Our Aussie TV expert Mac is well known to The Soap Show visitors for his regular column Mac on the Box. In this occasional series, Mac answers some of the questions that our visitors and listeners have put to him over the past few months.
First up this time is one from Felicia who asks:
Do you have any information on defunct 80's soapie, Richmond Hill? Felicia explains that she loved the programme and would like to know whether any distributors have any plans to release the series on DVD.Richmond Hill was a soap that lasted for 92 episodes in 1988 and starred a number of familiar faces including Maggie Kirkpatrick as Ivy Hackett, Gwen Plumb as Mum Foote, Felicity Soper as Susan Miller and Paula Duncan as Janet Bryant. One thing that fans of this show might not be aware of is that the character of Jill Warner was played by Dina Panozzo, the sister of one of The Soap Show’s favourite guests
Oriana Panozzo (who played Susan in Sons & Daughters)!
A number of its cast are still regular faces on television today including Emily Symons who, after appearing here as Anne Costello, went on to find success in both Home & Away and Emmerdale. Amanda Muggleton, who appeared as Connie Ryan, returns to TV soon in a newly recorded episode of City Homicide which will debut in Australia later this year.
Richmond Hill is one of the few soaps that was cancelled unexpectedly at the peak of its popularity, surprising fans all over the world. Shown on Network Ten, it was axed to make way for E Street, an untried new series that struggled for a while to build up a following that was as big as that of its predecessor. In relation to a DVD release, it seems unlikely at the moment but given the popularity of other recent Aussie soap releases, never say never!
Next are three questions from Johanna who writes all the way from Sweden:
I have heard somewhere that Sue Devine, who played Tracey Morris in Prisoner, had appeared in The Sullivans but I can't find any information to confirm it. Do you know if that's true? If she was, do you know her character’s name?Firstly, I can confirm that Sue Devine played the role of Vonnie, best friend to Kitty Sullivan. She appeared in about fifty episodes in which she was a nurse who got engaged to naval seaman
Peter Robinson (but cheated on him with an American serviceman. Vonnie's behaviour came between her and Kitty (who was good friends with Peter) and their friendship ended.
In your Sullivans podcast you mention Olivia Hamnett is dead. Do you know any more about the circumstances? She was one of my favourite actresses.
Olivia died of a brain tumour a few years ago but I do not have any further details. She is survived by her husband Peter Regan, an original cast member of The Box, with whom she emigrated to Australia in the early 1970s.
What is Jodie Yemm (Norman Yemm’s daughter) doing now?Jodie Yemm has now retired from acting.
Jane asked what Danny Roberts from Sons & Daughters has been up to since leaving his role as Andy Green.
After starring in the daytime soap The Power, The Passion in 1989, Danny dropped out of the acting business for a few years and then returned to it in the mid 1990s. Now going under the name of Daniel, he has guested in a number of shows over the last ten years including Blue Heelers, Water Rats, Fire, Stingers, Big Sky and Home and Away (where he played Ailsa’s brother in 1997). At the time that he filmed his guest role in Blue Heelers he was romantically involved with Tasma Walton, who played Dash in the series and who his character holds hostage for much of the episode! His film roles have included Blackwater Trail and a very small part in Mission Impossible II.
Melanie was wondering if I could find some information on the actor Paul Keane who played Des Clarke in the early days of Neighbours. She really liked his character and found there wasn’t much information about him on the Neighbours website.
After Neighbours, Paul retired from acting and reportedly experienced issues surrounding drug addiction. He was unwilling to return to the show in 2003 to film scenes in which Jamie Clarke returned to Ramsay Street and it seems unlikely that he will return to acting in the future as he was never totally at ease with the media glare that such a career brought into his life. Something else you may not be aware of is that before Neighbours, Paul made a fleeting appearance in the pilot episode of the short-lived 1985 Grundy soap Possession alongside his Neighbours co-star Anne Charleston.
Dip asked what Mark Conroy (Glen) and Haydon Samuels (Tick) from Sons & Daughters are doing now.
After a short guest role on Home & Away in 1989, Mark Conroy retired from acting.Haydon Samuels became one of the few to make the successful transition from child actor to adult actor. After Sons & Daughters he appeared in the childrens series Hills End, then featured in a variety of guest roles in leading Australian dramas such as Police Rescue and Wildside. It may be interesting to fans of Haydon to realise that he actually became an actor after winning a successful media hunt across the continent for a young boy who was up to the challenge of the starring role in I Live With Me Dad, a film released by Crawfords Productions in 1985. Though not available on DVD, video copies of this film still appear for sale online from time to time and are well worth keeping an eye out for – Haydon fans will definitely not be disappointed!
Leanne has been frustrated by the appearance of a new character in Emmerdale as she is sure that the actor concerned used to be in Neighbours. She thinks he used to play the character of Mark Gottlieb and wants clarification.
Unfortunately you are only half right on that one Leanne! The actor in question is Richard Grieve who used to play Cheryl Stark’s nephew Sam Kratz in Neighbours. He then moved on to play Dr. Lachlan Fraser in Home & Away for a year. Having now relocated to the UK, he appears regularly in Emmerdale as Jonny Foster (minus the hair dye he used in Neighbours to keep his locks jet black!)
Now for one that I haven’t been able to answer…Jamie asked about the whereabouts of Kaye Chadwick who played Prisoner heavy Bev Cavelli in many episodes without ever managing to speak more than a line or two!
All I can say is that Kaye has continued to keep as low a profile after Prisoner as she did during it with the result that I have been unable to establish any information – sorry! I don’t ever like to admit TOTAL defeat in these matters so I will continue to make enquiries and report back if I uncover any relevant information. I’ve still a few other sources to try on this one…
