Ed Sheeran’s performance in Home and Away widely praised

Home and Away has been many actors’ first steps to global stardom, but it’s not very often a global star comes to Summer Bay. Yesterday, Ed Sheeran’s cameo appearance aired down under. Please be aware, this article contains spoilers for UK viewers.

We announced back in March that global superstar Ed Sheeran would be making a guest appearance in Home and Away, after he was spotted filming scenes at Palm Beach, the real life home of Summer Bay beach. He filmed the scenes when in Sydney as part of a national tour of Australia, but the reason for his appearance had been kept under wraps until recently.

Emily Symons filming alongside Ed Sheeran back in March

Emily Symons filming alongside Ed Sheeran back in March

Yesterday, Ed finally made his on-screen appearance in a storyline that saw him revealed as a friend of Marilyn Chambers. Marilyn had been nanny to Ed, who she knew as Teddy, while she was living in London. However, she had seemingly spent years unaware of ‘Teddy’s’ rise to fame, until he arrived in the bay chased by hoards of adoring fans.

Ed Sheeran performs in Angelo's in Home and Away

Ed Sheeran performs in Angelo’s in Home and Away

After being reunited with Marilyn, the singer, playing himself, then performed his hit single Thinking Out Loud in Angelo’s, in front of practically the whole of Summer Bay. His performance worked wonders on the town’s love-torn residents, resulting in the reunion of a troubled Leah and Zac, and causing Hannah to finally announce to the world that she and Chris are a couple.

Of his cameo in the show, Ed said: “It’s an Australian institution. It’s always on in my local chip shop. I got asked to do it and it sounded like it could be fun. I did Shortland Street in New Zealand as well and I’m sure if Emmerdale or EastEnders ever ask me in England I would do that as well.”

Celebrity guest appearances in soaps don’t always go down that well, and former Girls Aloud singer Sarah Harding’s recent appearance in Coronation Street was widely slated and written off as a gimmick. So it’s a refreshing change for a celebrity guest appearance that didn’t bomb – and Ed’s appearance in Summer Bay seems to have been widely loved by fans.

Our forum members had much to say:

I loved seeing the whole cast turn up for the free Ed Sheeran concert.
emmasi

The Concert was nice. I really felt that as far as the cast went, i bet some of them just rocked up to watch Ed Sheeran. I WOULD … I would bet that Bonnie Sveen and Kyle Pryor were only there to see Ed. I doubt that they were required that day, but it really did add to the atmosphere of it all.
h and a

However, h and a wasn’t all praise, as Ed’s appearance acted as an excuse for a whole host of couples to look past their issues and realise they should be together.

The Leah/Zac reunion was sooooo cringe, and the obvious references to everybody in the rooms love problems while he sang the song got a little tedious. Also, is it that hard to shut up for 3 minutes and let the man play without cheering through the middle of the song?
h and a

Any negative criticism was directed at the surrounding storylines, however, and Ed’s appearance received universal praise from our opinionated forum members.

How awesome was Ed Sheeran?And that’s my favourite song of his to.
Lynd

I loved Ed Sheran’s perfomance and his scenes in particular. I loved the community feel to his performance and how it included just about everyone. We need more events such as this. His song did refer to the romantic relationships going on.
jenzy

Ed Sheeran was awesome, enough said. Looks like most of summer bay got an invite to the free concert, I wish I was there but I guess it was good enough watching on TV. The song was there for everyone’s love problems, Kat&Nate, Evelyn&Josh, Chris&Hannah and Zac&Leah reuniting, there may of been others but I was paying attention to the main man.
christine king

Ed sheeran can join the cast, I loved him being part today. Didn’t seem like a superstar more like a guest castmate.
Lino

Positives: Ed Sheeran. Because.
JackWilkins

I liked Ed Sheeran and how many people turned up for the concert. Finally a community event that felt like a community event, unlike Leah’s fundraising dinner. I’ll never forget the waiters outnumbering the attendants.
LulaRose

Pembie is the only one finding it strange that Marilyn had spent years unaware that the child she nannied had turned into a global superstar:

I found Marilyn knowing Ed Sheeran rather silly She didn’t know he was a international pop star? Even if he was going under the fake name of Teddy Didn’t she recognize him from Maginzines or TV or something? But that song he sang was good
pembie

So overall, a widely positive response.

H&A_EdSheeran-(2)a

Alec Snow was one of the cast who had spoken lines alongside Ed Sheeran

Alec Snow, who plays Matt Page, was one of the few cast members to interact with Ed, asking him to play for the town. He said of the experience: “It was an awesome experience filming with Ed because he seemed like a really down-to-earth, nice guy that genuinely wanted to be there.

“It was funny seeing how starstruck everyone both on- and off-set was. It was quite entertaining seeing the effect he had on everyone around him.”

Ed isn’t the first musical star to drop into Summer Bay. Australian music icon John Farnham famously visited Summer Bay House in 1988, and sang at the bedside of a young Sally Fletcher in a rather surreal scene. In the 1997 season finale, Australian singer-songwriter Sia sang at the wedding of Rebecca Fisher and Travis Nash. Two members of Atomic Kitten also made guest appearances in 2001, while in the recent London episodes, Ricky Sharpe worked on a photoshoot for British singer Eliza Doolittle.

What did you think of the Ed Sheeran episode? Discuss it on our forum in the Episode Discussion thread here. Note, you will need to be a member to access that thread, and will need to use the password ‘australia’ to log in.

If you aren’t yet a member of our forum, head to the Register page here.