Tuesday, January 04, 2005

LOVE THY FAMILY

I happened upon a fab website recently on the oft-forgotten Aussie soap from the 80s. The even more fab than I remember Sons and Daughters.

The premise was simple. Angela Hamilton meets and falls in love with John Palmer. The Hamilton family is rich and live in glamorous Sydney, headed by evil bitch Patricia "Pat the Rat". The Palmer's live rather poorly and stay in blah blah Melbourne. It turns out that John and Angela are actually twins so that relationship goes all to hell. The floodgates are now open between the two families to intertwine again and also means Pat can fallin love again with David Palmer who had fathered the two children with her. The only problem being that both are remarried with other children!! Add to this 'Aunt' Fiona, an ex madam, an annoying porcelain china doll lookalike called Charlie who was a woman and some guys with mullets and that was Sons and Daughters!

Various big haired characters appeared throughout the run and was an afternoon special delight I used to watch. Channel 5 have picked it up here in the UK and show it in the early hours of Saturdays - I think! After a while, Pat left the show presumed dead only to reappear as a different actress having gone through extensive plastic surgery and calling herself Allison Carr. Then toward the end of the series, they lured Rowena Wallace who played Patricia back to play her long lost twin sister who just got out of prison. Now all kidding aside, these silly plots worked because like most American daytime soaps, the cast all played the plots and lines very straight without a hint of irony, even though it's all camper than Christmas and almost as camp as this blog! The show had some hot 80s tottie with a very young Ian Rawlings as rug chested Wayne Hamilton, although years later as a tubby Philip Martin in 'Neighbours' he just didn't have the same oomph and then there was still sexy Peter Phelps to play lovelorn John Palmer.

Example
WAYNE HAMILTON

Example
JOHN PALMER

They also had Aussie sex bomb Abigail (she only has one name like Madonna or Cher cos she's THAT famous!) as Caroline Morrell - always a good name!! and Leila Hayes was dumpy Beryl Palmer with possibly the worst hair style ever invented.....

Example
WORST HAIR - EVER

Another class - if you can call it that - part of Sons and Daughters was the titles. They started flashing all the cast like in a photo album, very dramatic and the sepia toning reminded me of the bginning of the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy was still in Kansas and hadn't ever seen gingham in blue and white! Then at the end of each episode as the tune began to sing the colour of the freeze frame would change back to sepia!! And don't get me started on the theme tune which I will have to post someday! Trash at it's best.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sorry if i'm stealing your thunder sista, but if I remember correctly it goes a little like this...

Sons and Daughters,
Love and Laughter,
Tears, Sadness and happiness
We will find,
our Sons and Daughters
are what wee two,
were once about!!

So increibly cheesy, but rather fitting.... for the time!!

Cam, x