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Summer Bay attraction

by Marcus Casey, 9 January 2003

SOMEONE comes back from the dead, a character transmogrifies into another identity while staying the same man, and two real-life siblings play characters who are not.
Life can get hectic on a five-nights-a-week soap, especially one entering its 15th year. It's a hell of a long time to keep around 1.3 million viewers per night interested in the goings on of a coastal town.

Home and Away has managed to do that – thanks in part to left field plot twists – and is actually enjoying one of its most successful periods on air in recent years and wins its 7pm Monday to Friday timeslot.

It has a second generation of viewers, children of the 15 to 16-year-olds who first tuned into the small world of Summer Bay in 1988.

It says a lot about television that five-nights-a-week soapies are the great survivors of the medium.

The English proved that with Coronation Street and EastEnders, while Neighbours is still going strong entering its 18th year.

"Fifteen years is pretty scary when you consider I watched it as a kid," says Home and Away producer Julie McGoran, 31.

"It's also pretty amazing that we have kids on the program who are younger than the show itself."

Soaps are much cheaper to make than one-hour, once-a-week dramas and can be easy to dismiss if you're not a fan. But that's unfair, as they're a great training ground for all areas of television production.

That Home and Away employs 21 actors, as regular characters alone, underlines this point.

Add that the completed package, like Neighbours, has a huge English following and it really is a celebration of the format.

On Monday episode 3421 of the show – 22 minutes without ads – airs when it returns for 2003. That is an impressive 1254 hours of television.

"After all this time, it's not about finding a formula, saying we know how to do it and then keep doing it the same way," says McGoran.

"We don't re-hash stories. We keep looking for new ones. It's a delicate balancing act, because we're always looking to make things more interesting, more fun for the viewers but doing that within the guidelines of the program and its format.

"To do that for two-and-a-half hours a week is a pretty amazing thing."

There are many challenges. Last year Martin Dingle-Wall, who plays Flynn, left the show. But his character is vital to the on-going storyline of Kate (Flynn's partner) who is waiting for her surrogate baby to be born.

So, in steps Joel McElroy to take over Flynn – the fourth time such a thing has happened on Home and Away.

And who is carrying the baby? Sophie, played by Rebecca Elmaloglou, who returns as a regular in 2003, eight years after leaving the show. She joins her little brother Sebastian, who is also in the cast as Max Sutherland.

thanks to Aaron

25/9/02
Chris Egan, Ben Steel, Ray Meagher and Kimberley Cooper are doing panto this year.
Thanks to Publicity

13/9/02
Gypsy and Jude share a passionate kiss when Jude gets back from hospital.
Kirsty is really pleased to know that Nick really cares about her.
Seb blames himself for everything that has gone wrong with Jude.
Hayley and Noah carry on building up their relationship after they get back together.
Will tells Gypsy how he feels about her and the baby.
Dani gets over Will.
Thanks to Nicole Foot