This page contains some key facts, statistics and answers to frequently-asked questions about Sons and Daughters. Please click on one of the following links:

1. When was Sons and Daughters made?
2. How many episodes are there?
3. How was Sons and Daughters originally broadcast in Australia?
4. Was it a success?
5. How was Sons and Daughters originally broadcast in the UK?
6. What subsequent airings have there been?
7. Where else has the series been shown?
8. I heard that Pat McDonald (Fiona Thompson) and Brian Blain (Gordon Hamilton) have died...
9. What about the Sons and Daughters books?
10. Have any Sons and Daughters videos or DVDs been released?
11. Are there any other versions of Sons and Daughters?
12. Anything else worth knowing?
13. Some other miscellaneous facts

1. When was Sons and Daughters made?

Sons and Daughters was made by the Grundy Organization from 1981 to 1987. The first episode aired in December 1981, during the Christmas/New Year non-ratings period, and the official broadcast date of the final episode was 19 August 1987.

2. How many episodes are there?

There are 972 half-hour episodes, which is the format in which the series has been shown in the UK. However, during the series' original run in Australia, later episodes were shown in an hour-long format, although no figures are available for how many of these longer episodes made up the show's run. The first episode as shown in Australia (and some UK ITV regions) was actually a 90-minute special; subsequent screenings have seen that episode split into three half-hours.

3. How was Sons and Daughters originally broadcast in Australia?

The series was broadcast on the 7 Network, initially four days a week for half an hour at 7pm, but in later years, in two one-hour shows per week, and finally in one one-hour show per week (although this may have varied in different parts of Australia).

4. Was it a success?

Indeed it was! Sons and Daughters became the highest rated programme in its slot and was the most-watched Australian soap of the '80s. Rowena Wallace won the Gold Logie in 1984 for her portrayal of Patricia, it being quite an achievement for a soap star to be given this high honour. The series eventually began to suffer from declining ratings and was ultimately cancelled, but the fact that it ran for six years certainly suggests that it was a success.

5. How was Sons and Daughters originally broadcast in the UK?

ITV began broadcasting Sons and Daughters in 1983, but it wasn't networked, meaning the different ITV regions were free to show the series as and when they wished. A list of the start dates for most regions has been researched by Simon Collins, to whom I would like to say a huge thank you. These, together with approximate end dates of the series in each region and details of the frequency of episodes, are as follows:

• Central: Showed the first episode on Sunday 6 February 1983 (the pilot was shown as a 90-minute special). Continued Wednesday - Friday at 3.30pm; ran five times a week from 1987 then reduced to four episodes per week; series ended in December 1988.
• Yorkshire: The pilot was shown as one episode on Monday 11 July 1983 (2.45pm - 4.00pm). Continued Monday and Friday 3.30pm, and then shown five times a week from September. From 1984, shown Wednesday - Friday only until 5 episodes a week reinstated in 1988. Final episode shown Friday 10 March 1989.
• Granada: Began Monday 5 September 1983 at 6:00pm; shown Monday and Friday at 6:00pm, but Friday episode dropped from January 1984. At some point around 1985, changed to Monday and Tuesday at 3.30pm; Wednesday episode introduced in April 1993; ended in early-1994.
• TVS: Began Wednesday 19 October 1983 at 3.20pm and shown initially Wednesday - Friday. In September 1984, moved to Monday and Tuesday at 5.15pm; later changed back to 3:20pm slot and ended in early-1992.
• TSW: Began Monday 14 November 1983 and shown Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 3.30pm. Changed to Wednesday - Friday in January 1984 and Tuesday - Thursday in September 1984. Started running Monday to Friday from 17 October 1988 and ended on Tuesday 19 September 1989.
• Thames/Anglia/Tyne Tees: Began the series on Tuesday 15 November 1983, showing Tuesday - Friday at 3.30pm. Friday episode dropped for a while in 1984 but then reinstated. From September 1984 shown Wednesday - Friday; ran three-times weekly until September 1989, then twice-weekly; finished in mid-1990 (Tyne tees finished in May 1990; Thames and Anglia both finished in July 1990).
• STV: Began Tuesday 3 April 1984 at 2:00pm, days and times varied initially but settled into Monday and Tuesday at 3.30pm by September 1984. By 1986 had changed to Tuesday and Thursday at 3.30pm; was dropped in early-1990s, eventually returning in an early Sunday morning slot; ended in 1994.
• Grampian: Debuted Tuesday 22 May 1984 at 3.30pm; shown once a week until September, when regular time slot of Wednesday - Friday 3.30pm was adopted; was later screened twice a week; ended in May 1991.
• HTV: Began Wednesday 11 July 1984 at 3.30pm, shown Wednesday - Friday on a regular basis; ended in May 1991.
• Border: Began July 1985; screened twice a week until 1993, then ran three times a week; ended in early-1994.
• Ulster: the last ITV region to pick up the series: began in late-1985/early-1986; aired twice-weekly but then increased to five times a week; ended in November 1992 or April 1994.
• Channel: Not entirely clear, but it appears that Channel took TSW's transmissions until c.1985/86 and then switched to transmitting the episodes aired by TVS - although this would have meant that a number of episodes were repeated.

If you think any of this information is wrong, please e-mail!

In the UK, Sons and Daughters tended to be shown as a daytime soap, often in a slot at around 3pm or 3:30pm, although in some areas of the country, it was shown at 5:10pm. It therefore never reached a particularly huge audience.

6. What subsequent airings have there been?

In Australia, Sons and Daughters was re-run across the country by the 7 Network in a 6 - 6:30am slot, it aired in the late-80s on Northern Rivers Television (NRTV) Monday to Friday at 11am and it was rerun five days a week on Foxtel Pay-TV in metropolitan areas. It later appeared on Prime and GWN in country areas. In the middle of 2008, Seven started re-running the show in a late-night slot at the rate of one episode per week; and then in 2009, its digital offshoot, 7Two, began a run of the show Monday to Friday in a morning slot.

In the UK, the series was shown twice daily in the 1980s on 'Superchannel' (now NBC); the channel could also be seen across Europe, but the re-runs ended in 1989, when the station underwent a major revamp. When satellite channel 'UK Gold' was launched in November 1992, Sons and Daughters became part of its weekday schedule, with the entire series being shown; the final episode was broadcast in mid-1996. The series was then brought back to terrestrial television in March 1998 on Channel 5, but only the first 212 episodes were broadcast before the series was removed from the station's schedule at Christmas of that year. Despite Channel 5 informing viewers that they had no intention of airing any more episodes, the series made a welcome return to their schedule in January 2002 and generally ran at the rate of three or four episodes early each Saturday and Sunday morning until the end of the series in November 2005.

7. Where else has the series been shown?

Sons and Daughters has been screened in other countries as follows:

• The Netherlands: shown by TROS television, but only at the rate of one-or-two episodes per week. The series returned to Dutch TV in the mid-nineties, where it was shown on RTL4, but the rerun was shortlived. Sons and Daughters was shown from 19:00 to 19:30 on BRTN1, in the afternoon on TROS and in the morning on RTL4.
• Belgium: Belgian station BRTN1 aired Sons and Daughters five days per week, with the run ending in 1990.
• Spain: Spanish television aired approximately 150 episodes of the series in 1987 from Monday to Friday at 7pm.
• Ireland: the series has aired more than once in Ireland, on RTE1, where it went out in a mid-afternoon slot.
• The Azores: broadcast here in the early- to mid-1990s.
• New Zealand: ran from January 1986 to December 1989. It began life on TV2, but was moved to TV1 when Neighbours came along.

If you know of other countries in which the series has been shown, please e-mail.

8. I heard that Pat McDonald (Fiona Thompson) and Brian Blain (Gordon Hamilton) have died...

Sadly, this is true. Pat McDonald apparently died of cancer in 1990 at the age of 68, and Brian Blain died in 1994, aged 57. Anne Haddy, who played Rosie Andrews, has also died - she passed away in a Melbourne hospital on 6 June 1999, aged 68. Michael Long, who played Stephen Morrell, has also died of cancer.

9. What about the Sons and Daughters books?

Two Sons and Daughters novels were published in Australia, seven were published in the UK and at least two were published in Belgium. All were written by Carl Ruhen. Large print versions of at least two of the books have also been produced. Scans of the covers of the Australian books can be found at the Australian Sons and Daughters Home Page, and scans of the covers of the all the books mentioned above, plus the synopsis of most of the novels, can be found on the Books page of this site.

10. Have any Sons and Daughters videos or DVDs been released?

There are two 'Best Of' DVDs available - see here for more information, as well as information on an Interviews DVD made by former cast member, Tom Richards (David Palmer). Sadly, despite rumours suggesting that it might happen, there are currently no plans for the entire series to be released on DVD.

11. Are there any other versions of Sons and Daughters?

There are at least two European versions of Sons and Daughters that I'm aware of. One, broadcast in Germany, is called Verbotene Liebe, and this has managed to overtake the original series in terms of the number of episodes made - indeed, it reached its 1000th episode on 19 March 1999. There is a website for this series at http://www.das-erste.de/liebe/. There is also a Swedish version of the series, entitled Skilda Världar, which apparently translates as Worlds Apart. There used to be a small amount of information in English about this series on the Pearson TV website, but Pearson have been taken over by Fremantle and Fremantle doesn't currently have a site of its own. A new version of the series has begun recently in Croatia: called Zabranjena Ljubva (Forbidden Love), there is information on the series at http://www.rtl.hr/shows/zabranjena-ljubav/likovi.

12. Anything else worth knowing?

Several fascinating facts can be gleaned from the 1982/83 magazine, "Sons and Daughters - Collectors' Edition":

• The search for the cast involved one of the most exhaustive audition sessions ever undertaken by Grundy. For the initial programmes, 550 people were auditioned in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane;

• The Hamilton family was originally intended to live at Bayview in Sydney's northern beaches, but a suitable location could not be found so the setting was changed to Dural;

• The cast began working at 7am and often shooting did not finish until 8-9pm - two hours' screen time per week could involve 50-60 hours of shooting;

• Sons and Daughters was the favourite project of its producer, Don Battye, who has since worked on other soaps such as Richmond Hill, Neighbours and Home and Away.

13. Some other miscellaneous facts:

• Don Battye was Producer of the first 216 episodes, before taking over from Reg Watson as Executive Producer, a role he then held until the series' end in 1987. John D. Holmes took over as Producer from episode 217 (this became just 'John Holmes' from episode 229) and Posie Jacobs assumed the role from episode 558. From episode 925, no individual Producer was listed; Don Battye was instead credited as Executive Producer in the opening titles.

• Episodes 1 - 220 were credited to the 'Grundy Organization' (this being the caption that appeared beneath the rotating icosahedron that was their symbol at the time). From episode 221, the credit changed to 'Grundy Television Production'.

• Sons and Daughters is mentioned in an Irish play called The Beauty Queen of Leenane: one scene depicts two characters discussing Wayne and Patricia! The play has been performed in theatres across the world, but appears to be particularly popular in America.