Former Home and Away Script Exec reveals plans to kill off favourite
Former Home and Away Script Executive Dan Bennett has revealed that he had plans to bring back and kill off fan favourite Donald Fisher (Norman Coburn) during his last stint in the chair in 2015.
In our exclusive interview with Dan back in 2017, conducted as the last of his storylines came to air, he confirmed our suspicions that a Donald Fisher storyline had been formulated but was ultimately scrapped by the network.
Now, in a Twitter Q&A, he has gone into more detail on the shelved storyline, and has also revealed that he had very different intentions for the characters of Brody Morgan (Jackson Heywood) and Skye Peters (Marlo Kelly).
The speculation came after Marilyn Chambers (Emily Symons), who had been married to Donald from 1996 until their separation in 2000, suffered from retrograde amnesia following an electric shock in the diner.
With nearly 20 years of her life temporarily wiped out, Marilyn believed that she was still married to Donald and had gone to her old marital home to seek him out. The storyline came at the same time that Alf (Ray Meagher) had gone away to visit Donald.
Although he was unable to make the details public at the time, Dan confirmed to Back to the Bay that Alf’s trip was no coincidence—”We had a huge Fisher story planned. I hope it plays out one day.”
Five years later, and with the story evidently now a distant memory, Dan recently took to Twitter for a Q&A with soap fans, where he confirmed that he had planned to bring Donald back to Summer Bay to die in a euthanasia storyline.
“Fisher was actually meant to come back after the Marilyn amnesia story (remember when she thought she was married to Fisher?)” he revealed.
“Then we’d have played a months’ long Euthanasia story (post dementia reveal) where Alf held his best friend on the beach as he helped him slip away….”
For one of the show’s most cerebral characters, who was always able to quote the masters of English literature at the drop of a hat, a dementia diagnosis would have been nothing short of devastating. So it’s perhaps easy to understand why euthanasia would be a less cruel, if more controversial, option for the former headmaster.
Donald first appeared in the show’s pilot episode back in 1988, and remained on the show for a further 15 years. Known to most of the students as ‘Flathead’, Donald served as the (mostly) firm-but-fair principal of Summer Bay High for a lot of his tenure.
Donald’s personal life was often marred by tragedy. During his time on the show, Donald saw three of his four children die—Alan (Simon Kay), from his marriage to Alf’s sister Barbara (Barbara Stephens); Bobby (Nicolle Dickson), who was the result of a fling between Donald and Morag (Cornelia Frances) in 1970; and baby Byron who Marilyn gave birth to in 1999. The couple had also lost another baby, Oscar, following a miscarriage.
The loss of Byron at only a few months old, to an infection whilst battling liver cancer, was the catalyst for Marilyn to leave Donald and Summer Bay behind, as she struggled to cope with the loss. It was only a chance meeting in London in 2001 that saw the couple finally put their marriage to rest.
Donald eventually got his happily ever after two years later in 2003, when he left for the Whitsundays with new love June Reynolds (Rowena Wallace).
He made brief returns to act as celebrant for Sally (Kate Ritchie) and Flynn’s (Joel McIlroy) wedding; to take his grandson Seb (Mitch Firth) back to the Whitsundays following his paralysis in a car accident; and for Alf’s 60th in 2005.
Sadly, in a move heavily criticised by some long-term fans, Donald’s happy life away from the bay was shattered on his return to the show in 2007. Now separated from third wife June, Donald was broke and was forced to beg former student and employee Sally for a job.
Once a highly competent headmaster, Donald had inexplicably lost his touch over his few short years away, becoming completely computer illiterate (a far cry from the man who was writing entire novels on his computer in the 90s) and struggling to control or garner respect from his students.
When he forgot to take a roll call on a field trip, resulting in Annie (Charlotte Best) and Rory (Jack Rickard) being left behind, Donald fell on his sword and resigned. He left under a cloud of misery to travel to the UK and visit ex-wife Marilyn, who he’d recently heard was suffering from breast cancer.
In polls we’ve run over the past decade, Donald has consistently been voted one of the Top 10 Most Popular Home and Away characters of all time—reaching 3rd place for Home and Away viewers in 2014/2016 following the Early Years repeats on 7TWO.
Despite this, Dan stated that people further up the Seven hierarchy are the ones who put a stop to the storyline going ahead, on account of a predicted lack of interest from viewers…
“Network didn’t think anyone would care. I disagree. Perhaps that’s why the ratings are… questionable… now?”
In a separate tweet, Dan reiterated past claims that Seven is reluctant to reference past characters to avoid “ageing” the show.
“We’re looking to the future, not the past” was the reason given by the network according to Dan. “Wish I were joking, but the shortsightedness is real.”
A fan himself since the show’s launch, Dan previously explained to us his view on how Home and Away should embrace its history:
“For me, it’s desperately important. Of course shows evolve – just as the medium of television in its totality has evolved, and continues to do so – but I’ve always been a big advocate for acknowledging and revisiting what has come before, while also embracing the wonderful new aspects of the show.
“It’s not always easy to achieve because, naturally, the here and now resonates more in press, publicity etc. – but where appropriate and achievable, I certainly think acknowledging the past is deeply vital.”
Dan also elaborated further in his Twitter Q&A about the original intentions for the characters of Brody Morgan and Skye Peters.
A number of viewers had picked up on early hints following Brody’s introduction in 2016 that Brody could be gay, but this was seemingly disproved when the character began a short relationship with Jeannie Woods (Anna Bamford).
Putting the idea to Dan in our interview in 2017, he was only able to reply with a rather telling “No comment ?”.
Whilst answering a question about storyline changes on Twitter, Dan stated that “One of the series regulars during my latest stint was designed to be gay, another to be larger set in frame… both were rebuked by the network.”
He later confirmed that he was talking about Brody, and went on to explain that it was the character of Skye who was written as being larger than the eventually cast Marlo Kelly.
Sadly for the show, the fans, and for Marlo herself, storylines that had been plotted far in advance no longer worked, and Dan was forced to write out the character despite her being well received by fans.
“‘Skye’ was meant to be a 3 year player” he explained. “I canned her after her initial 13 weeks because (that poor girl) they cast someone geometrical different to what the story required.“