Martin Dibble

Martin Dibble
Home and Away character
Portrayed by	Craig Thompson
Introduced by	Alan Bateman (1988)
Duration	1988-1990, 2000, 2002
First appearance	17 January 1988
Last appearance	29 May 2002
Profile
Residence	Queensland
Occupation	Fish market worker Road worker Office worker Soldier Radio technician
Family Father Ern Dibble Mother Nola Dibble Brothers Erroll Dibble Scott Dibble

Martin Dibble is a fictional character from the Australian soap opera Home and Away, portrayed by Craig Thompson. He made his first on-screen appearance on 17 January 1988, the show's pilot episode. He left the show in early 1990, but returned for guest stints in 2000 and 2002.

Storylines

Martin was first seen alongside his frequent partner in crime Lance Smart, watching new arrivals in town Carly Morris, Lynn Davenport and Sally Keating, and seemed instantly taken with Carly. Soon afterwards, he clashed with Bobby Simpson when he and Lance revealed they had known all along who was responsible for the fire she had nearly been blamed for. As a result, he ended up getting into a fight with Steven Matheson.

Martin saved Carly from drowning but used up the goodwill when he stopped the object of her desires Matt Wilson from visiting her. When he then got into another clash with Bobby, during which her dress was ripped, the girls decided to get their own back on Lance and Martin by letting the handbrake off their truck. Unfortunately, it rolled into the car being driven by school principal Walter Bertram, leaving him hospitalised with minor injuries. Since it was their works car, they ended up being fired. Martin and Lance blamed the school's deputy principal, Donald Fisher, whose brother was their employer, so got their revenge by putting jellyfish in his car. They then found out Donald had got them their jobs back and rushed to put it right, only to be caught and sentenced to clean the car out.

Martin and Lance decided to have some fun at the expense of slow-witted local Nico Pappas by convincing him to use his cow to "fertilise" Donald's lawn. They were forced to own up to stop Nico getting into trouble and Donald got them to clean the muck up with their hands. The incident contributed to Nico attacking Donald after his cow was poisoned and being temporarily institutionalised. As punishment, Alf Stewart, who owned the local bottle shop, refused to serve them alcohol so they tried brewing their own. They accidentally got Donald's cat drunk and had to sober him up before Donald found out.

Martin joined a band that Frank Morgan and Ruth Stewart were putting together and was caught in the crossfire when the couple fell out. Pippa Fletcher ended up taking over from Roo as their lead singer for a talent contest. Martin and Lance organised a town dance and ran afoul of the so-called "Summer Bay Nutter", the person responsible for poisoning Nico's cow, who ended up stealing Martin's car wheels. Martin had big plans for the band but Frank disbanded it when Roo became pregnant. Martin and Lance decided to start up a western act instead and they played it for the Summer Bay High students, who liked the cheesy act. However, when they tried it on a slightly more discerning audience they were hounded off the stage.

With a reward being offered for the capture of the Nutter, Martin came up with a plan to have Lance pose as Nico to act as bait but all the attention they attracted was from Nico wanting his hat back. The Nutter turned out to be Bertram, who had never recovered from his injuries. Martin put his foot in it when Carly developed a crush on her teacher Andrew Foley, getting the wrong end of the stick and accusing Foley of being a sleaze, which resulted in him having to leave town. When he and Lance were made redundant, they ended up on the council road gang under the unpopular Sam Barlow. After Barlow clashed with Tom Fletcher, they led the staff out on strike, resulting in Tom being made foreman instead.

Martin was forced to move out of home after coming home drunk once too often and began sharing a flat with Frank and Lance's cousin Narelle. When Lance had a big win on the lottery, Martin started costing him money, leaving the keys in his new sports car so it was stolen and vandalised and failing to pay the insurance. They fell foul of conman Gary Samuels when he tricked them into investing in a fake development and teamed up with several other locals to bring him down.

Martin decided to impress businesswoman Stacey Macklin by getting Celia Stewart to sell her store, which was needed for a development, to her.He and Lance tried to get her to sell up by planting a cockroach in a cereal packet but it did not work and by then Stacey had chosen a different site. He and Lance later recorded a record for charity which a friend of Stacey's wanted to market but Lance, unhappy with the idea of being famous, deliberately wrecked their big chance.

Martin, and the rest of Summer Bay, was surprised when Roo asked him along as her date to the end of year dance. Although they went on a few more dates, he was disappointed when she said she only saw him as a friend. He bounced back by dating biker chick Leanne Dunn but when Celia started giving her lessons to make her more ladylike he went off her. He tried to get her to break up with him, but instead she though he wanted to get married. She then started acting like a slob to make him break it off, only for him to prefer her that way. Then her ex, Meat Axe, returned and challenged Martin to a fight .Despite taking lessons from Steven, Martin took a serious beating until Leanne stepped in and stopped the fight, then went off with Meat Axe.

Martin persuaded Bobby and Ailsa Stewart to make him a partner in the Diner then asked Stacey for a job. After making a joke that he couldn't lift an anchor that turned out to be fixed to the floor, she agreed if he managed to impress a client. When Tom and Frank accidentally got one of the clients offside, Martin charmed him back and was given a job for a trial period. When a group of Japanese clients took a liking to him, Stacey and Tom were unable to sack him so gave him the grand-sounding but fairly lowly post of transport manager. He took over the office when Tom went missing but accidentally shredded an important file and was sacked.

Martin tried to set up a sausage stand business with Lance but Celia ended up buying it and employing them to work for her. He asked Lance's girlfriend Marilyn Chambers to set him up on a date with one of her friends, who turned out to be a bookish, nerdy girl named Greta. Martin surprised himself by getting on well with her and was disappointed when she left town but not too disappointed to date both a new girl in town, Jenny, and Lance's ex Rhonda until they found out about each other.

Martin was then approached by Adam Cameron, who asked his help in a scam to sell Lance's car for more than the asking price and pocket the difference. He got Adam the car so he could take a couple for a test drive only for them to steal it and then return it. It turned out they had used it for a robbery and Lance and Marilyn were arrested when they were seen driving it. Martin and Adam tried to get them off the hook by dressing up as the robbers (with Martin as the woman) and letting Celia overhear them talking about it but ended up having to reveal the truth to the police. Even Lance had a hard time forgiving Martin until he and Marilyn heard him on the phone to a doctor saying he did not have a lot of time left. They assumed he was dying but in fact he was joining the army and was discussing his medical. They asked Carly, who Martin had long been attracted to, to go on a date with him and kiss him to make his last weeks pleasurable. She reluctantly agreed and when Martin learned the truth he thanked Lance for arranging it before saying a fond farewell.

After an absence of ten years, Martin returned to town for Sally's abortive wedding to Kieran Fletcher, wearing a flash suit and driving a sports car. He claimed to be the area manager of the car radio company Mobitune, but in fact he was sleeping on the beach. The new high school principal Judith Ackroyd asked him to address the class as a successful ex-pupil and he annoyed Donald by telling them not to bother with school because it had never done him any good. Ailsa realised he was hiding something and he admitted he worked for Mobitune as a technician and the car was hired. By then he had offered Vinnie Patterson the job of New South Wales area manager, but managed to put him off by talking of the long hours and intensive training. Ailsa told him the truth would probably have impressed people just as much, since he was doing skilled work.

He returned again in 2002 for the town's sesquecentenary celebrations, after Ailsa's death, and revealed the truth to Alf and Donald.He then set about making plans with Lance to start a luxury car business. When the boat carrying several residents as part of the celebrations was shipwrecked, he helped with the search that found Sally, Sophie Simpson and Blake Dean but had to leave town before the search was completed.