The first time I clapped eyes on an Australian soap opera, I was seven years old and sneaking a clandestine glimpse at Home and Away on the black and white TV in our holiday house. It was 1989 and there was a shark in Summer Bay – my first, but not my last, taste of the heights (and deep lows) of Australian serial drama.
From Summer Bay to Wandin Valley, from Erinsborough to Pacific Drive, Australian soapies have been putting their own spin on the heartbreaking, hilarious and sometimes just plain bonkers serial drama format since 1958. Australian soaps might not reflect our society in any meaningful way – despite occasional moments of forward-thinking casting or storylines across the years, they’re still overwhelmingly white and straight – but what they lack in diversity they, well, also lack in any sense of dramatic realism. Nothing says “Australian soapie” like dying of a brain aneurysm at your mother’s birthday street party while Hunters & Collectors play and your parents do Sharpie dances in the cul-de-sac (that’s Stingray Timmins’ death, for those who weren’t glued to Neighbours in the early-00s).
You’d be hard pressed to find an Australian who doesn’t at least have some memory of a classic soapie cliffhanger episode, tragic death or big-budget wedding, so test your knowledge of Australian soapie moments with this quiz – there are no prizes, other than to find the Home and Away theme stuck in your head for the rest of the day...
Contributor
Clem Bastow
Clem Bastow is an award-winning writer and critic. She has sat in all the Back To The Future trilogy Deloreans, but can't drive. She's on Twitter at @clembastow
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