Stalker suspense puts stockings in twist

[Andy]

Stalker suspense puts stockings in twist

Daily Telegraph

2 May 2005

LAST Friday, the Summer Bay stalker finally went too far. He or she attacked Sally and, almost as bad, the attack occurred on Home and Away's most hallowed turf -- the caravan park.

Alf remains unscathed, so at least some things are still sacred.

This was a consolation for Home and Away viewers to cling to through a weekend of not knowing if Sally was dead or alive. Sniff.

At least we do know that tomorrow night the stalker's identity will finally be revealed.

The tension is mounting -- there is enough collective nervous energy from the 1.6 million viewers glued to the soapie's greatest saga to power the national grid if need be.

In fact there'd be enough left over to power New Zealand. The storyline has been a ratings bonanza for the 16-year-old series, with viewers well up on last year's average figures.

Even more impressive, the saga has reached beyond regular viewers, so that the topic of Who Is Summer Bay's Stalker? is bandied about even by those so lacking in basic Summer Bay lore as to mention Alf as a suspect. As if.

"Stalker" by the way is putting it mildly. This mystery criminal mastermind has been trying to do away with Summer Bay's most beloved residents since January.

It started with a fire lit in an attempt to kill Bec Cartwright's character Hayley, moved on to the tampering of a plane which was meant to kill six locals, and then there was the attack on Zoe and the murder of Marc.

There's also been an unidentified body found in the bushland.

Now Zoe's missing again and Sally was last seen being attacked with a blow to the back of the head like the one that killed Marc.

All we ever see of the villain is the occasional sinister gloved hand.

For some of us, the Sinister Glove is a very nice touch. It links us straight back to the first such storyline on an Australian soap: the mystery of the Pantyhose Strangler in Number 96.

This transfixed the country back in 1974, when week after week the long-suffering apartment block was stalked by a killer whose gloved hands would steal into frame clutching a fateful, and fatal, pair of pantyhose, which would soon take another character's life.

In the end, the killer turned out to be Chantal Contouri, playing nurse Tracy. She told police she killed her victims for "being too nice".

Will Sally survive? And who will turn out to be the stalker?

We will find out tomorrow night, when we will at last be able to move on with our lives and start worrying about what on earth is going on with that monster in Lost.

[halfpint]

Valkyrie - thank for posting this. It is definitely one of the better articles.

[Ryan]

It started with a fire lit in an attempt to kill Bec Cartwright's character Hayley,

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Shame they failed.

[guy1987]

It started with a fire lit in an attempt to kill Bec Cartwright's character Hayley,

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Shame they failed.

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riiiight...