Classic Episodes on 5★

[-Andrew-]

Dale's death was the only 'Standalone' episode of the 1993 options. The one that you could watch, having never seen an episode from 1993, or even the show in general and still be totally absorbed/ moved by the story. The other two won't mean so much, without first seeing the episodes that come before.

I know it will be available online and all, but there's a part of me that's slightly miffed that the majority would vote for a 'token' episode (how is Lynne McGranger's first episode any better than the other 3000+ that she goes on to appear in? and will people even realise that is IS her first episode without reading the synopsis?) as opposed to a key episode of high quality drama. However, I suppose you have to have seen Dale's death to realise just what a brilliant episode it is, so I'll forgive the public for allowing it to be the 'third wheel'...

1993 and 1995 are the only years that imo, have two great episodes and one 'dud' as options. Now if 'Chloe's Abuse' somehow gets a slot over Bobby's ghost/ the wedding for 1995...argh.

[James Martin]

You have remembered that it's going to be online via Demand5 (which, if like standard episodes, will go onto their official Youtube channel too) right?

True. I'm hoping they find their way onto Virgin Media too, as that would at least allow me to actually watch it on a television and not a low-res version on my PC. Like has been mentioned, most people aren't going to go looking for the "third" episodes.

It's just annoying that it's the strongest of the three episodes on offer, yet is often the "forgotten" storyline. It stuck out for me, for example, that during Sally's NDE episode with Tom's ghost in 2008 when Tom was inviting her up to "Heaven", he pointed out that "All the people you love are here..." namechecking Ailsa, Bobby, Michael and Flynn but didn't mention her dead brother. It was disappointing as the continuity/history was flawless during that first quarter of 2008.

I suppose we're going to get this problem with the "stronger" years. 1996, 2003, the second half of 2004, 2005, the first half of 2008, etc. all have far more than three good episodes to choose from!

I don't know why they couldn't have shown all three and just pushed the Neighbours repeat back half an hour for a few weeks. Incidentally, is Neighbours going on a break or is that sufficiently behind Australia at the moment?

How ironic that one of the other episodes features a speedboat then!

I have actually just laughed so hard a little bit of pee came out.

[j.laur5]

You have remembered that it's going to be online via Demand5 (which, if like standard episodes, will go onto their official Youtube channel too) right?

True. I'm hoping they find their way onto Virgin Media too, as that would at least allow me to actually watch it on a television and not a low-res version on my PC. Like has been mentioned, most people aren't going to go looking for the "third" episodes.

It's just annoying that it's the strongest of the three episodes on offer, yet is often the "forgotten" storyline. It stuck out for me, for example, that during Sally's NDE episode with Tom's ghost in 2008 when Tom was inviting her up to "Heaven", he pointed out that "All the people you love are here..." namechecking Ailsa, Bobby, Michael and Flynn but didn't mention her dead brother. It was disappointing as the continuity/history was flawless during that first quarter of 2008.

I suppose we're going to get this problem with the "stronger" years. 1996, 2003, the second half of 2004, 2005, the first half of 2008, etc. all have far more than three good episodes to choose from!

I don't know why they couldn't have shown all three and just pushed the Neighbours repeat back half an hour for a few weeks. Incidentally, is Neighbours going on a break or is that sufficiently behind Australia at the moment?

How ironic that one of the other episodes features a speedboat then!

I have actually just laughed so hard a little bit of pee came out.

Since when did Sally have a dead brother?

[Red Ranger 1]

I guess people are after a slice of nostalgia to watch while having their tea and perhaps the long drawn-out death of a baby wasn't what they had in mind.Those of us who really want to watch it and can do so. And I think it's obvious that the episode they've chosen is the debut of the new, improved Irene even if you wouldn't necessarily know about the recap:I remember at the time the feeling of "Oh no, Irene's back" being displaced by the surprising realisation that she does actually give a damn about Fin now.(To my earlier point, I remember the long recap episode cut straight from the cliffhanger to the end caption, in an era before they did that every episode, so I suspect it was ITV putting it on.)

I think I voted for the "Chloe is Attacked" episode too, because it was a strong episode for what I consider "my" teen group.The Bobby's ghost episode was a bit of a disappointment first time round:After a load of publicity and the most bizarre cliffhanger in the show's history, I think Nicolle Dickson was on screen for less than a minute across two episodes and only had one line.(Unless ITV cut the rest of it, but it's hard to see where it would have gone.)

[James Martin]

ITV occasionally did extra-long recaps if viewers might have missed the episode in question. One of those was Dale's death since the episode originally didn't get an evening screening due to football (I distinctly remember leaving for school and setting the video for the lunchtime showing for that episode after Ted May, the Continuity Announcer on Central - and later C5 - going to great lengths to warn us it wouldn't be on in the evening the previous day!)

At least once the evening showing was pulled last minute due to World Cup football (I think France '98) going into extra time and again an extra-long recap was done for the benefit of those who didn't catch the show at lunchtime.

Certainly the episode after Dale's death had cut credits on Central, I assume to fit in the in-house recap. The credit-cutting was originally a regional thing though, I think. Central didn't lose them on every episode for quite a while - we lost them around the time Carlton took over, presumably because Carlton were already chopping the credits in London? I may be wrong as certainly before 1993, Thames would play it out for the entire network at lunchtime and it was each region's responsibility to record Home & Away from the Thames feed and then play that copy out in the evening.

[Red Ranger 1]

I'm pretty sure Anglia had lost the credits by 1996, I remember Michael's death being repeated one Christmas around that time with the credits intact and that was the first time I'd seen them in ages.It's astonishing the things that are at the back of your memory:I'd completely forgotten that the show wasn't networked, if you were out of the region you had to check when it was on in advance or find out it had been shown an hour earlier than you were used to.(Love that Channel 5 use the old Anglia 6.00pm slot, which didn't seem to be that common.)Checked out an old 1996 Radio Times I had in the loft and even the lunchtime showing wasn't networked by then, it seems to move from 12.55 to 1.25 depending on the region.

[-Andrew-]

1993 -The one with the New Irene

- Bobby's Funeral

1994- Shane and Angel's getaway

- Shannon and Curtis' secret

1995- Shane and Angel's wedding

- Ailsa's Breakdown (woohoo!)

1996- Shane Dies

- Marilyn and Donald wed

[c120701]

I'm pretty sure Anglia had lost the credits by 1996, I remember Michael's death being repeated one Christmas around that time with the credits intact and that was the first time I'd seen them in ages.It's astonishing the things that are at the back of your memory:I'd completely forgotten that the show wasn't networked, if you were out of the region you had to check when it was on in advance or find out it had been shown an hour earlier than you were used to.(Love that Channel 5 use the old Anglia 6.00pm slot, which didn't seem to be that common.)Checked out an old 1996 Radio Times I had in the loft and even the lunchtime showing wasn't networked by then, it seems to move from 12.55 to 1.25 depending on the region.

Yes, I liked that (as a Central/Carlton viewer) that Channel 5 used the old 6pm slot, it always seemed really odd when they moved it to 5pm watching Home and Away before Neighbours as it had been the other way around for so long. I'd also have to miss Blue Peter/Newsround.

[James Martin]

That was when the news got messed around with - it went from 17:40-18:00 and 22:00-22:30 to 18:30-19:00 and 23:00-23:20 in March 1999.

In the late 80s and the 90s, Home & Away and the regional news were moveable feasts within the regions. As I explained earlier, until Carlton took over from Thames, generally the lunchtime showing (originally 12:30 but then moved to 13:20 during and after the First Gulf War) was networked from Thames. Regions then recorded their own copy from the Thames feed and played that tape back out for the second showing, which is why even in regions where the show went out in the same timeslot, the episode would not be in-sync. On a couple of occasions during the summer holidays, the first showing used to be moved back to late morning so it could be part of CITV Summer Mornings.

Generally most regions went with Home & Away at 17:10-17:40 and the regional news at 18:00-18:30, which obviously stole a march on the BBC's regional news. Thames/Carlton, Central, Anglia and possibly Granada all went with Home & Away 18:00-18:30 and the regional news 18:30-19:00. TSW, who were notorious for pissing about with the network schedule, parked the second showing at 15:25 - which of course was useless for the show's traditionally primarily teenage audience in the UK. Border were arguably the most generous, putting it out at 18:30, which Central also did at the start for a while. Scottish may have also shown it at 18:00 as until as late as the 1999 schedule changes, they showed Emmerdale at 17:10 - a partly political move due to Yorkshire dropping High Road.

This all changed when the new news arrangements came in, meaning nationally everyone went with Home & Away 17:00-17:30 (not a big change for most of the country) a regional show 17:30-18:00 (I guess regions could have put Home & Away here but everyone knows why nobody did!) regional news 18:00-18:30 and then national news 18:30-19:00 into Emmerdale.

All the Aussie soaps, including Sons & Daughters and The Young Doctors, used to have very precise regional scheduling information on Wikipedia, but it's been taken down. Maybe would be quite useful to collate the information for Home & Away, from an anorak point of view!

[James Martin]

Found it, if anyone's really interested!