Carly Lucini (also Morris) is a fictional character from the Australian soap opera Home and Away, played by actress Sharyn Hodgson. She was one of the soap's original female protagonists, appearing as one of the Fletchers' foster children in the pilot episode on 17 January 1988. The soap's primary focus was placed upon the Fletchers and their gang of foster children, moving as outsiders to a caravan park in the seaside town of Summer Bay. Carly remained in the serial as a regular character until 1991, covering issues such as rape, alcoholism and child abuse, as well as a problematic marriage to soldier Ben Lucini, played by actor Julian McMahon. Hodgson has made numerous guest appearances since her exit. Creation and casting The character was conceived by the creator and then executive producer of Home and Away, Alan Bateman. Carly is one of five children fostered by Pippa (Vanessa Downing) and Tom Fletcher (Roger Oakley), who move to Summer Bay to begin a new life. Over three hundred actors auditioned for the roles of the Fletcher's foster children in 1987. Actress Sharyn Hodgson was cast as Carly. After being unable to find acting work following her graduation from the Phillip Street Drama School, Hodgson secured a job at a news agency, but on the day she was due to start she received an audition for the role of Carly, which she subsequently won. Hodgson had made a small guest appearance in A Country Practice, but Carly was her first regular television role. Hodgson was nineteen when she was cast, two years older than her teenage character. Development In July 1988, Hodgson described Carly as being "17, in her last year at school and like all teens has her problems." She said that she and Carly did not share any similarities, so when she received her first scripts, she had to "work out" how she should portray Carly based upon her fictional history, which she then "built on". Hodgson also portrayed Carly's "nastier" twin sister Samantha Morris, which she called "a big challenge, but good to do." Carly's rape, which occurred while she was hitchhiking in 1988, was one of the soap's first controversial story lines. Andrew Mercado, author of Super Aussie Soaps, has commented that "although the word 'rape' was never actually uttered on-screen, savvy viewers caught on. In the aftermath of her assault, Carly began drinking heavily and the