Skyways (TV series)

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Tony Bonner as Paul MacFarlane and Bill Stalker as Peter Fanelli in Skyways.

Skyways is an Australian television series made by Crawford Productions for the Seven Network.

The series, which aired from 1979 to 1981, was set at the fictional Pacific International Airport and dealt with the lives of the pilots, airline staff and management team who worked there.

Skyways was mainly taped in a television studio where, in many interior-set scenes, Colour Separation Overlay created the illusion of a bustling airport with taxiing planes outside the window. Many of the exterior scenes were shot on location at Melbourne Airport.

The show's cast included Tony Bonner, Carmen Duncan, Bruce Barry, Judy Morris, Deborah Coulls, Bartholomew John, Tina Bursill, Brian James, Gerard Kennedy and Kerry Armstrong. Bill Stalker played head of airport security Peter Fanelli, an ex-detective. After Skyways ended Fanelli was moved to Cop Shop, while Brian James' character George Tibbet was transplanted to Holiday Island.

Years before Neighbours and stardom, Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan appeared together in one episode as brother and sister.

An early storyline featured a lesbian flight attendant (Morris) unsuccessfully attempting to seduce a colleague (Coulls) who revealed she was heterosexual. Morris' character was soon afterwards stabbed to death in the shower as part of a murder-mystery storyline.

The soap did get screened in the UK on Astra Satellite channel Lifestyle during 1990. Screened at 1p.m Monday to Friday, despite its afternoon slot, many of the adult storylines were not removed for a daytime audience. Indeed, the lesbian serial killer storyline involving Judy Morris, where she is stabbed to death in a shower, was screened in full with no edits! The soap was also broadcast in Europe in 1985 on Sky Channel.