Sons and Daughters

Sons and Daughters was an Australian soap opera created by Reg Watson and produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation. It screened on Channel Seven in an early evening timeslot, running from December 1981 until 1987.

Related Topics:
Australia - Soap opera - Reg Watson - Reg Grundy Organisation - Channel Seven - 1981 - 1987

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The initial premise introduced handsome working-class John Palmer (Peter Phelps) from Melbourne who on visiting Sydney fell in love with defiant rich girl Angela Hamilton (Ally Fowler). It was soon learned that John and Angela were in fact brother and sister, twins who were separated at birth and raised separately. John had been raised by the wise former prostitute Fiona Thompson (Pat McDonald), and Angela raised by her mother who had married into money.

Related Topics:
Peter Phelps - Ally Fowler - Prostitute - Pat McDonald

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The parents of the twins had each married other people and raised families which at the time the series started had other adult children. In Melbourne the Palmer family comprised John's father David (Tom Richards), a truck driver; David's wife Beryl (Leila Hayes), a warm and down-to-earth housewife. Their children together were Susan (Ann Henderson-Stiers) and Kevin (Steven Comey), and Kevin was engaged to a local girl Lynn (Antonia Murphy). In Sydney Angela had grown up with her mother Patricia (Rowena Wallace), Patricia's husband Gordon (Brian Blain) who was a successful businessman, and Gordon's son from an earlier marriage, the spiteful Wayne (Ian Rawlings). Also in the original cast was Kim Lewis who played Jill Taylor, young former prostitute who lived with Fiona.

Related Topics:
Tom Richards - Leila Hayes - Ann Henderson-Stiers - Steven Comey - Antonia Murphy - Rowena Wallace - Brian Blain - Ian Rawlings - Kim Lewis

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Subsequent new characters included Barbara Armstrong (Cornelia Frances) who married Gordon after his divorce from Patricia, Barbara's niece Amanda (Alyce Platt), and the long-lost son of Barbara's former husband Roland, Andy Green (Danny Roberts). Patricia's best friend, the dizzy socialite Charlie Bartlette (Sarah Kemp), was introduced as a minor figure during the show's early months but soon emerged as a key character.

Related Topics:
Cornelia Frances - Alyce Platt - Danny Roberts - Sarah Kemp

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Storylines explored the romantic entanglements of the various characters, various instances of family instability linked to the breakdowns of both David and Paticia's marriages after they renewed their love affair, and the big-business intrigue surrounding Gordon's company.

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The series was very successful for several years and many of the cast became major television stars through their roles in the show. The most famous character was the neurotic bitch Patricia, played by Rowena Wallace. Dubbed "Pat the Rat", the character became a major cult figure through her bitchiness and scheming. Wallace decided to leave the series after a little over three years in the part, and in 1985 she won a Gold Logie for the role just as her final episodes were being transmitted. Such was the popularity of the character the producers of the show took the unusual step of recasting Patricia, with former The Box star Belinda Giblin stepping into the role. The writers explained the new facial features as being the result of extensive plastic surgery, and even made it a focal point of Patricia's return: calling herself Alison Carr, Patricia returned to Sydney to exact revenge on all her enemies, who would not know who they were dealing with.

Related Topics:
Gold Logie - The Box - Belinda Giblin

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Other new characters introduced at this time included Caroline Morrell (Abigail) and Dr Irene Fisher (Judy Nunn). After a long absence from the series the character of Susan reappeared played by new actor Orianna Panozzo and played a key role in many of the later storylines.

Related Topics:
Abigail - Judy Nunn - Orianna Panozzo

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As the series progressed increasingly melodramatic and bizarre storylines were explored, and the cliffhanger situations became increasingly ostentatious. Storylines made repeated use of such elements as long-lost children and siblings, lookalike imposters, blindness, amnesia, murder plots and suicides. Cliffhanger situations included a bomb-in-a-wheelchair, a character falling down a well, a character falling down a cliff, and a plane crash. In what was perhaps the most outrageous cliffhanger episode, Alison broke into a safe at the Hamilton mansion to find someone had hidden a venomous snake in it - which promptly bit her. In the same episode Wayne and others were stranded on a desert island. As he swam to get help viewers saw he was being pursued by a shark.

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As ratings went into decline Rowena Wallace was lured back to the series for a ten week return, and there was much press speculation as to how the writers would pull this off. It transpired that Patricia was in fact an identical twin, and the returning Rowena would play the new character of Patricia's twin sister Pamela Hudson. Unfortunately this return appearance did little to halt the show's dwindling popularity and the series was cancelled while Rowena was taping her scenes.

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When the series finished in 1987 the characters of Fiona, Wayne, Beryl, Gordon, Andy, Charlie, Caroline and Alison remained. David Palmer who had departed after five years in the show returned for the final episode.

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The opening and end credits sequences of the series were distinctive. The credits at start of each episode featured sepia-toned portraits of the main characters. The end credits sequence was also in sepia tone; as each episode reached the end-of-episode cliffhanger the screen image went into a freeze-frame and faded to sepia tone as the popular theme song played and the credits rolled. The theme tune was eventually released in the UK as a single.

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