Home and Away's Patrick O’Connor and co-star and real-life girlfriend Sophie Dillman are all set to quit UK screens as fan favourites Dean Thompson and Ziggy Astoni.
Their characters' whirlwind decision to leave is prompted by Dean’s ex Amber Simmons' news that she’s moving to Queensland with his young son Jai.
Now with a young baby of their own, the pair make a spur-of-the-moment decision to relocate with them.
After more than five years on Home and Away, featuring romance, break ups, brushes with death, a long lost sister and a few River Boys run-ins, Patrick revealed that he was left with a lasting impression — literally — of playing Dean!
“It will take a long time to forget about Dean and Ziggy, especially because of the amount of time we spent there — it was a fair chunk of our 20s,” shared Patrick.
“For a period of time afterwards I could still see Dean’s ‘Blood & Sand’ tattoo. Because we film on the beach, the fake tattoo had left a tan mark on my back and it took a long time for it to fade!”
Sophie also revealed that Ziggy’s pregnancy storyline and new mum struggles gave them plenty of time to prepare for their final farewell: “Having a baby in a storyline is a whole process, so we knew it was going to be our last big storyline,” she commented.
Patrick added: “To know what was going to happen and how we were going to leave was good, as not a lot of people get that. We got to really sit with it those last few months.”
Luckily for fans, the door will remain open for Dean and Ziggy, although Patrick revealed that he did briefly consider pushing for a more shocking exit... “I wanted Dean to die! I wanted him to get shot or something, but the producers gave me a firm 'no',” he laughed.
Patrick made his first appearance as Dean in 2018, nearly a year after Sophie arrived as Ziggy. The pair confessed they felt “lucky” to have spent their formative acting years in the show and they both found their final day on set emotional.
“My final day was a scene with Mali Hudson [Kyle Shilling] where I hand over the board shop and I looked at the board shop and got really, really upset out of nowhere,” confessed Patrick.
“But it was good, I think, for Dean to hand it over to a character like Mali, because he’s very similar to Dean in a lot of ways. Although I do think Dean was a unique dude!”
Sophie admitted that she spent the last month in floods of tears whenever she had to do a final scene with one of her co-stars: “I was a hysterical mess! I had to do one scene with Emily Weir [Dean’s sister Mackenzie Booth] and it was impossible to get through.
“The director said we’re just going to shoot it because we’ve got to get it over and done with and we both just cried the whole time. But we had such a beautiful send-off. Everyone from work came down and gave speeches and stuff.”
The couple did manage to take a way a few little mementoes from their time in the bay.
“I got a ‘Ben’s Boards’ sign and someone gave me about ten ‘Blood & Sand’ tattoos,” Patrick revealed, while Sophie let slip that they also snuck away with something more unusual…
“At the farmhouse, there were these salt and pepper shakers on the table. When Ziggy and Dean were happy they faced each other and when they were fighting the props people would face them away from each other,” she revealed. “They’d been at the farmhouse the entire time, so we got to take them at the end.”
Ziggy and Dean aren't the only ones starting over in a new city, as Patrick and Sophie have moved to the UK!
“We’ve done a lot of travel and we’re now here in London and thinking of doing some more travel and hopefully at some point, we’ll get some work over here,” shared Patrick.
“We want to enjoy this next stage, living in a different country. We’re not rushing things. We’re trying to soak in as much as we can.”
“It feels like the last six years have gone like that, it’s been a blur of schedules,” agreed Sophie. “But the best blur!”
Home and Away airs weekdays at 1:45 pm on Channel 5 and 6:00 pm on 5Star followed by a 'first look' episode on 5Star at 6:30 pm.
