Review of Home And Away: The Romances

Introduction

I have to admit that I know next to nothing about Home and Away, other than it was the main Aussie soap in competition to Neighbours back in the good old days when the Nybers included Scott and Charrrlene. Like Neighbours, the show had a catchy theme song and was populated by a mixture of families, old farts and kids with no apparent sense of self-preservation.

Produced by 7 Network and shown here in the UK on Five, the show which celebrated its 4000th episode recently is set in the fictional coastal town of Summer Bay just north of "The City" and shot at Palm Beach near Sydney, Home and Away has more of a Baywatch vibe than its suburban counterpart.

This disc is a compilation show of romantic moments from the series and is a companion to the "Weddings" disc also available from Fabulous Films. Hosted by ex-series regular Beau Brady, the programme was made in 2005 and includes clips that go right back to the beginning of the series.

The disc includes the 1988 pilot episode of the show, which surprisingly looks a good deal better than much BBC-originated material from the same era.

Video

Originated on videotape, the only thing showing the vintage of the episodes are fashions and hairstyles. The programme is presented in 16:9 anamorphic widescreen with widescreen clips presented properly. 4:3 clips are windowboxed with the margins filled with a zoomed-out-and-blurred image (in all a pleasing way to show Academy format within a 16:9 frame and something broadcasters should have thought about to prevent Dixons training millions of widescreen telly buyers into showing everything in the wrong aspect ratio.)

The pilot episode is presented in its original 4:3.

Audio

Dolby 2.0 Stereo.

Features

The disc includes a single extra - the aforementioned 1988 pilot episode of the show. Sadly there are no subtitles on either show or pilot episode.

Conclusion

A very nice little primer on this long-running tv show. "Romances" is one of a series of such releases from Fabulous Films. Fans will probably get a lot more out of this release than newcomers, but it`s a pleasant enough way to spend an hour and a quarter watching sunnier climes than these.