Most Popular Character 2012: 41-50

As the list continues, and we're now in our 5th update, the characters begin to get a bit more interesting and conveniently the number of points from now on falls so well we get four round batches of ten characters. Here's the first.

	41. Ric Dalby (13 points) Ah, Ric. His entrance into the show may have been one of the ridiculous soap opera contrivances that saw the new character's father and grandmother die within episodes of him arriving on the show, around the same time Alf found out he was his grandfather and Colleen happened to remember some important information. Actually, Colleen only happened to remember immediately after Ric left for the city or something, making Alf's search futile.
	41= Kane Phillips (13 points) In our first poll, Kane podiumed. Now, was this a motor race, he's that far back, he'd need binoculars to see the starting lights. Part of that is probably the fact it's 7 years since he left and there's been a viewer turnover. Part of that is also his forgettable stints in 2008 and 2009.
	41= Sid Walker (13 points) Fathers haven't always figured well on these polls. Usually it's because they think, "hang on; I don't want my daughter to date a rapist", "my daughter to date someone who is beating her up" or "my daughter to date one of her former school teachers." So, Sid seems to be baulking two trends. He's actually done reasonably well and he's done better than at least one of his offspring.
	44. Angel Brooks/Parrish (12 points) I imagine that if had we held a Most Popular Character in 1996, Angel would have done rather well, despite the number of voters possibly being in single digits and the pages taking 20 minutes to load. Angel continues her usual solid performances without ever setting the heather on fire.
	44= Peter Baker (12 points) The more fabulous of the Baker boys, since Dan failed to score. Now appearing in The Mentalist or perhaps not. That always confuses me.
	44= John Palmer (12 points) Who would have believed that when John rolled into the show many moons ago as the unlovable stepfather of the equally unlovable Trey, he would turn into the semi-lovable stepfather of the semi-lovable Xavier. John is one of my favourites and always guarantees a laugh. Unlike my jokes.
	47. Jesse McGregor (11 points) Silly-haired character from the late 90's, where he eventually ended up going to prison. Returned a few years later, now with a shaven head, where he went through many mishaps before going back to prison. It's all just a case of history repeating itself.
	47= Dani Sutherland (11 points) Appears to be a much maligned character from the early part of the century for having the temerity to be upset at the numerous mishaps that befell her, usually involving either Kane or her love life. Whilst there's some truth in that Sutherland's might have been overused, at least they were going through things that most of us go through, rather than gang warfare.
	47= Rachel Armstrong (11 points) Resident traumatic storyline punch bag for a couple years during which her mother died, her father disappeared, she became an alcoholic for a brief period of time and then she had to do a great deal of scenes with Brad. Then for the second half of her time she paired up with storyline vacuum Tony, who after depriving Beth of anything worthwhile, had a similar effect on Rachel.
	47= Flynn Saunders (11 points) The tall, thin, long-haired, short, round, short-haired husband of Sally, who came into the bay as a counsellor, spent so long in relative terms getting round to proposing, the original actor had already left and was replaced by another, who after 3 years decided he had enough. This posed a problem since everyone expected Kate Ritchie to be on the show in 2088. So they killed him off.