Metro magazine has named Cheryl West as Woman of the Year in its 2008 Best of Auckland Awards (as featured in the December 2007 issue).

The magazine said: “Okay, we know Cheryl isn’t, you know, a real person. But as far as we’re concerned the Outrageous Fortune character, played by Robyn Malcolm, proves there is such a thing as Westie Civilisation. She’s the unpretentious, stoic linchpin of a typical dysfunctional Auckland family. She’s been cheated on and survived. Tough and self reliant, she’s a great expression of Auckland independence. And yes, she still looks sizzling in a pair of jeans. What can we say but: Westside Forever!”

Hi Emma. Thanks for your question.

Outrageous Fortune has been sold to networks in England, Ireland, Italy, Canada, Australia and Slovenia. The series has also aired on the Australia Network which is a cable channel that plays throughout SouthEast Asia.

The UK has also made their own version of the show called Honest which is a six-part series that will air on ITV1 in 2008 and there is US version of the show in development.

Van’s worries about the state of Denmark have taken him to Jethro – who sees nothing unusual in: Cheryl and Loretta at war over the adoption plan; Pascalle’s boob-displaying job at a bar called Nunga’s, and her possible new bloke, Aaron Spiller. But Gary hanging round West house definitely gets Jethro’s attention. The twins attempt an intervention with Cheryl, but this only angers her. They can sort the family if they’re so concerned, and keep out of her life. Van gets the job of sorting Loretta and Pascalle, while Jethro gets Gary. The sisters do not appreciate Van’s interference – and Van gets a further mission: telling Kasey that Munter is not happy about the upscale wedding plans.

If you have to show your tits off, does it have to be with bad punctuation?Loretta

But when Van goes to pass this on to Kasey, he finds the flash wedding is off: the big Hoochie bonus Gary promised has turned out not to be big enough. Van reports the good/bad news to Munter, then tries again with Pascalle, at Nunga’s – where he finds her accepting money from Aaron Spiller. He is paying her to go round with him, but Van misconstrues, appalled to think she’s a hooker. Unfortunately, his appeals keep being distracted by passing nungas. Van makes another assault on Loretta, only to be interrupted by Gary. On the case for Cheryl, he tries to use his position as guarantor as leverage about the adoption. Loretta refuses to be cowed by financial threats, and this leaves him suspicious.

Meanwhile, Grandpa finds that Judd has started looking into Gary’s background. Their research uncovers a missing business partner, Leon Shuker, and Grandpa is sure it must be murder. Their investigations take them to Shuker’s father, who shares Grandpa’s theory – but not about the culprit. In fact, he likes Gary – a lot more than their other former friend, Franklin Cork.

Jethro meanwhile visits Corky in prison to get dirt on Gary. Corky, paranoid, confirms only that he’s scared of Gary, but his ravings also lead back to Wolf. Gary is angry at this snooping and Jethro quits working for him. Grandpa, Judd and Jethro now realise, antler-locking aside, that they’re all on the same mission, and Wolf’s whereabouts are revealed by Falani. So a very unlikely posse takes a road trip to Whakatane…

Van’s final attempt to persuade Pascalle goes nowhere. As he contemplates his three-time failure with Loretta, he reveals that she’s his more important task. But as she considers this, Pascalle returns dirty and battered. But not because of Aaron Spiller, in fact, she’s dumped him and given back his money. But now Aaron arrives, angry – and accusing Van of stealing his tow truck. Van denies this, unaware that Munter is the culprit. As Loretta calls a truce with Cheryl, Munter gets permission to hold his wedding on his turangawaewae: West back lawn – and Van feels like a three-time winner, missions accomplished. Until, Munter doesn’t arrive for the world’s smallest stag do. Van finds his groom has been arrested for stealing a vehicle . . .

Meanwhile, in Whakatane, the posse arrive at Wolf’s address to find he has a new girlfriend, Sheree. And Wolf’s arrival turns into fisticuffs between him and Judd. But the posse finally get Wolf’s attention by revealing that their mission is about Gary Savage. But what Wolf knows is yet to be revealed…

There is a team of storyliners and a team of script writers (some of whom are the same people) who work on Outrageous Fortune.

James Griffin, Rachel Lang (who are the co-creators of Outrageous Fortune) and Tim Balme are the key storyliners and between them they also write the majority of the scripts. Also, James and Rachel alternate in the role of Script Editor (ie. overseeing all the scripts for the show) on each series.

There are about half a dozen other writers (mainly people that James and Rachel have worked with on other projects) who might write one or two episodes each during the series.

There wasn’t really a ‘pilot’ episode as such but James Griffin wrote the first episode of the first series if that’s what you mean!