Sons and Daughters is an Australian Logie Award-winning soap opera/drama serial, broadcast by the Seven Network between January 1982 and December 1987 and produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation. It was created by executive Reg Watson, and is distributed by Fremantle.

Sons and Daughters is remembered for its regular use of dramatic end-of-season cliffhangers and its most famous character; Patricia "Pat the Rat" Hamilton, initially played by Rowena Wallace, who became in 1983 the second soap opera actor, rather than personality, to win the Gold Logie award, the first being Pat McDonald in 1974, for her work on Number 96.

The story follows a Romeo and Juliet style romance of two twins separated at birth, who meet twenty years later who fall in love not realising they are siblings. The series was billed as an Australian version of Dallas and screened in seventy countries.

When Rowena Wallace decided to leave the series, in 1985 her popular character was recast, with Belinda Giblin taking over the role, in a story-arc which sees the character receiving extensive plastic surgery in Rio de Janeiro, and returning as the look-alike Alison Carr.

A notable cast member in the series later years was the Australian pop singer Normie Rowe. Rowe had previously appeared in musical theatre, but it was his first major TV drama role.

Broadcast The extended pilot episode premiered on Monday, 18 January 1982, during the Christmas/New Year non-ratings period in Sydney and Melbourne, and the following week in Brisbane and Adelaide. For the first two years in Sydney and Melbourne, it usually aired in four half-hour installments, Monday to Thursday, for approximately ten months of the year, although this differed in other markets. After 1984, it was mostly aired as two hour-long episodes. The series was cancelled in November 1986, and production ended in March 1987, with the final episode broadcast in Sydney on Sunday, 27 December 1987, and in Melbourne, on Sunday, 10 January 1988 (again in the non-ratings period). Adelaide station ADS7 was one of the first to complete the series, showing the final episodes in a two-hour special on Monday, 16 November 1987.

Sons and Daughters was successful internationally. From February 1983, British television broadcaster ITV began airing un-networked episodes of the series to audiences across the United Kingdom, meaning that some parts of the country were months or even years behind others in the storyline. During the late 1980s, the series aired throughout western Europe on various TV stations. The UK and most European and foreign territories broadcast the series in daytime, although it did air at 7 pm in the Netherlands and Belgium.

History and synopsis Sons and Daughters was broadcast nationally on the Seven Network and produced by the Reg Grundy Organization, it was created by television executive Reg Watson, in 1981, well known for his work on the British soap opera, Crossroads (1964), and creating the popular Australian serials, The Young Doctors (1976), The Restless Years (1977), and Prisoner (1979).

Watson was inspired by the glossy US prime-time soap opera, Dallas, and its more down-to-earth spin-off, Knots Landing, which were averaging huge ratings in the US in their respective time slots on network CBS. Curious to see how an Australian soap opera, similar in style to those shows, would fare with early evening or prime-time audiences, he began coming up with new material with the possibility of them becoming ongoing serials. Two of his ideas were commissioned for broadcast in 1982; Taurus Rising, which was bought by Nine Network, was a series about two wealthy families at war, the Drysdales and the Brents; Seven Network green lit

Sons and Daughters - also about two families: the wealthy Hamiltons, and working class Palmers - as their new soap, commissioning 174 episodes in the first year to air in half-hour installments, Monday to Thursday at 7pm. While Taurus Rising was not a success for Nine, Sons and Daughters was an instant hit on Seven and it quickly became the biggest and most watched series on Australian television. Its success can be somewhat attributed to the writers placing one or more families, and other peripheral characters, in either Sydney or Melbourne; they knew the show would appeal to viewers living in both those cities. Watson was keenly aware that Melbourne-based shows often did not rate well with Sydney viewers, and he set about using either Sydney or Melbourne as the birthplace for many of the show's cast of characters. Critics and press likened the serial as an Australian version of Latin American or South American telenovelas which would often hit huge viewership figures in their home country.

Ratings for the serial were high for the first three years of production, but following the departure of the series' biggest star, Rowena Wallace, in early 1985 to pursue other acting opportunities, ratings quickly began to decline. A series of replacement characters were brought in, most notably Abigail, as Caroline Morrell, and former 1960s pop idol Normie Rowe as her husband Doug but ratings were still not as strong as the early years, so producers decided to bring back Wallace's character, Patricia Hamilton, but this time, she'd be played by another actress. In mid-1985, the well known and popular actress Belinda Giblin arrived as "Alison Carr", the new identity of Patricia, who'd had a vast amount of plastic surgery in Rio de Janeiro to escape from authorities who were looking for her in Australia in connection with the murder of a wealthy millionaire's son Luke Carlyle, who'd embezzled his father's and Patricia's firm. Patricia used this new identity to regain entry into Australia to clear her name - but slowly, the other characters all began to realise that Alison was really Patricia in disguise.

With an instant boost to viewing figures, and Giblin's portrayal of Alison/Patricia a huge success, the serial was deemed to be saved from cancellation and continued through 1985 and into 1986, but still on shaky ground. A drastic cast revamp then followed in early 1986, saw long-serving cast members removed in an attempt to appeal to younger viewers, and more comedy added to scripts and storylines. Unfortunately, the revamped cast and plots did nothing to halt the falling ratings and so more desperate measures were applied to try and save the show. In late 1986, and after several previous offers, Rowena Wallace finally relented and agreed to return to the series, but this time, she'd play Patricia/Alison's long-lost twin sister, Pamela Hudson. Production ended in March 1987, with a one-hour episode aired weekly across Australia, until the end of the year.

Sons and Daughters is best remembered also for its over-the-top storylines and dramatic cliffhangers, which became much more outrageous in the later seasons. One such "cliffhanger episode", the finale for the 1986 season, Alison Carr (Belinda Giblin) is bitten by a venomous snake, which had been hidden in a wall safe that Alison broke into to steal documents belonging to long-running villain, Wayne Hamilton, played by Ian Rawlings. In the same episode, Wayne himself is pursued by a great white shark, and Andy Green (Danny Roberts) is kicked in the face by a rearing race horse. All these cliffhangers were used as a way to try and increase ratings, but ultimately, they had poor resolutions, and this had the unfortunate effect of furthering the demise of the serial. Sons and Daughters has gradually gained a cult following after several repeat runs locally and other international territories. Testamount to the series longevity, between 2020 and 2022, the entire series were released on DVD as season boxsets by ViaVision Entertainment.

Theme tune The theme tune was composed by partners Peter Pinne & Don Battye and performed by Mick Leyton and Kerrie Biddell. Two main versions of the theme were used in the closing credits, one in time and one in time: the first version was used as the main closing theme for most episodes shown in 1982 and 1983, with very occasional use of the second version, while the second version was then used permanently from 1984 to 1987. In addition. The full theme tune was released on a 7-inch single in the UK in 1984 and reached number 68 in the charts remaining for three weeks. It was released on the A1 record label with catalogue number 'A1 286'.

Plot

Season 1 The initial premise for the show was a Romeo and Juliet-style romance storyline that revolved around two families, the wealthy Hamilton family who lived in Sydney, and the Palmers, a working-class family from Melbourne. The characters of John Palmer (Peter Phelps) and spoilt rich girl Angela Hamilton (Ally Fowler) meet by chance whilst John is on the run from the police for a murder he did not commit. The two fall in love, not realising that they are actually twins, separated at birth 20 years earlier following an affair between their parents, David Palmer (Tom Richards) and Patricia (Rowena Wallace). Early episodes saw the pair discover the truth about their heritage and showed the problems and strains this put on their own relationship and those of their immediate families. While on the run John is protected in Sydney by Fiona Thompson (Pat McDonald), a former madame and prostitute and now boarding house owner who had raised John when he was a young boy. With a new identity and now going by the name of Scott Edwards, John attempts to build a new life, with the help of Fiona and her friend Jill Taylor (Kim Lewis), another former prostitute.

Following the shock revelation of John and Angela's true heritage and the subsequent reunion of the two families, a series of dramatic events unfolds, intertwining the lives of both the Palmers and the Hamiltons. The Palmers' newly-wed daughter Susan (Ann Henderson-Stiers) receives the shock revelation that her husband Bill Todd is responsible for the murder of which John was suspected, and Bill is subsequently convicted and jailed. The Palmers' youngest son Kevin (Stephen Comey) and his girlfriend Lynn Hardy (Antonia Murphy) find their lives turned upside down when she becomes pregnant, despite their families' best efforts to keep them apart. Father and son David and John Palmer's relationship continues to deteriorate, and when David and Patricia meet up again 20 years on from their initial affair, old passions resurface, culminating in the destruction of both their marriages—David's marriage to dedicated housewife Beryl (Leila Hayes) and Patricia's marriage to the wealthy and successful businessman Gordon (Brian Blain). Amidst a web of intrigue concerning the numerous instabilities within both families, and shady big-business deals concerning Gordon's company, his ownership of country estate Woombai, and the increasing involvement of his manipulative son Wayne (Ian Rawlings), the drama builds throughout the season.

The character of Patricia rapidly developed into the main focus of the show, with her neurotic bitchiness and scheming being the source of most of the drama and tension between the other characters. Patricia became a popular character among viewers and was dubbed 'Pat the Rat'. New characters introduced later in the season included Patricia's best friend, the dizzy socialite Charlie Bartlett (Sarah Kemp), Rob Keegan (Noel Hodda), the younger brother of Beryl Palmer who falls in love with and marries Angela, and Paul Sheppard (Mark Ferguson), the morally confused and neurotic grandson of Patricia's former lover James Sheppard, who left Patricia a substantial amount of his fortune following his death.

Season 2