 years on! 

The weird thing is that his exit did feel somewhat planned. He'd quit his job at the school, moved out of Irene's place and his friendship with Donna had effectively ended. There was a conscious effort to physically isolate him from the rest of the town and very little reason for him to interact with the characters on a day to day basis.

A temporary exit story or one he had to leave slightly early makes sense with how Rob's final weeks played out. Given Donna was leaving a few weeks later, it's possible they were meant to get their happy ending but Matthew had to leave early, so Travis stepped in for the Gus story and her exit.

[nenehcherry2]

4 minutes ago, adam436 said:

The weird thing is that his exit did feel somewhat planned. He'd quit his job at the school, moved out of Irene's place and his friendship with Donna had effectively ended. There was a conscious effort to physically isolate him from the rest of the town and very little reason for him to interact with the characters on a day to day basis.

A temporary exit story or one he had to leave slightly early makes sense with how Rob's final weeks played out. Given Donna was leaving a few weeks later, it's possible they were meant to get their happy ending but Matthew had to leave early, so Travis stepped in for the Gus story and her exit.

Great point. Maybe they bought Travis back for good later on because they knew by then that Matthew wouldn't be coming back?

[cymbaline]

4 hours ago, adam436 said:

The weird thing is that his exit did feel somewhat planned. He'd quit his job at the school, moved out of Irene's place and his friendship with Donna had effectively ended. There was a conscious effort to physically isolate him from the rest of the town and very little reason for him to interact with the characters on a day to day basis.

A temporary exit story or one he had to leave slightly early makes sense with how Rob's final weeks played out. Given Donna was leaving a few weeks later, it's possible they were meant to get their happy ending but Matthew had to leave early, so Travis stepped in for the Gus story and her exit.

Some of the other characters continued to mention him after the vanishing, as if they were trying to say "No, Rob didn't do a "Matt". He isn't trapped in a cupboard in the diner"

[nenehcherry2]

Haha!

It's true though (I think Adam or someone else commented on this point too...); the start of the 95 revamp was less about high major character turnover and more about a rejuvenated plot-writing style. Characters like Ailsa who'd become very staid in the 90-4 period were injected with some much needed spice again and the stories weaved and webbed far more again.

Imagine if Donna had arrived a year earlier and had the same tenure. No doubt, there'd have been no Andrew Warren & she'd likely have been given storylines about sausage orders, netball spats or country dancing contests. She'd have been about as memorable as Frankie or Sonia. The enigma of Donna Bishop was totally interdependent with the timing with which she was on the show. 

That said, H&A definitely became more plot-driven (by any definition of the term) a year or so in, once we lost three major characters. But still with a lot of heart and very real characters. 

Edited June 6 by nenehcherry2

[CaptainHulk]

6 hours ago, cymbaline said:

Some of the other characters continued to mention him after the vanishing, as if they were trying to say "No, Rob didn't do a "Matt". He isn't trapped in a cupboard in the diner"

Or "Matt disease" as it was referred to on the episode guide