Dion

As predicted, the feature length (well actually if you took out all the ad breaks it only comes to around 70 minutes lol) episode featured a helicopter crash. I've heard rumours that the crashed helicopter used in the scenes was apparently the one that had crashed on Auckland's viaduct basin last year while setting up Auckland's christmas tree (a crash in which noone was killed fortunately) but i've not been able to confirm this. Unfortunately the episode's airing coincided with reports of a missing helicopter in Canterbury, but the episode's airing still went ahead with a disclaimer. The biggest plot occurance (other than the crash) is that Chris' stalker, Hayley was murdered by her ex boyfriend Drew. Drew also hit Chris over the head with a plank and has made it look like Chris did the murder. Chris was arrested when Drew proved to somehow have an alibi. While i'm not a fan of this storyline, it is good that the show's last remaining original character was so prominent in the anniversary episode. The cooper family held a party to celebrate buying a new house. Bella Cooper had found a box of old nurses' uniforms (ones actually used in the show) so the hospital staff (the staff not at the crash site that is) put on an impromptu fashion parade of the old uniforms at the Cooper's party. Funnily enough nobody at the Cooper's party was notified about the helicopter crash, I would have thought that if a helicopter crashed at a hospital, the hospital would want all hands on deck. To be fair though there was only one doctor at the party (all the other doctors were on duty at the hospital) but it still seems to be a bit of a plothole that none of the off-duty nurses were called in to help out during the crisis. Oh well. Anyway, Nicole had gone off in the helicopter to get Gerald's heart, but unfortunately, Bailey had returned to steal drugs from the hospital. Callum and T.K chased him up to the helipad just as the helicopter was approaching for landing and this caused the crash. Nicole was trapped. Fortunately Maia and Maxwell (Nicole's exes) found her in the wreckage and Nicole was taken to ED where Lana and Nicole reunited in front of Maia and Maxwell. Anyway, Libby and the new doctor found Gerald's new heart had safely landed (still in the freezer). Since it was still viable, the transplant can still go ahead. Finally Ula couldn't carry on pretending to love Evan anymore and told him that at the Cooper's party. Evan got angry and ending up telling everyone that the baby wasn't his!

This week is Shortland Street's 20th anniversary (the show started on May 25, 1992) and tonight we will be having a special 90 minute episode - the show's third such episode. At the moment storylines are steadily building to a climax: Chris is still being hounded by Hayley and her latest action is to make everyone think that Chris gave her a black eye but at least Harry believes him. Rachel is starting to believe him too. Phoenix on the other hand still doesn't trust his dad, even though Hayley did the same to him. The Jeffries Family have returned for a brief stint: Yvonne, Maia, Tania and Libby, along with Gerald (who of course is married to Libby) and Maia's son JJ. Gerald's father has now also returned as poor Gerald caught some kind of virus and now needs a heart transplant. Lucky for him that he's in a soap opera as a heart has become available for him just one episode after being told he needs a transplant! lol. After recently breaking up with Maxwell, Nicole (who is Bi) has become attracted to her straight friend Lana. Lana has realised that she too is attracted to Nicole. Unfortunately before they could get together, Nicole's ex Maia returned which has led to some misunderstandings. At least Maia and Nicole will get some closure now after the way that Maia abruptly left when she cheated on Nicole with Jennifer. 16 year old Ula and her boyfriend Evan have been keeping the secret that Evan is not the father of Ula's unborn baby (Ula's ex Tom is) and Ula has become more and more uncomfortable with the lie, especially after discovering that her mother Vasa has been lying to her friend Sarah and sleeping with Sarah's boyfriend Zac. Evan's family, the Coopers have decided to buy a new house and want Ula to come and live with with Evan in an adjoining flat. Callum has been missing his son Hunter who is off in rehab (last year's season finale saw Hunter and his 'friend' Bailey rob a drug store to feed their addiction and Daniel and Callum's girlfriend/Hunter's ex Jill try to stop them; Daniel got bludgeoned by Bailey and Jill ended up accidentally being fatally stabbed by a security guard) and has been upset by the return of a newly rehabilitated Paige Monroe, who got Hunter addicted to drugs in the first place. Daniel has been trying to help Paige, but his mother Sarah isn't too happy about it as Daniel has just spent months recovering from his brain injury. Finally, the hospital's helipad has just been conveniently upgraded and staff have been told to expect more helicopter rescues. No prizes for guessing what the 90 minute special is going to be about lol

It's been an interesting year as the show gears up towards its 20th anniversary next month. So far they've brought back a few old characters, either permanently or for guest stints. The most significant being Kieren Hutchinson as Jonathan McKenna (probably most well-known in the US for his recurring role on One Tree Hill), brother of Rachel McKenna and one of the earliest gay characters on the show (Karl Urban was his love interest back in 1993 ). Jonathan was last seen in 1996 and returned last year for a six month stint. Although for his recent stint, Jonathan was now presented as being bisexual and spent most of his return in a relationship with a woman.

I remember last year Dot told Rainie about Donna, which was appropriate given Rainie's drug addiction, not to mention the actress' resemblance to the actress who played Donna.

(FYI NZ is a week behind Aus pace so things may have changed) Michael's starting to get on my nerves they way he treated Summer...I like the intrigue surrounding Tash's mother but it's starting to get a wee bit annoying now. While Tash doesn't necessarily have to know yet, it has come to the point where the audience needs to be let in on the secret.

Matt had a brother Leo and they had a sister Emily who was about six or something. Emily was definitely Maggie and Evan's daughter, while I'm not sure whether Leo was Evan and Maggie's son or whether he was Evan's son from his first marriage. Matt was definitely a result of the first marriage though. There was another daughter too, but she had died sometime before the family had moved to Ramsay Street.

Dee and Toadie got married, then on the way to the airport to go on their honeymoon, she and Toadie had a car accident and went off a cliff. Dee was never found. The Mark you're thinking of Carl might be Matt Hancock...and the blonde woman with the daughter might instead be Maggie Hancock (Matt's step-mum). I'm not too clear of the details but I think Maggie may have moved in with Toadie (and Dee) for a short while (maggie worked with Toadie or something) when she and her husband separated (The Hancocks lived in No 32). Matt I think moved in briefly as well as he fell out with his dad when he got involved with drag racing and ran over Harold or something. Eventually Maggie and Toadie kissed but in the end Maggie went back to her husband and the Hancocks were forced to sell their house to pay for Matt's legal bills.

I always thought that the actor who played Oliver should have been a Will recast rather than Oliver. The same storylines could have played out the exact same way whether it was Will or Oliver (and they obviously did). Makes you wonder why they did not just make Oliver Will and be done with it.

Was going to post this in the "News of the World" thread of the off topic section but thought better of it as it's doesn't really add much to that particular discussion but just wondered if anyone actually realised that Ross Kemp used to be married to none other than Rebecca Brooks! And now in a funny coincidence Rebecca Brooks is married to Charlie Brooks...though not the one who plays Janine lol, a man named Charlie Brooks.

Yes (well I think it might have been March) but the article is actually talking about April 2000 when Lisa had her miscarriage and when Ricky left. You'd think Inside Soap would have done ten years ago rather than eleven, especially with the who shot Phil and the rape storyline on Corrie being big news back then (Corrie for the wrong reasons lol) but oh well...

Virgin Mary seen in Shortland Street Mug Apparently an apparition of the Virgin Mary has been discovered in a coffee cup during a storyliners meeting. It's too late to be an April Fools Joke...lol Oh and in other news the show will be broadcasting in HD from next week.

This is quite surprising news...I can only think of one other occasion on a UK soap where a role has been recast so quickly (when the original actress playing Blanche Hunt committed suicide). EDIT: oh and they also recast Glenda before the first even made it on to screen...and there's been a few examples of guest characters being recast when they've wanted to bring the character back(Bradley's mum) but I mean it's rare to recast a character so abruptly once the character has already appeared.

There was actually a bit of revival in interest in Days between 1996 and 2000(which roughly correspond to the Reily era in Australia) and the possession story got a bit of press when it aired over there in 1998. It's after 2000 (with the Princess Gina saga) that the problems truly began.

Ratings haven't really fallen that much though, it's just not getting the highs that it was in February. The real test will come the week of April 4 as Daylight Savings ends on April 3 (except in Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territories which don't have it) and hopefully storylines set to take place that week such as will do something for the ratings.

I know this question has already been answered months ago but I thought I'd tell you a bit more. Days has been running in Australia since 1968 (made possible of course by the fact that Columbia saved every episode in some form) on the NINE network, was about two and a half years behind and during the early 80s had a viewership over a million. The supercouple era was probably the peak of Days mania in Australia, couples like Doug and Julie, Roman and Marlena, Bo and Hope and Steve and Kayla were very popular and Stephen Nichols even did a few mall appearances, including in 1991 (almost a year after he'd actually left the show!) and packed them out. After that Days began a long slow decline for a number of reasons (pre-emptions for Cricket matches during every summer meant that Australia fell further behind, plus since the 1970s housewives had of course been moving into the workforce etc) and the Bold and the Beautiful eventually overtook the show as Australia's most popular Daytime soap. By 2004 the show was more than four years behind so Nine decided to skip four years worth of episodes (and did the same with Y&R) and picked up about six months behind the U.S during the Salem Stalker storyline. Of course it still gets pre-empted a lot during the summer for Cricket so once again it is now more than a year behind.

Gina to me seems like a watered down version of Meg Fountain (Todd's role on McLeod's daughters). Elijah hasn't returned to NZ yet but I will say that the only thing Elijah really has going for him is that he is played by a bit of a 'name' actor (more so in NZ than Australia). If not for that then I wouldn't be interested at all. I don't like the way that once again Marilyn has baby rabies (something which dominated her last two years or so on the show back in the 90s). I hope she is eventually allowed to move on from that.

Echo Point was a Sydney based Australian soap opera produced by Southern Star Productions for Network Ten starring Off the Map's Martin Henderson (IIRC he quit Shortland Street and moved to Australia to do Echo Point). It lasted for around six months in 1995.

I actually can't watch at the moment...In NZ the Christchurch earthquake has meant that the show has been pre-empted for extra news coverage. I think the last episode to screen last Monday (21st February) was the season return for 2011.

I really hope they don't make Yusef a psycho either. There's so much potential for conflict (especially with Denise now becoming involved) in this situation that the writers shouldn't have to resort to making Yusef the bad guy. All four have enough baggage to make the story compelling and yet stay sympathetic characters without having to resort to making one person a villian.

Hope you don't mind me answering your question since it was directed at Ben but with Ken Barlow it's a case of Coronation Street having a huge cast (bigger than EastEnders actually) that he can become a supporting character for long periods of time (like what you describe with EE) plus I think marrying him off to Deirdre (who was a decade younger and had a young daughter) back in 1981 and then having her have an affair with Mike Baldwin was an inspired move as it provided years of conflict. As for Neighbours, I think Karl and Susan should consider fostering as it's kinda obvious that they are going to continue taking in waifs and strays (although this would unfortunately mean more teens). Perhaps their foster child could be a really bad troublemaker (i'm talking arson,drunk driving etc etc, most kids on Neighbours are far too nice, even Andrew settled down a bit too quickly, and there needs to be someone to provide a total contrast), whatever the case it should be something that would provide lots of conflict for the Kennedy's. Lyn should be alright as she's got Summer and eventually will have Oscar and Charlie when they grow up. I hated it when they had her have an affair with Paul in 2006, but now I'm glad they did as her feud with Paul is quite interesting.

They took mine.

It's funny but it never once occurred to me that Janine and Ricky might still have relatives on their mother's side.

Haven't been watching Shortland Street lately (Show's boring at the mo) but was surprised to find out that the Nicole/Maia/Jennifer plot has already been wrapped up and Maia and Jennifer have left the show (seperately). Seems Jennifer quit the hospital when her affair with Maia was exposed and Maia decided to leave a week later when her mother Yvonne got offered a new job. Nicole remains on the show but as she is Bi I suspect she'll just be paired with men for a while.

I do like most of your ideas, though there's something you'd have to change and that's Sally's father as he died in 1989 and even if he was alive he was also a wife beater (and Rita knowing the family history would never go for that). It's an easy problem to fix though, just have Sally find an old unsent letter stuffed away in her mother's possesions which details an affair she had leading to Sally's conception...Sally tracks him down and the rest plays out how you describe... My favourite is the Rosie idea...I'd actually go even further and have Rosie undergo a hymenorrhaphy but I think that subject's a bit too post-watershed for corrie! I do think however that the suggestion for Emily doesn't really fit the character. Emily's always been the rational type of Christian who never gets carried away with her religion. If she started hearing voices, she'd more than likely dismiss them as her imagination rather than the voice of God. I think the story idea would have been perfect for Ivy Tilsley though.

Not quite the same as an umbrella storyline with everybody involved but what did you think of that storyline where a bunch of characters (Cricket, Nina, Danny, Neil and I think Nathan and Paul) had to go rescue Dru from a porn studio?