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Finlay Roberts, played by Tina Thomsen, made her first appearance on 18 September 1991 and remained in the serial until 1994. Thomsen was still a teenager when she relocated from Brisbane to Sydney with her family after winning the role of Finlay. In an interview with Jenna Price of the Sydney Morning Herald, Thomsen described her parents as not pushy and said "It's me who did the pushing ... my parents just supported me." On 22 March 2020, Home and Away suspended production over the COVID-19 pandemic. Although it was initially stated that the show would continue filming, the decision was later made to halt production, despite neither the cast or crew testing positive for the virus.

Palm Beach in Sydney's Northern Beaches district has been used as the location for Summer Bay since 1988. The exterior scenes are filmed mainly at Palm Beach, while the interior scenes are filmed at the Australian Technology Park in Redfern. The following is a list of characters that first appeared in Home and Away in 1991, by order of first appearance.
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The show was already on a two-week production break, which was then extended. In early August, a spokesperson for the show confirmed filming had resumed. Greg Marshall, portrayed by Ross Newton, made his first on-screen appearance on 20 September 1991. Newton departed the show in 1993, before making a brief return in 2000.
Dean finds Ryder hitch-hiking and reluctantly takes him with him to find Rick. Ryan Lee, portrayed by Alistair MacDougall, made his first on-screen appearance on 22 August 1991 and made his last appearance on 27 November 1992. After MacDougall's departure he told Josephine Monroe from Inside Soap that because he loved playing Ryan, he would go back for a cameo appearance as long as the scriptwriters made his character bad. And added "I would have stayed longer before if the scripts had been good enough." Another Inside Soap writer branded Ryan a "rich, ratbag". In The official Home and Away Annual John Kercher explained David arrives to see his "estranged" sister Lucinda because he wants to attempt to "patch things up" with her. But he soon finds a new reason to stay in the form of Sophie Simpson .
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The show is however blocked in Northern Ireland via the SKY platform on both RTE1 and RTE2, yet it remains available on Irish platform Saorview for both Irish and Northern Irish viewers. The geo block has been lifted on the Sky platform in Northern Ireland and all airings are available to view. Home and Away is consistently RTÉ's most-watched soap opera, and in 2021, the series was streamed by 4.9 million viewers. From 2013 until 2017, Home and Away used a series of five-second opening titles, which changed every week. The various titles mostly featured scenes of bikini-clad women and shirtless men with surfboards at the beach. In 2018, a new series of eight-second titles were introduced along with the return of the show's theme song.

From 2000 to 2003, the theme song to Home and Away was sung by The Robertson Brothers and it was the first version to use only male vocals. A 30-second updated version by The Robertson Brothers was used from 2004 to 2006. In January 2007, a new version was introduced and performed by Israel Cannan, who played the character Wazza in the show. After Cannan's version received many complaints from fans, the Seven Network decided to re-record the theme song in April 2007 with vocals provided by Luke Dolahenty.
Sam Marshall
A replica of the Summer Bay House was rebuilt in its original location at the Kenthurst estate several years later, with the exception of a grey roof instead of a red one. The caravan park set moved back to the estate after the house was rebuilt, and both exterior sets made their on-screen returns in 2015. The Summer Bay House is the only house to still be seen on screen since the pilot episode.
S official Australian Facebook page reached one million likes, becoming the first Australian television show to reach this milestone. The Facebook page was established in November 2009 and is followed by fans mostly in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom. In 2013, Home and Away celebrated its 25th anniversary and former cast member Kate Ritchie returned for a special storyline to coincide with the celebrations. For the first time in the show's history, Home and Away aired a two-hander episode, featuring only the characters Ricky Sharpe and Darryl "Brax" Braxton , on 14 February 2016. Lucinda "Lou" Croft, played by Dee Smart, debuted on screen on 13 June 1991 and departed in 1992.
Newton told Glenn Wheeler of The Morning Show that joining the cast of Home and Away "was a wonderful opportunity because it was in its early stages of being a success story as a show". Wheeler opined that Greg formed a part of one of Australian television's "much loved families". Byron FisherDavid Croft, played by Guy Pearce, made his first on-screen appearance on 19 July 1991. Pearce began filming in May 1991 and David introduced as the nephew of Donald Fisher and brother to Lucinda .

Some cast members have won several other awards such as the Gold Logie for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television, Silver Logie for Most Popular Actor, and Most Popular Actress. Donald plays referee between the two siblings and they later reconcile. They begin a relationship but it is revealed and Donald and Sophie's foster parents Michael and Pippa Ross express their disapproval with the relationship as David is much older than Sophie. Pippa then makes a deal with Sophie, If she still feels the same about David after two weeks away at Pippa's mother, Coral King's house, She and Michael will leave the couple alone. David decides to leave on a trip of his own too but he and Sophie agree to meet up when they return. A 2010 episode which featured Martha McKenzie engaging in a sexual scene with Liam Murphy on a kitchen table was deemed "too raunchy" by a television watchdog in New Zealand, where, at the time, the series was aired in a G-rated timeslot.
The 2020 season return saw a series low for a premiere with only 548,000 tuning in. The 2021 season has seen an increase in ratings with most episodes attracting over 600,000. June saw a rise in viewers when the month peaked at 650,000 for episode which aired on 22 June, while in July, the show continues to receive steady ratings, and again saw a further rise in ratings with 657,000 viewers tuning in on 7 July. The 2021 Olympic return episode, which aired on 9 August 2021, attracted the highest rating in over two years, with 710,000 viewers, with an even higher increase of 733,000 viewers tuning in on 10 August. On 31 March 2022, two episodes achieved new series lows of 382,000 and 364,000 viewers respectively.

There have been nine different versions of the theme song used throughout the years. The lyrics remained the same since the show's inception, but a number of verses were gradually cut back over the years due to time restrictions. The original version was sung by Karen Boddington and Mark Williams, and was used from 1988 until mid-1995. Their version was released as a single in the UK in 1989 and peaked at number 73 on the UK Singles Chart. A new version performed by Doug Williams and Erana Clark debuted in 1995 and the opening theme was shortened in 1996; this version remained until 1999.
A writer from Inside Soap opined that the character "is always going to be a loser". In The Official Home and Away Annual John Kercher said that the character is "about as bad as they come". But Josh is "fortunate to have the type of angelic looks that make people forgive him". He has a backstory featuring a life of crime - stealing vehicles and making money by any means possible. Josh is a "rapid talker and very street wise" which meant that he could always outsmart the law. Josh had always used his mother Gerry because he knew how to "wrap her around his little finger".
In Ireland, Home and Away debuted on Monday, 3 October as part of RTÉ's re-launch of RTÉ2 as Network 2 - their secondary channel. Episodes screened at 6.30pm and in September 1997, a daytime episode was added at 1.25pm on RTÉ One with the 6.30pm episode becoming the replay of the daytime broadcast. A repeat of the week's episodes is aired on Saturdays and Sundays on RTÉ2. Viewers in the Republic of Ireland are also able to catch up with episodes on the RTÉ Player. It was the most watched program of 2014 on the RTÉ Player with over four million viewers. As of 2014, the show is available to view in Northern Ireland on 5STAR daily at 3.30pm and 6.30pm as well as the regular Channel Five airings.
During the show's first season in 1988, a rape storyline for the character Carly Morris outraged the public and a protest erupted, as viewers deemed it an inappropriate subject to be covering in an early evening time slot. They were replaced by a large photo collage showing various locations around Summer Bay. The decision to remove the cast and shorten the titles was due to time restrictions. Since then, many viewers in Australia and the United Kingdom have wanted the full-length title sequence with the cast to return. Home and Away is set in Summer Bay, a fictional seaside town in New South Wales. Locations within the town include the beach, a high school, diner, bait shop, garage and a surf club, which includes a gym, small kiosk and an upstairs restaurant.

Characters in the show live at surrounding neighbouring areas such as the Summer Bay House, Summer Bay Caravan Park, Beach House, The Farmhouse, Pier Flat, and Saxon Avenue. Other fictional towns mentioned and sometimes seen in Home and Away are Mangrove River and Yabbie Creek. Alf and Justin search for Ryder and let Dean know they're looking for him. Maggie hits upon the idea of climbing the highest mountain in each state for charity; a power walk with Coco shows her how unfit she is but Ben convinces her to have proper training. After a night being looked after by John and Marilyn, Raffy heads out without her medication to look for Ryder until Justin convinces her to slow down.