Saul Bennett

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title: "Saul Bennett" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["home-and-away-characters", "fictional-kidnappers", "television-characters-introduced-in-1995", "deceased-fictional-characters", "australian-male-characters-in-soap-operas"] topic_path: "arts/film" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Bennett" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox soap character"]

Field	Value
series	Home and Away
name	Saul Bennett
image	Saul Bennett.jpg
imagesize	200px
portrayer	David Ritchie
first	21 November 1995
last	23 February 1999
introducer	John Holmes
years	1995–1997, 1999
classification	Former; recurring
sons	Alex Bennett
Joey Rainbow
civilpartner	Melanie Rainbow
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Character development

Saul is a leader of a religious cult and attempts to lure Selina Cook (Tempany Deckert) into joining the cause.

Storylines

Saul first appears after Selina suffers a miscarriage and influences her with his spirituality and convinces her to join his commune. Saul later kidnaps Selina but is foiled by his son Alex and is later jailed. After being released from jail, Saul Kidnaps Selina again when she and his other son, Joey Rainbow (Alex O'Han) go looking for Irene's surrogate child, Paul at the commune. Saul attempts to murder Selina and himself by setting a room on fire. The whole place is set alight, Selina escapes after being rescued by Joey and Jesse McGregor (Ben Unwin) but Saul is presumed dead.

On Selina and Steven's wedding day, Saul, who has apparently managed to survive the fire kidnaps Selina, while posing as a chauffeur driving the bridal limousine. Saul hold Selina hostage in a remote hunting lodge in the bush but falls sick. The situation comes to an end when police surround the lodge and rescue Selina. Constable Terri Garner (Alison Standen) arrests Saul but when he reaches inside his pocket she shoots him dead. Saul briefly returns two years later as a ghostly vision on Joey's computer screen when he is suffering from Schizophrenia, instructing him to murder Irene but Joey relents.

Reception

Of Saul, Tina Baker writing for Soaplife said, "Home and Away's cult leader Saul was nice Joey Rainbow's dad, but that didn't stop him from brainwashing his devotees, stealing Irene's baby, kidnapping Selina on her wedding day, and trying to force her to have his child...as you do." A columnist from Inside Soap said that Saul was "nuttier than a veggie roast" and cults and fires "go hand-in-hand" in soap operas. Channel 5 viewers in the UK chose the episode in which Joey tries to save Saul following the commune fire as one of its favourite ever Home and Away episodes. A reporter from TV Week said that Saul was one of the show's "worst ever baddies" who had the "biggest death" of 1997. They said that Saul "upped his creepy factor" when he kidnapped Selina, adding that it was the "biggest shock" of 1996.

References

(23 March – 5 April 1996). "Stay away from him!". Attic Futura (UK) Ltd.
Baker, Tina. (February 2000). "Another one bites the dust". [[IPC Media]].
(10–16 January 2004). "Don't play with matches...". [[Hachette Filipacchi UK]].
(25 June 2012). "Channel 5 - A vintage episode from 1997 chosen by the viewers". ([[Northern & Shell]]).
(15–21 September 2012). "25 years of Home and Away". [[ACP Magazines]].
(8–14 September 2012). "25 years of Home and Away". [[ACP Magazines]].

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