Home and Away returns to Australian screens next Monday 13th January, after nearly eight weeks off the air, and it looks like we’re set for a huge departure sometime in the year.
The 2024 Season Finale saw Cash (Nicholas Cartwright) awaken to find Tim Russell’s (George Pullar) battered and bloodied body next to him, and viewers were left wondering whether Cash was to blame, or whether Tim’s former patient Nerida (Ellie Gall) had attacked them both.
Next Monday’s return episode will see the debut of Neighbours and A Place to Call Home actor Craig Hall as Detective Mark Townsend, as he puts the pieces together and tries to figure out whether Cash really was to blame.
Jane Zhang / Amazon Freevee
However, while the first few weeks of the season will likely focus on Cash’s attempts to prove his innocence, Australian magazine TV Week has revealed that we’ll be saying a huge goodbye to a beloved character later in the year.
The magazine doesn’t reveal which favourite will be leaving the bay, simply announcing that “the departure is going to cause massive waves in Summer Bay.”
The article continues that “producers aren’t giving away who it is,” but Ada Nicodemou, who plays Leah Patterson, teases that it may be “someone important.”
Teasing the potential departees, TV Week “wonders if it’ll be a legacy cast member,” with the article featuring photos of the four longest-serving characters – Irene Roberts (Lynne McGranger), Alf Stewart (Ray Meagher), Marilyn Chambers (Emily Symons) and Roo Stewart (Georgie Parker).
If their theory is correct – and, considering TV Week often works closely with the show, we imagine it is – which of Summer Bay’s most beloved faces will be saying goodbye in 2025?
Alf has been a Home and Away mainstay since the very first episode back in 1988, and despite having many health issues over the years – his most recent coming back in September – he’s very rarely shown any sign of wanting to leaving what he’s frequently described as the “best flamin’ place in the world.”
However, it’s easy to forget that he’s still married to Martha (Belinda Giblin), who he frequently visits in Merimbula.
After Alf remarried ‘no-longer-dead’ first wife Martha in 2020, the couple split their time between Summer Bay and Martha’s country retreat outside Merimbula. However, in July 2022, the show teased that we may be about to say goodbye to Alf, as Martha opted not to return to the bay, and Alf was forced to decide whether to join her.
In the end, Alf opted to remain in the bay and embark upon a long-distance relationship with Martha, which they’ve maintained ever since. Could Martha finally tempt him into a new life away from Summer Bay?
Despite Alf having a pretty good reason to leave, the most likely departure appears to be Irene Roberts, after Lynne McGranger hinted that she had been thinking of making a permanent exit after 31 years on the show.
Irene isn’t currently living in Summer Bay, having left for a rebab clinic in the city in August 2024 after relapsing to her alcohol addiction, which she has battled with many times since she first arrived in the bay in 1991 (then played by Jacqy Phillips).
“(I’ll be going for) just a little while, not leaving anything permanently,” Lynne revealed on Seven’s The Morning Show earlier last year, when it was first announced that she would be taking a break to allow her to star in theatre production The Grandparents Club.
Lynne has since returned to set, and Irene will return in 2025, but for how long? In an interview with Stellar magazine back in May, Lynne hinted that she has been thinking more about a permanent exit for some time:
“It’s something I’ve mulled over, and it has been in the back of my mind for the last year or two,” she explained. “Certainly, no date has been set [to leave] but what I love about working on The Grandparents Club and being involved in this wonderful celebration is that it’s taking me back to my roots.”
“Who knows what the future holds,” she added teasingly. “If this is successful, god willing, I might just be hanging up my diner apron.”
It has since been confirmed that Lynne will be reprising her role in The Grandparents Club, as the play embarks on a nationwide tour later this year from July to October.
But where could Irene be heading off to if she were to leave Summer Bay? The most plausible choice would be to have her move closer to one of her children.
Damian (Matt Doran) was last heard to be living in New Zealand, with Irene having last visited him in 2020. Nathan’s (David Dixon/Craig Ball) exact whereabouts haven’t been specified, but it was confirmed that he was now married to Irish nurse Grace (Mary Docker) who he met on his return to Summer Bay in 2002.
Irene’s daughter Finlay (Tina Thomsen) has been firmly established as living in the city, whilst Irene’s eldest, illegitimate son Mick (Kristian Schmid) has been largely forgotten about since he was packed off to WA after threatening to go after custody of baby Luc, the product of him assaulting Billie Ashford (Tessa de Josselin).
Roo – who was played by Justine Clarke in her original stint in 1988‒1989, before Georgie Parker took over the role when the character returned in 2010 – has also made a number of temporary exits in recent years.
Like Lynne, Georgie has appeared in a number of theatre productions, the most recent coming just under a year ago. After wrapping up the filming at the end of January 2024, Georgie Parker went straight into rehearsals for a new David Williamson play The Great Divide at Sydney’s Ensemble Theatre, which ran from March to April.
Georgie’s break was extended when she underwent her second hip replacement in the space of six years back in May 2024, a result of living with scoliosis (a curvature of the spine) since she was 13 years old.
Her on-screen exit was explained by nephew Ryder (Lukas Radovich) inviting her to join him on the cruise ship where he’s been working since he left the bay in May 2022.
Georgie also took a two-month break in 2023 to appear in another Sydney theatre production. Could a desire to take on more theatre work fuel a permanent exit for Georgie and Roo?
We do in fact already know that Georgie will be taking a couple of breaks this year at the very least, having signed up to a four-week run from May to June starring in Rhinestone Rex and Miss Monica at the Queensland Theatre. This will be followed by a further six weeks starring in How to Plot a Hit in Two Days, back in Sydney at the Ensemble theatre, from August to October.
Whilst Roo’s life seems firmly placed back in Summer Bay now after 15 years, could she make the move to live with mum Martha? Or could she go the other way and go searching for her daughter, also called Martha (Jodi Gordon), who was last heard of to be on the run with boyfriend Hugo Austin (Bernard Curry)
Emily Symons has played Marilyn Chambers since 1989, first appearing in episode 309. She was a regular from 1989-1992, then from 1995-1999, and made brief returns in 2000 and 2001, before joining the full-time cast again in 2010.
While Marilyn may be perfectly happy in the bay, she too has family who could tempt her away. In late 2022, it was revealed that Maz had a long-lost daughter, Heather Frazer (Sofia Nolan), with Maz explaining that two decades ago she had once worked as a housekeeper and had fallen pregnant to her employer.
Heather tracked Marilyn down to Summer Bay where she sought revenge on her biological mother for abandoning her as a baby. She held Maz and her friends hostage, before nearly taking Maz with her as she fell off a rooftop.
Remarkably, Heather survived the fall. While a reunion between Maz and Heather seems unlikely, Maz does have adopted son Jett (Will McDonald), who is currently living in the city with wife Lindsey.
Whoever is leaving, such a major departure is sure to send shockwaves through Summer Bay. However, with no confirmation as to which of the Home and Away stalwarts is set to depart, we’ll just have to keep watching when the show returns next week.
With one more character leaving, Home and Away is already lining up an array of new characters and returnees set to arrive in the new year.
Last October, producers confirmed that Dean Thompson (Patrick O’Connor) and Ziggy Astoni (Sophie Dillman) would be returning for a short stint in 2025, in special scenes shot in Queensland, where their characters moved in 2023.
© Jeremy Greive
Producers are keeping tight-lipped on what causes us to be reunited with the pair, simply describing it as “a top-secret storyline that will play out at a yet to be announced date, early 2025.”
TV Week have revealed that they were on set for the pair’s new scenes in tropical North Queensland, and while they’re giving away very little, they do reveal that “you won’t want to miss it.”
