Quick Questions

[cymbaline]

I can hazard a guess at the first one. Blake was one of the most popular characters at the time. They gave him a big doomed romance story with a pretty girl. She was the sort of person we could all imagine being friends with, and it was such a waste to see her life being extinguished at such a young age. She got a nice movie-style death on the beach and I'm sure some viewers shed tears. 

Laura, on the other hand, was an impulsive thrill-seeker, the sort who was always going to end up in significant trouble. She had that wild, anything-could-happen energy that made her fun to be around—right up until you realised she’d take you down with her. At that point, the safest move was to step well clear of the blast radius. Her death affected Curtis but everyone else was quietly thinking "Good riddance". It was also such a stupid and pointless death. Maybe the producers didn't want to remind the 5 young people watching the re-runs that playing chicken with trains can be a thing. 

As for the other one, I caught the episode in the rolling re-runs where Sophie and Blake reconnect. She was still talking about David and how she didn’t get to go to his funeral (I’ll never understand Michael’s logic there, but I digress). It felt completely on-brand for Sophie: she never really knew David, and as a result never moved past the smitten phase. I don't think it's healthy that she called her baby David but for Sophie it makes sense. 

[CaptainHulk]

38 minutes ago, cymbaline said:

I can hazard a guess at the first one. Blake was one of the most popular characters at the time. They gave him a big doomed romance story with a pretty girl. She was the sort of person we could all imagine being friends with, and it was such a waste to see her life being extinguished at such a young age. She got a nice movie-style death on the beach and I'm sure some viewers shed tears. 

Laura, on the other hand, was an impulsive thrill-seeker, the sort who was always going to end up in significant trouble. She had that wild, anything-could-happen energy that made her fun to be around—right up until you realised she’d take you down with her. At that point, the safest move was to step well clear of the blast radius. Her death affected Curtis but everyone else was quietly thinking "Good riddance". It was also such a stupid and pointless death. Maybe the producers didn't want to remind the 5 young people watching the re-runs that playing chicken with trains can be a thing. 

As for the other one, I caught the episode in the rolling re-runs where Sophie and Blake reconnect. She was still talking about David and how she didn’t get to go to his funeral (I’ll never understand Michael’s logic there, but I digress). It felt completely on-brand for Sophie: she never really knew David, and as a result never moved past the smitten phase. I don't think it's healthy that she called her baby David but for Sophie it makes sense. 

The Laura thing was to "make more of" Curtis and add to Ailsa's strain, which was like a game of Buckaroo eventually something had to give! 

[adam436]

On 13/12/2025 at 01:39, Old H&A Fan said:

Does anyone here know who made the decisions about which episodes to include in the "Home And Away Classics" on 7plus? 

 I'd be curious to know that too, since they've included the deaths of forgettable guest characters (i.e. Lou DeBono, one-time villian Sam Holden) but not some of the classic early years deaths like Ken Smith and Stephanie Mboto. I've been discussing that in details in another thread though. 

  

On 13/12/2025 at 01:39, Old H&A Fan said:

I mean for instance they chose Meg's death but not Laura's. 

Meg's death is always one of the talked-about moments in featus/retrospective that the average viewer would be forgiven for not knowing she was only a short-lived guest character. I feel like Laura's death was just for shock value, whereas Meg's death was a drawn out storyline (does anyone know how long? I haven't really watched that era?). 

[Old H&A Fan]

26 minutes ago, adam436 said:

 Meg's death is always one of the talked-about moments in featus/retrospective that the average viewer would be forgiven for not knowing she was only a short-lived guest character. I feel like Laura's death was just for shock value, whereas Meg's death was a drawn out storyline (does anyone know how long? I haven't really watched that era?). 

Meg's leukemia storyline began when she and her mother moved to Mr Fisher's old house (927). Blake instantly took a fancy to Meg when he and Simon helped Meg's mother move her things into the house. Then there was a misunderstanding about Alf allegedly having an affair with Julia Bowman, which is cleared up only after Alf is allowed to explain to Alsa that he had been comforting Julia because of her daughter's death sentence. Blake finds out about Meg's leukemia after a nosebleed she had (942), and Meg is forced to tell Blake the whole sorry truth (947) after he tried to deny his crush on her. Meg was forced to tell Mr Fisher after she fell asleep in class (952), then she told her girlfriends (953). Meg used as much of the life she had left as possible, to spend as much time with Blake as she could, to the detriment of her mother. Julia was only allowed so much time with her daughter before she was returned from the beach dead (976) after Meg and Blake watched the sunrise together.

[cymbaline]

I was surprised to see Meg was only around for such a short time. Her first appearance was on 29th January (Australia). She died during the episode aired on 3rd April. Cathy Godbold appeared in 40 episodes, which is pretty intense by any show's standards. It certainly feels like she was around for longer. It was also one of Home and Away's first big deaths, which always helps when it comes to posterity. 

 

[CaptainHulk]

13 hours ago, adam436 said:

 I'd be curious to know that too, since they've included the deaths of forgettable guest characters (i.e. Lou DeBono, one-time villian Sam Holden) 

Tbf, Lou and Sam may have been plot device they had some big, fat consequences (Irene having an alcoholic relapse while on remand and Jack H and Martha in the frame)

Edited December 14, 2025 by CaptainHulk

[adam436]

8 hours ago, cymbaline said:

 It was also one of Home and Away's first big deaths, which always helps when it comes to posterity. 

Meg was the first female character to get an on-screen death, since Kerry Barlow was pretty much off-screen - we just heard the gunshot and then we skipped ahead in time at the start of the next episode. By this point, Tom Fletcher and Phil Matheson were the only two major characters to die by this point, with Phil essentially off-screen. Then a handful of guest characters like Alan Fisher, Kerry Barlow, Rory Heywood and David Croft. This was before the days where guest characters were killed off every month

On the subject of Meg, I read somewhere that a different actress was cast as Meg's mother Julia, but pulled out last minute. I just tried to find a reference to it, but can't so I'm not sure where I read it now. Does anyone know who the actress might have been? 

 

[CaptainHulk]

On 12/12/2025 at 14:39, Old H&A Fan said:

A couple of questions:

 why was the memory of Sophie's boyfriend David revived in 2001/2002 through the naming of her baby?

Mary was active in Tamara and Sophie's (grandmother and all and living in close proximity in WA) life at that and I guess Soph probably thought she would appreciate it.