Home and Away star confirms last-minute rewrites before filming stopped

Home and Away actress Georgie Parker has revealed the soap was making last minute rewrites just before production halted.

Filming on the series stopped last month due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and the Roo Stewart actress has opened up about how they were tackling filming with social distancing before the shutdown.

"You can't do a classic two-shot because you can't have people standing that close to each other," she told TV Tonight.

"So then everything is about cheating the distance with camera angles, and then it's about staggering people in the frame. We also knew from the people we were working with that everyone was healthy."

Georgie went on to explain that when someone was ill or couldn't be on set, things would be rewritten to accommodate them.

"When we had someone who felt that they were getting the flu, they just stayed home for two weeks and we just wrote them out," the star continued. "And then someone else had been on a plane and production just said, 'You need to stay at home for two weeks'.

"I think it's a credit to the fact that when a production's been running as long as Neighbours and Home and Away, they can make those adjustments. They just rewrite around it. I mean, it's really hard, but they're malleable like that."

Related: 7 huge Home and Away spoilers for next week

Georgie also predicted that the soap will resume production around "June, July" — comments that echo those of fellow star Lynne McGranger.

"There's talk of June/July but only hearsay," Lynne said earlier this week.

Home and Away airs on Channel 5 in the UK and Channel 7 in Australia, while Neighbours airs on Channel 5 too and 10 Peach in Australia.

The information in this story is accurate as of the publication date. While we are attempting to keep our content as up-to-date as possible, the situation surrounding the coronavirus pandemic continues to develop rapidly, so it's possible that some information and recommendations may have changed since publishing. For any concerns and latest advice, visit the World Health Organisation. If you're in the UK, the National Health Service can also provide useful information and support, while US users can contact the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

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