cymbaline

Was Matt/Damian really axed? I always assumed that Damo leaving for university was the logical exit for him. Maybe I'm wrong. Still, somebody behind the scenes must've felt Damian still had potential because he got good storylines when he came back as a guest. Bruce/Nick's exit was far more abrupt and it beggars belief that he'd not return for his father's funeral (offscreen) or his brother's wedding or his brother's funeral. I assume Bruce was living in the UK by then. Fin was definitely kept on the show for too long. Her exit storyline was very very quick. At the start of her last episode, she got a letter offering her a place on a course. By the time the credits rolled she was gone, with a seemingly random bunch of characters waving her off. Pippa was nowhere to be seen, nor Damian. But her close friends Shane Parrish and Donald Fisher were happy to turn up at the caravan park and say goodbye. It was almost as if somebody woke up one morning and suddenly remembered she was still on the books. Then they got the writers to despatch her as quickly as possible.

Would Carly have let him inside the front door? Not that Pete was much of an improvement as it turned out.

Luke was axed, along with Roxanne, Tug and Sarah. I hope the story about the actors finding out by reading TV Week isn't true but who knows? I was sorry to see Luke go too. He was a likeable character and they could have done more with him. He was unfortunate to come along in an era when they didn't write well for young adults. The producers must have had plans to turn Luke and Roxy into the next big couple, going by their first appearance in the opening credits. Apart from some Roxy melodrama and him taking Tug under his wing after Bobby's death, I don't remember him doing anything particularly memorable. The Bill story was quite poignant and well done, I thought. It also gave us an idea of where Luke's life would be heading in the medium to longer term, unless they could find some sort of sheltered accommodation for Bill.

That conjured up images in my mind of the McPhees taking the van for a joyride. It's always the ones you least expect.

It would've been nice to see Barbara again. Not the loopy 1996 iteration but the sane one from 1988. She looked right at home with the rest of her family and was a believable ex for Donald. I guess they didn't want to bring her back because she was middle-aged and (mostly) normal. I don't believe we ever saw Debra, the other sibling. I wonder what she was like? Especially if Ailsa said Barbara was Alf's most normal sibling.

Did Floss and Neville's gypsy van keep coming back to the caravan park? I remember Ben sold it to a neighbour in exchange for a goat but for some reason, I think it returned after that.

Gosh, I'd always assumed Morag was older too. She even looked it, though I see Cornelia was only 3 years older than Ray. If their ages on the internet are correct, Frank Lloyd was born in 1928 and Sheila Kennelly in 1936. That'd made them 60 and 52 respectively. That surprises me because I always assumed they were older. Maybe I was thrown, not only by my teenage "everybody is old" eyes but by their occupations. Even in 1988, circuses and travelling carnivals were a bit passé. That gypsy van of theirs was so cramped and claustrophobic.

After a while, no woman knows what her real hair colour is ? Lighter colours never suited Nicolle. Seeing as we're discussing her appearance, what was the story with her glasses? Did Nicolle genuinely need them or did they just bring them in as a prop?

Bobby never looked 40 but if you describe where her life was at by the time they killed her off, she might as well have been. Two marriages, a foster child, a mortgage, running her own business... I remember the early 90s well, and get flashbacks when I look at some of the outfits the characters were wearing. Bobby fared particularly badly but that was probably deliberate; she was a tomboy who had other things to worry about. Even now when I look at those old episodes, I forget how young Nicole/Bobby was. She seems like an older person. I think it's the hairstyle as much as anything else.

Who knows what age Pippa is supposed to be? In the show's famously reliable chronology, she had a child with Ian in 1999. Ageing Pippa up worked for me when I was a teenager because I always assumed they were 40+. When you're that age, anybody who's 40 is older than the pyramids. Maybe pairing them with actors who were obviously older worked. Roger always looked his age and then some. Dennis also looked older than his age and that accelerated over the years.

To be fair, Alf lives in a town that expands and contracts in size all the time. So he's on brand. Yabbie Creek's location has wandered about too.

I'm not sure Norman Coburn ever looked young! Judy Nunn (born 1945) and Fiona Spence (b. 1946) were in their early to mid-forties when H&A began but both looked far older. The hair....the sensible shoes....the dresses. Even allowing for fashions having changed, I don't think any modern-day fortysomething woman would be seen dead in their outfits. It's also curious that Pippa was older than either of the actresses who played her. Vanessa Downing (b 1958) and Debra Lawrance (b 1957) weren't all that old to be playing a long-married foster mother. Tom's middle name was wrong on the headstone too. I just love their attention to detail ?

I'm not one to gossip but...

I think it was a hit on its own merits, rather than on the back of H&A. It did well in a lot of countries at the time, not just ones where Home and Away was shown. It's still the nearest thing to a tie-in I can think of.

I can't say I liked M People either but they're still on the go. Speaking of music, are there any songs that featured on Home and Away that made it out into the mainstream? I remember Suddenly by Angry Anderson being a big hit in the UK after Scott and Charlene's wedding on Neighbours. I can't think of any H&A songs that crossed over like that.

It was those pesky Fletchers who started the rot! Back when the show started, a foster family coming to town was thought to be quite exotic. That implies that drop-in centres weren't even on the horizon at the time. Then once the Fletchers moved to town, it became a magnet for every runaway in NSW.

Before that, Andrew Foley became a youth worker. That's what brought his relationship with Stacey Macklin to an end.

Now there's a question! I used to read Smash Hits at the time and they joked that she'd burned her mouth with some hot food or something equally daft. Speaking of screaming vocals, they used to use a remix of No Justice's Lately. Some of it might sound familiar, especially around here It's surprising No Justice's name is on the track at all because I can't hear very much of the original song or vocals at all.

INXS's New Sensation might be another one?

I think they sometimes played reworked tunes on the diner's jukebox because of rights issues. One of them was Madonna's Vogue, which would've been erm...en vogue at the time.

He was axed, but given 6 months notice about it. All that talk about Dennis minding their daughter and getting to act on stage again is just them putting a brave face on things. You've got to understand that 99% of the time, people don't leave their jobs (if they're good ones) just to babysit their kids during the daytime. It was not his choice to leave and he said it was a shock. I've watched interviews - old and new - with them and it's clear as day that they weren't happy about it. There's an interview with the two of them on that documentary Tristan Bancks made in the 1990s and their body language is very telling.

Pippa and Michael: They were a believable couple onscreen (can't imagine why lol) and it was ridiculous to widow Pippa twice in just six years. All for what? A year and a bit later they had to drum up a new victim love interest for Pippa so she could leave.

Yeah, Tracey Turner was the next foster child Pippa took in after Tom's death. Thinking about it now, there was a long gap between Sophie being fostered and Tracey coming on the scene. I assume Haydn was a direct replacement for Steven. It is a little odd to see how quiet Pippa's house was for a while. Around the time Michael went to the Sands Resort with Martha Stewart his ex-wife, Pippa only had Sally and Sophie living with her.

At least Nick's hat wasn't on the fridge

Ryan mustn't have known the rules because he woke up half of Summer Bay bringing Lucinda home