How would Duncan have been written out if Ailsa had lived?

[j.laur5]

I know this happened in 2001 but Duncan's downfall started after his mother's death in 2000. 

I believed the actor who played Duncan decided to leave. 

 But if Ailsa had lived they wouldn’t have been able to write  Duncan out with the same exit of moving to Sydney to live with Morag.

Do you think they might have sent Duncan to boarding school or juvenile detention as he was rather naughty towards the end.  

Or might they have recast Duncan with the actor that played Seb as Seb was pretty much Duncan's replacement. 

So what do you reckon would happen in 2001 with Duncan had his mother not been dead. 

[Sally Keating]

On 06/06/2020 at 05:33, j.laur5 said:

Or might they have recast Duncan with the actor that played Seb as Seb was pretty much Duncan's replacement.

I'm pretty sure a big part of Mitch Firth's (Seb's) casting was due to his striking resemblance to the Alan Fisher actor, so I really don't think you can speculate that he'd have been cast as Duncan.

I agree that Seb was blatantly Duncan's replacement but I would like to think we'd still have got Seb even if Duncan had stayed because Seb was a good character with good ties to the past and a relative for Donald to have on the show. I'd like to think that but the realist in me says probably not.

I agree that if Ailsa had still be on the show, it would have been terrible writing to have Duncan leave to live with Morag without objection from Ailsa. That's not to say it wouldn't still have happened though, just that the story would have had to feature Ailsa heavily objecting to it for it to me remotely believable. It would have been good to see Ailsa and Morag locking horns one last time. Such a shame that all those years offscreen (eight years, was it?) and they FINALLY bring Morag back just after Ailsa dies. Wasted opportunity.

[cymbaline]

Ooh now that would've been a cracker of a storyline. Ailsa was originally the only person who smelled a rat when Morag tried to take Sam away after Bobby's death. I wasn't watching H&A so much by the late 1990s. Was it ever explained why Morag wanted these kids?

[Sally Keating]

10 hours ago, cymbaline said:

Ooh now that would've been a cracker of a storyline. Ailsa was originally the only person who smelled a rat when Morag tried to take Sam away after Bobby's death. I wasn't watching H&A so much by the late 1990s. Was it ever explained why Morag wanted these kids?

She was just lonely. In contrast to her cold nature she did in fact yearn to have children (which is all the more aggravating that she rejected Bobby at every turn although she did have her twisted reasons).

[j.laur5]

Does anyone know why the actor who played Duncan left in 2001?.

As if it wasn’t his choice to leave it seems a bit strange not to keep him as part of Alf's family. 

I just remembered Alf was related to Seb, and once again Alf forgot he was related to someone just like Bobby and Rebecca between 1996-1999.

[c120701]

On 07/07/2020 at 00:48, j.laur5 said:

Does anyone know why the actor who played Duncan left in 2001?.

As if it wasn’t his choice to leave it seems a bit strange not to keep him as part of Alf's family. 

I just remembered Alf was related to Seb, and once again Alf forgot he was related to someone just like Bobby and Rebecca between 1996-1999.

Yeah, not much was made of the Seb/Alf connection until Don was leaving.

[j.laur5]

2 hours ago, c120701 said:

Yeah, not much was made of the Seb/Alf connection until Don was leaving.

Did Alf acknowledge that Seb was his great nephew?

[Dan F]

49 minutes ago, j.laur5 said:

Did Alf acknowledge that Seb was his great nephew?

Well Seb used to call him Uncle Alf so the link was known (even if the full title was shortened).

[Sally Keating]

On 07/07/2020 at 00:48, j.laur5 said:

I just remembered Alf was related to Seb, and once again Alf forgot he was related to someone just like Bobby and Rebecca between 1996-1999.

Rebecca being Alf's niece is actually mentioned quite a lot during those years.

[adam436]

On 09/07/2020 at 07:43, c120701 said:

Yeah, not much was made of the Seb/Alf connection until Don was leaving.

There was no need to make a big deal of it. The relationship between Don and Seb was the significant one and Seb didn't really need two father/grandfather figures. 

The same could be said for Alf's relationship with Rebecca and Bobby too. It was there, but there was no need for it to be so prominent onscreen, but I'm sure had Don left before Bobby and Rebecca, Alf would assumed a more prominent father/uncle role to them too.