Home and Away

While Summer Bay may boast white sands and endless blue skies, life is far from perfect for the residents. Since the first episode of Home and Away saw foster parents Pippa and Tom Fletcher move into the caravan park in 1988, the bay has been the backdrop to drama, romance and tragedy for its characters.

The award-winning Australian soap introduced us to a cast of memorable characters: Alf Stewart, the no-nonsense owner of the bait shop and town veteran; the warm and caring Pippa, who took in troubled kids for over a decade; the stern headmaster, Donald Fisher; Sally Fletcher, who grew up on screen until her departure in 2008; and the ever troublesome Sutherland family, who weathered storylines involving a mine shaft collapse, long-lost children, switched-at-birth babies, a sexual assault, criminal charges and fake miscarriages.

Home and Away has never been short of troublemakers, rebellious teenagers and true villains. Recently, Sam Holden helped Summer Bay scoundrel Johnny Cooper get back on his feet but ended up murdering him and committing suicide. The notorious 'Summer Bay Stalker' Zoe McCallister, who terrorised the community before being exposed as ex-psychiatric nurse Eve Jacobson, was particularly tenacious and returned to the bay three times until being killed in a gas explosion.

Such dramatic plotlines and entertaining characters have kept the soap rating strongly and it's watched by millions of people at its home on Channel Five, having moved there from ITV in 2000.