Holly Brisley (Amanda) returns to Home and Away

Australian newspaper The Herald Sun reported today that Home & Away favourite Holly Brisley will be returning to Summer Bay next month! Holly has just completed a trip around the world which included some time in England, when she spoke to The Soap Show about her time on the top soap. You can read a transcript of the interview here:

http://www.thesoapshow.com/interviews/hollybrisley.htm

Let's hope we see Holly as Amanda back on our screens soon. And, if she's back, will she be returning to the Bay alone?

Bad Girls Sylvia Hollamby: Helen Fraser interview

This week's guest on The Soap Show is Helen Fraser, who played Sylvia "Bodybag" Hollamby for all eight series of ITV1's prison drama Bad Girls, and who is now reprising the role for the West End stage.

Helen is starring in Bad Girls The Musical at the Garrick Theatre and the show gives fans the chance to see Sylvia as they have never seen her before! The gritty musical contains some light moments, including a "Fred and Ginger" style number with Sylvia and Fenner, and a hot shoe shuffle!

Hear Helen talk about the show, playing Sylvia, and her 40 year career on The Soap Show from the 17th September.

http://www.thesoapshow.com/

Neighbours stars hit West End

Former Neighbours stars Blair McDonough (Stuart) and Jonathon Dutton (Tad) can currently be seen in the hit Australian comedy The Vegemite Tales.

THE VEGEMITE TALES, which has been described as the Antipodean’s answer to Friends, delves into the lives of a group of young Antipodeans colonising a West London flat, capturing what it’s like to 'up sticks’ and move to the other side of the world - Sam's thinking about going home, Maddie's thinking about Dan, Dan's thinking with the wrong head and Eddie's not really thinking at all, Gemma's facing the biggest decision of her stay in London and Jane just wants the toilet bowl to be clean.

Reprising his role as Dan is BLAIR McDONOUGH who played Stuart Parker in Neighbours for over four years after coming second in the original Australian Big Brother. Blair is also well known from appearances in Safari School and Sky One’s The Match.

Joining him, and making his West End debut, is JONATHON DUTTON as Eddie. Jonathon played Tad Reeves in Neighbours for four years before landing the role of David in two series of the BBC’s Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps.

Cast also includes JESSICA GERGER, ANDY LEONARD, ANDREW ROBB, ANNA SKELLERN and JOSEPHINE TAYLOR.

Listen out for a sneak preview of our interview with Jonathon Dutton on this week's soap show at http://www.thesoapshow.com/ and for a chance to win a pair of tickets to see the show!

E Street DVD The Best of Mr Bad Volume 1

The Soap Show and Umbrella Entertainment are offering fans of the cult 1990's Aussie soap E Street the chance to win a copy of "E Street: The Best of Mr Bad Volume 1". This fantastic DVD box set contains twenty back to back episodes of the classic soap opera, featuring the infamous Mr Bad storyline.

Starring soap favourites like Tony Martin (Rev. Bob), Diane Craig (Ellie), Kate Raison (Sheridan), Marcus Graham (Wheels), Alyssa Jane Cook (Lisa) and current Neighbours star Joan Sydney (Mary) this is a thrilling serial killer plot which keeps viewers on the edge of their seats.

To win a copy of the DVD send your answer to the following question to info @ thesoapshow.com (anti-spam measure - you'll have to copy the address and close the gap either side of the @ symbol): "Vince Martin played Mr Bad in E Street, but what was the name of the psychiatrist he played in Sons & Daughters?" Entries must be received by Friday 21st September 2007.

Bad Girls The Musical

Following rave reviews and a hugely successful season at the West Yorkshire Playhouse last year, the inmates of HMP Larkhall are breaking out once again as Bad Girls The Musical serves time in London’s West End.

The production has now opened at the Garrick Theatre on Charing Cross Road.

Written by the creators of the award-winning TV series; Bad Girls The Musical features many of the original inhabitants of G-Wing, including Jim Fenner, Bodybag, Shell Dockley, Nikki Wade, The Two Julies and embattled new Wing Governor Helen Stewart. Never shying from the darker side of prison life, Bad Girls celebrates the warmth, compassion and defiant sense of humour that can sometimes triumph even behind bars.

The original musical score reflects the characteristic blend of hard-hitting drama and heart-warming comedy with a fresh mix of funny and moving songs from ballads to showtime including All Banged Up, One Moment, Jailcraft and Freedom Road.

Bad Girls the Musical will feature David Burt as Jim Fenner, Sally Dexter as Yvonne Atkins, Nicole Faraday as Shell Dockely, Laura Rogers as Helen Stewart and Helen Fraser as Sylvia Hollamby.

Nicole Faraday will be familiar to fans of the Bad Girls TV programme for her portrayal of Snowball Merriman, while Laura Rogers, who reprises the role of Helen from the West Yorkshire Playhouse musical, was Sheena in season 7 of the TV show.

Helen Fraser of course needs no introduction - she played Sylvia "Bodybag" Hollamby, the screw that fans loved to hate, for all eight series of Bad Girls on ITV1.

Kath Gotts (music and lyrics) is well acquainted with the inmates of Larkhall, having co-written the theme and incidental music for four series of Bad Girls. A former Vivien Ellis Prize finalist, she is currently writing songs for the fictional school musical Parkside Story, to be featured within the next series of Waterloo Road on BBC1.

Maggie Norris (director) has worked as a director, writer and actress and is also Executive Producer on the forthcoming feature film Mrs Ratcliffe’s Revolution starring Iain Glen and Catherine Tate. She most recently directed Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys at WYP.

Maureen Chadwick and Ann McManus (book), writers of Bad Girls The Musical, are also the creative team behind Bad Girls and Footballers’ Wives on ITV and the current hit BBC drama Waterloo Road, as well as the much-anticipated Rock Rivals for ITV. After meeting on Coronation Street in 1998 they set up Shed Productions with colleagues Brian Park and Eileen Gallagher.

PERFORMANCE DETAILS
Monday to Saturday 7:30pm
Thursday & Saturday matinees at 3.00pm
Tickets priced from £25.00 to £55.00
All preview performance prices reduced by £10.00
Box Office Telephone Number: 0870 890 1104 /0870 040 0083 Garrick Theatre

Australian television news

Aussie Drama Rates its Way to the Top

After years of reality television and infotainment shows, it looks like Australian drama is finally heading back to the top of the ratings! With Sea Patrol and City Homicide both proving successful in the ratings and other dramas improving their viewing figures, things are looking pretty good at the moment. So what exactly are the viewing figures like? Here’s the rundown:

Sea Patrol debuted in early July with a massive 1.971 million viewers. It was the highest rated show of the night for its first eight weeks and despite some criticism for simplistic storylines and wooden acting, no-one can dispute the fact it is doing well for Channel Nine. Though ratings have since fallen by about a third, this is normal for any new show and it continues to be Nine’s best rating show on Thursdays. A second series has been confirmed.

City Homicide has had an equally impressive start on Seven, proving that there is indeed an appetite out there for well made Aussie drama. It has received generally good reviews and debuted with a two-hour special episode that gained it 1.648m viewers. Unusually for a new show the ratings actually improved for the following episode to 1.717m, though this is probably explainable by the timeslot. As the rating are an average of the show’s viewing figures over its time on air, City Homicide’s 2hr opener kept the show on air into the 9.30-10.30pm slot, a time when ratings are generally lower. In spite of this the high rating for week two shows that viewers obviously liked what they saw and came back for more. Could City Homicide end up lasting as long as its predecessors Blue Heelers and Homicide?

All Saints can do no wrong at the moment. Ratings have been on the increase this year and a show that was sitting comfortably around 1.2m is now regularly attracting audience figures of nearer to 1.4m on a regular basis. No doubt the show was helped along earlier in the year by being scheduled after Dancing with the Stars but nevertheless the show has continued to perform well. Its best rating episode in 2007 (so far) was on 10 April when it attracted a very healthy 1.609m.

Home and Away has also been a strong performer this year ratings-wise. A recent wedding storyline has made good ratings even better with an episode on Monday 3 September rating 1.508m. Figures remained high for the rest of the week with the show out-rating its more expensive local competition - Sea Patrol, McLeods Daughters and All Saints.

One show that isn’t so buoyant in the ratings is McLeod’s Daughters which seems to have received a bit of a battering this year. The loss of a number of high profile (and much loved) cast members has combined with increasingly fanciful storylines to hit the show right where it hurts. A show which should be attracting around 1.3./1.2m has dipped since the departure of Aaron Jeffrey in June with one episode (29 August) even setting a new all-time low of 0.989m. Unimpressive ratings do not bode well for McLeod’s future and though an eighth series has already been commissioned for 2008, this could be the show’s last unless ratings pick up considerably.

Another looser in the ratings is poor old Neighbours. A recent, much publicised, revamp only provided a temporary reprieve in the ratings and it has since slipped back down to worrying levels. With station bosses hoping the show will attract in excess of 1m per night, ratings around the 0.7/0.8m level just aren’t good enough. Neighbours does have one thing in its favour though – with its solid fan base in the UK and its recent sale to Channel 5, the show is guaranteed to be in production for at least another three years.

Comedy also a winner

Drama isn’t the only thing that Australian audiences can’t get enough of as homegrown comedy is also finding plenty of support out there. Kath and Kim’s move to commercial television has been an out-and-out success so far. It’s debut on 19 August set new records at 2.521m and though ratings had decreased two weeks later, they were still sitting at a very satisfactory 1.767m.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s new sitcom Summer Heights High debuted on 5 September with 1.220m viewers tuning in. With the ABC’s ratings generally being lower than the commercial channels, this is certainly a good start. Thank God You’re Here continues to draw in the crowds for Ten – with the third series debuting at 1.771m, every episode since has improved on that very healthy figure. Its success peaked on 22 August with an incredible 2.050m, breaking the much hailed 2m barrier.

I hope you enjoyed that tour round the ratings – next time we’ll take a look at some more new shows coming your way.

MARTIN MCDOWELL

Australian soaps and actors

Our Aussie TV expert Mac is well known to The Soap Show visitors for his regular column Mac on the Box. In this occasional series, Mac answers some of the questions that our visitors and listeners have put to him over the past few months.

First up this time is one from Felicia who asks:

Do you have any information on defunct 80's soapie, Richmond Hill? Felicia explains that she loved the programme and would like to know whether any distributors have any plans to release the series on DVD.

Richmond Hill was a soap that lasted for 92 episodes in 1988 and starred a number of familiar faces including Maggie Kirkpatrick as Ivy Hackett, Gwen Plumb as Mum Foote, Felicity Soper as Susan Miller and Paula Duncan as Janet Bryant. One thing that fans of this show might not be aware of is that the character of Jill Warner was played by Dina Panozzo, the sister of one of The Soap Show’s favourite guests Oriana Panozzo (who played Susan in Sons & Daughters)!

A number of its cast are still regular faces on television today including Emily Symons who, after appearing here as Anne Costello, went on to find success in both Home & Away and Emmerdale. Amanda Muggleton, who appeared as Connie Ryan, returns to TV soon in a newly recorded episode of City Homicide which will debut in Australia later this year.

Richmond Hill is one of the few soaps that was cancelled unexpectedly at the peak of its popularity, surprising fans all over the world. Shown on Network Ten, it was axed to make way for E Street, an untried new series that struggled for a while to build up a following that was as big as that of its predecessor. In relation to a DVD release, it seems unlikely at the moment but given the popularity of other recent Aussie soap releases, never say never!

Next are three questions from Johanna who writes all the way from Sweden:
I have heard somewhere that Sue Devine, who played Tracey Morris in Prisoner, had appeared in The Sullivans but I can't find any information to confirm it. Do you know if that's true? If she was, do you know her character’s name?

Firstly, I can confirm that Sue Devine played the role of Vonnie, best friend to Kitty Sullivan. She appeared in about fifty episodes in which she was a nurse who got engaged to naval seaman Peter Robinson (but cheated on him with an American serviceman. Vonnie's behaviour came between her and Kitty (who was good friends with Peter) and their friendship ended.

In your Sullivans podcast you mention Olivia Hamnett is dead. Do you know any more about the circumstances? She was one of my favourite actresses.

Olivia died of a brain tumour a few years ago but I do not have any further details. She is survived by her husband Peter Regan, an original cast member of The Box, with whom she emigrated to Australia in the early 1970s.

What is Jodie Yemm (Norman Yemm’s daughter) doing now?

Jodie Yemm has now retired from acting.

Jane asked what Danny Roberts from Sons & Daughters has been up to since leaving his role as Andy Green.

After starring in the daytime soap The Power, The Passion in 1989, Danny dropped out of the acting business for a few years and then returned to it in the mid 1990s. Now going under the name of Daniel, he has guested in a number of shows over the last ten years including Blue Heelers, Water Rats, Fire, Stingers, Big Sky and Home and Away (where he played Ailsa’s brother in 1997). At the time that he filmed his guest role in Blue Heelers he was romantically involved with Tasma Walton, who played Dash in the series and who his character holds hostage for much of the episode! His film roles have included Blackwater Trail and a very small part in Mission Impossible II.

Melanie was wondering if I could find some information on the actor Paul Keane who played Des Clarke in the early days of Neighbours. She really liked his character and found there wasn’t much information about him on the Neighbours website.

After Neighbours, Paul retired from acting and reportedly experienced issues surrounding drug addiction. He was unwilling to return to the show in 2003 to film scenes in which Jamie Clarke returned to Ramsay Street and it seems unlikely that he will return to acting in the future as he was never totally at ease with the media glare that such a career brought into his life. Something else you may not be aware of is that before Neighbours, Paul made a fleeting appearance in the pilot episode of the short-lived 1985 Grundy soap Possession alongside his Neighbours co-star Anne Charleston.

Dip asked what Mark Conroy (Glen) and Haydon Samuels (Tick) from Sons & Daughters are doing now.

After a short guest role on Home & Away in 1989, Mark Conroy retired from acting.Haydon Samuels became one of the few to make the successful transition from child actor to adult actor. After Sons & Daughters he appeared in the childrens series Hills End, then featured in a variety of guest roles in leading Australian dramas such as Police Rescue and Wildside. It may be interesting to fans of Haydon to realise that he actually became an actor after winning a successful media hunt across the continent for a young boy who was up to the challenge of the starring role in I Live With Me Dad, a film released by Crawfords Productions in 1985. Though not available on DVD, video copies of this film still appear for sale online from time to time and are well worth keeping an eye out for – Haydon fans will definitely not be disappointed!

Leanne has been frustrated by the appearance of a new character in Emmerdale as she is sure that the actor concerned used to be in Neighbours. She thinks he used to play the character of Mark Gottlieb and wants clarification.

Unfortunately you are only half right on that one Leanne! The actor in question is Richard Grieve who used to play Cheryl Stark’s nephew Sam Kratz in Neighbours. He then moved on to play Dr. Lachlan Fraser in Home & Away for a year. Having now relocated to the UK, he appears regularly in Emmerdale as Jonny Foster (minus the hair dye he used in Neighbours to keep his locks jet black!)

Now for one that I haven’t been able to answer…Jamie asked about the whereabouts of Kaye Chadwick who played Prisoner heavy Bev Cavelli in many episodes without ever managing to speak more than a line or two!

All I can say is that Kaye has continued to keep as low a profile after Prisoner as she did during it with the result that I have been unable to establish any information – sorry! I don’t ever like to admit TOTAL defeat in these matters so I will continue to make enquiries and report back if I uncover any relevant information. I’ve still a few other sources to try on this one…

Soap opera podcasts

There are millions of viewers around the world who love the glamour and melodrama of US daytime soaps, but did you know that fans can keep up with two of them no matter where they live?!

CBS soaps Guiding Light and As the World Turns are available over the internet as daily podcasts.

You can catch up with each episode, along with an unobtrusive commentary that sets each scene. All episodes have crystal clear sound and are ad-free. For Guiding Light fans there is even the option to listen to a shorter "lite" version of the show.

Produced by Proctor & Gamble, Guiding Light is the longest running drama in the world, ever! It started life as a radio soap in January 1937, before moving to TV in 1952. Set in the fictional city of Springfield, it follows the lives of the Bauer, Spaulding, Lewis, Marler and Cooper families.

As The World Turns is another P&G soap and while not quite as old as Guiding Light, it recently celebrated its golden anniversary! ATWT is set Oakdale, IL, and follows the lives of the Hughes, Montgomery, Ryan, Snyder, Stewart and Walsh families.

For more information and to get the latest episodes, go to http://www.cbs.com/netcast/

Hollywood stars in soaps

We all have our favourite daytime soap star and many of them have been on screen for so long they are as well known and loved as any Hollywood film star.

In fact, many of Hollywood's A-list got their big break on a daytime soap, and below we take a look at some of those actors and the roles they played.

Before he got Footloose Kevin Bacon had roles in two daytime soaps, as Todd in Search for Tomorrow and Tim in Guiding Light

Early in his career tough guy Robert de Niro had a bit part in Search for Tomorrow

Mark Hamill will be forever associated with Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker, but he previously played Kent Murray in General Hospital

David Hasselhoff had hits with Knight Rider and Baywatch and these days is famous just for being "the Hoff", but in the 1970s he played Snapper Foster in The Young & The Restless

Tommy Lee Jones has an illustrious film career, before which, in the early 1970s, he spent four years playing Mark Toland in One Life to Live

These days Demi Moore is as well known for her marriage to a younger man as for her acting roles, but in the early 1980s her fame came from playing Jackie Templeton in General Hospital

To sci-fi fans she is Voyager's Captain Janeaway, but to soap fans of the 1970s, Kate Mulgrew was Mary Ryan in Ryan's Hope

In the early 1980s Meg Ryan spent two years playing Betsy Stewart in As The Word Turns

Veteran actress and campaigner Susan Sarandon had roles in both Search for Tomorrow and A World Apart

Before he was President of the United States (on TV, at least), Martin Sheen appeared in Edge of Night

Nightime soaps have also been a convenient launchpad for the careers of some of the biggest movie stars around:

A young Brad Pitt turned up in Dallas as a boyfriend of Charlie Wade

Alec Baldwin played a wife-beating TV evangelist in Knots Landing

Halle Berry also turned up in Knots Landing as a love interest for Frank Williams

Can you think of any more Hollywood stars that got their break on a soap?