Home and Away star James Stewart teases dramatic UK finale

 "This really felt very special."

Home and Away star James Stewart has shared more details of the dramatic UK finale, which sees the life of his character Justin Morgan hang in the balance.

The long-running soap is about to take a break on Channel 5, but viewers will be left with a major cliffhanger as Justin suffers a terrible accident in an abandoned warehouse.

This week's high-stakes storyline sees Justin and his partner Leah Patterson left to die in an empty and remote building after being kidnapped by the sinister Vita Nova cult.

Justin and Leah believed they'd won a luxury holiday in a competition, but it was all a scam for Vita Nova to ambush them on their journey out of Summer Bay.

 James explained: "I didn't know it was the UK finale at the time, but I did hear it sometime after we shot it.

"I knew it was going to be a special episode, because it's rare they get two actors to do one whole storyline. They bought new cameras and really trusted us with a fair bit of the budget!

"Usually that's not the case. Usually we've got to spread it around and there's 25 other actors. But this really felt very special. It felt like we were shooting a little bit of a film, to be honest.

"Ada [Nicodemou, who plays Leah] and I did a lot of preparation. We did a lot more homework than we'd usually do. Then sometime later they said this would be the cliffhanger for the United Kingdom and we were chuffed. It's absolutely worthy of a cliffhanger.

"It's right to give the UK a cliffhanger because I think you guys are our second biggest audience. We probably wouldn't be here without the UK – and you guys love the show."

One of the biggest scenes this week sees Justin climb to the top of a ladder and begin scaling the rafters of the abandoned factory.

Justin then suffers a nasty and life-threatening fall, prompting Leah to propose to him as she desperately tries to encourage him to keep fighting.

Discussing filming those scenes, James laughed: "For insurance purposes, there is the easy version of the stunt and the hard version of the stunt!

We got these incredible stuntmen in from the Gold Coast, whose livelihoods depend on being really good at it, so they did the hard version. That was a five-metre fall onto your back.

That doesn't sound big, but when you're hanging upside down looking down five metres and you've got to land on your back, you panic.

"For me, they built a scaffolding shelf, so I only had to fall two metres. It was so, so fun."

He continued: "Justin is lying there with a punctured lung and he's starting to drown internally. I know he's scared, but he's just trying to survive.

"When I looked at Ada's face, I saw fear from Leah but also love, panic, hope, history and a best friend. Then out of that, Leah says, 'Justin will you marry me?'

"It's such a melting pot of awesome emotions because they're high-stakes scenes. As much as the stunts were fun, I have to say the moment when Leah proposes was one of my most favourite times on Home and Away because it was done just right."

Home and Away currently airs weekdays at 1pm on Channel 5 and 6pm on 5STAR. First-look screenings air at 6.30pm on 5STAR and the show also streams on My5.