Hold me in Your Arms,,,Don't Let me Go.... I want to stay For-ever... (Home and Away)

Member Name: jojoegypt2008

Product:	Home and Away
Date:	20/04/09 (209 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Storylines, acting, beaches, beautiful people

Disadvantages: Madness! Death! Cults! More Death!

Home and Away and Neighbours surely formed the cornerstones of after-school viewing for a generation of people around my age. How much did you look forward to getting home from school, and watching Neighbours then Home and Away instead of doing your homework?

Since 1987, when the Fletcher family (Pippa, Tom, Frank, Carly, Lynn, Steven, and Sally, their foster children) moved to Summer Bay, bought Summer Bay House and took over the Caravan Park, the show has won 34 Logie awards (the Aussie equivalent of BAFTAs).

For those of us who've watched the show for years, certain characters such as Don Fisher, the irascible but kind-hearted school principle, whose illegitimate daughter (as we found out later), by Morag Bellingham, Bobby Fisher, was surely one of the greatest inspirations of my teenage years. I wanted to be as grumpy and tomboyish as she. I wanted Ailsa to try and reform me, I wanted to wear denim shorts ALL the time...

Ahem. I rather lost track of that sentence. What I meant to say was that there are certain characters who have been in the show forever, who feel like family to people who were brought up on H&A. Alf Stewart (oh how I cried when he lost Ailsa), with his 'Flamin' mongrels' and his love of sea-fishing. Sally Fletcher, who was first introduced to the show at the age of seven, and who only recently departed (having become school principal - but then she was always a bit of a goody two-shoes) was a mainstay of the show for years.

Whilst Neighbours has recently become quite long-winded and dull in its story-lines, and ever more fantastic in it's ideas, H&A has always been a touch barmy. A loveable mad aunt, who keeps fluffy Polos in her pocket to give you when you see her. There have been so many deaths from non-natural causes in H&A in the past 21 years that the place must surely exist over some sort of infernal ley-line of doom. In the first series alone, we find out that Ailsa served time in prison for the murder of her abusive father...
In 2008 alone, we had a mad Reverend (who tried to kill Rachel and Annie), HIV positive Cassie, who was pregnant, Sally getting stabbed, 'dying', finding her long-lost brother, and leaving, Leah's husband Dan dying, Colleen was found to be a Stewart (through the unlikely plot device of a time-capsule....), Sam (Jack's 1st wife... actually, no, surely second, because he and Martha were married before...) killing Jonny Cooper, being found out by Jack, miscarrying and dying (all in a week! Busy people those Antipodeans...)

You get the picture. It's not a criticism - far from it. The whole point of soaps, as far as I can tell, is to be an escape from real life. People are more attractive, the sun shines more, you get a job when you need one, you fall in love in two episodes, get married in six weeks, have a baby in nine - life's easier and better.

Home and Away launched the careers of Heath Ledger, Isla Fisher, Danii Minogue, Guy Pearce, Julian McMahonand Simon Baker (The Mentalist).

Home and Away, although it has faltered in the past few years by focussing only on the younger cast members, seems to retain a sense of irony and self-awareness that other soaps lack. There are comedy storylines, and romance, and tragedy, and some fine acting - just recently, Aden's storyline about the abuse he suffered as a child was superbly handled, and Belle's descent into drug addiction has been equally well acted and thought out, not shying away from the grim reality of addiction.

I'm not trying to argue that H&A is particularly educational, nor is it the best television. It is, however, the best soap on tv.
Altogether now... "Hold me in your arms, don't let me go, I want to say for-ever....Closer each day..."

Home and Away is shown twice daily on Channel Five in the UK, with the next episode being available each day on Fiver. The UK airings are approximately two weeks behind the Australian schedule. For info on the show, including cast members (I haven't included names as there are too many, and it gets tedious) see:
http://au.tv.yahoo.com/home-and-away/
- The Official Site from the Australian Channel 7 that shows H&A.

Summary: Addictive; the best soap around.