Wicklow man Paul Hughes is starring as an Irish doctor in the hit soap, with his episodes already screened on Network 7 in Australia in recent weeks and due to be shown here by RTÉ in March.

About 150,000 people watch the weekday soap in Ireland, with millions more in Australia, the UK and other parts of the world.

Paul is currently living in Sydney, where he is engaged to beautiful local girl Sandra Wu. The couple also own an adorable pug rescue dog.

“Pretty sure this was the first time the words ‘get a wriggle on’ were said in an Irish accent on TV,” joked Paul about his Dr Matty character.

Paul has in recent years trained to become an actor and has appeared in a number of TV shows and films.

He is also frontman of U2 tribute act Rattle and Hum, playing regular gigs in Australia.

In previous years he was a member of Irish boyband Clozure, who toured Ireland with X Factor stars Eoghan Quigg and JLS.

Clozure also included Andrew Rice, Jo Petit and Ryan Davis.

Paul is not the first Irish person to appear on Home and Away, the famous soap which is set in fictional Summer Bay and has been airing since 1988.

Five years ago, Cork electrician Kieran Noonan landed a part on the show after being spotted by a talent agent in a Sydney café.

He ended up in three episodes alongside the River Boys, sharing regular scenes with Patrick O’Connor, who plays Dean.

Carlow woman Alison McGirr appeared in Home and Away back in 2012 as Molly Brenner.

Alison is married to former Home and Away actor Sam Atwell, who played bad boy Kane Phillips on the soap from 2001 to 2009. The couple now live in Dublin and Sam currently works as a producer and script consultant on Fair City.

Belfast man Dennis Coard played the role of Michael Ross on Home and Away for several years in the 1990s before his character was killed off.

Dubliner Sean Kramer also played Irish character Gabe Farley on the soap in the 1990s.

Such is the popularity of the show here that many of the cast members have come on promotional visits to Ireland, including the legendary Alf Stewart (played by Ray Meagher), as well as Kyle Pryor (Dr Nate Cooper), Dan Ewing (Heath Braxton) and Steve Peacock (Brax Braxton).

Home and Away first aired in January 1988 and for over 8000 episodes follows the lives and loves of the residents in coastal Summer Bay, a fictional seaside town in New South Wales.

The series initially focused on the Fletcher family – Tom (Roger Oakley) and Pippa (Vanessa Downing), and their five foster children, Frank Morgan (Alex Papps), Carly Morris (Sharyn Hodgson), Lynn Davenport (Helena Bozich), Steven Matheson (Adam Willits) and Sally Fletcher (Kate Ritchie) – who moved from the city into the Summer Bay House, where they assumed the new job of running the caravan park, and eventually took in a sixth foster child, Bobby Simpson (Nicolle Dickson).