Return to Eden
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- This article is about the television show. For the game, see Return to Eden (game).
| Return To Eden | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Genre | Drama |
| Running time | |
| Creator(s) | Michael Laurence |
| Starring | Rebecca Gilling James Smillie Wendy Hughes James Reyne Peta Toppano Daniel Abineri Megan Williams Peter Cousens |
| Country of origin | Australia |
| Original channel | Ten Network |
| Original run | 1983–1986 |
| No. of episodes | 25 |
| IMDb profile | |
Return to Eden was an Australian miniseries starring Rebecca Gilling, James Reyne (who was also a singer with pop band Australian Crawl), Wendy Hughes and James Smillie. It aired on Network Ten in 1983.
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
Stephanie Harper (Gilling), a dull, Plain Jane heiress, gets married to a handsome but evil tennis pro, Greg Marsden (Reyne), who promptly begins an affair with Stephanie’s best friend Jilly Stewart (Hughes). Together they plot to murder Stephanie and lay claim to her fortune. Greg pushes Stephanie into a crocodile-infested river, and watches as she is apparently mauled to death. But Stephanie survives and is found washed up on a beach. She meets Dr. Dan Marshall (Smillie), a brilliant plastic surgeon who uses his talents to repair her face and body. After the bandages are removed, Stephanie has been transformed into a beautiful woman. Using the alias Tara Welles, Stephanie returns to Sydney and becomes a glamorous supermodel, whilst intending to exact vengeance on Greg and Jilly, and take back what is rightfully hers, particularly her beloved house “Eden”. Hence the title – Return To Eden.
[edit] TV Series
Such was the enormous success of the original mini-series, Return To Eden returned as on on-going regular series in 1986. The series premiered 11 February 1986 and had a run of 22 one-hour episodes. The events of the series took place seven years after the mini-series. The opening episode featured Jilly's release from prison and on-going storylines dealt with her and Stephanie's on-going enmity, and Stephanie's continued attempts to keep control of the family company, Harper Mining Ltd. Rebecca Gilling and James Smillie returned to reprise their roles from the original mini-series, whilst Peta Toppano took over the role of Jilly, playing her as a manic, petulant, scheming superbitch. In the series it was revealed that Jilly was actually Stephanie's half-sister, whilst her partner in her villainous schemes, Jake Sanders, was ultimately revealed to be the brother of the late Greg Marsden.
[edit] Starring Cast
- Stephanie Harper - (Rebecca Gilling)
- Dr. Dan Marshall - (James Smillie)
- Jilly Stewart - (Peta Toppano)
- Jake Sanders - (Daniel Abineri)
- Cassie Jones - (Megan Williams)
- Dennis Harper - (Peter Cousens)
- Sarah Harper - (Nicki Paull)
- Tom McMaster - (Warren Blondell)
- Angelo Vitale - (Angelo D'Angelo)
- Bill McMaster - (Peter Gwynne)
[edit] With
- Jessica Stewart - (Saskia Post)
- Johnno Ryan - (Keith Aberdein)
- Dave Welles - (Bill Kerr)
- Philip Stewart - (John Lee)
- Sheik Ahmal - (Robin Ramsay)
- Olive Down - (Suzanne Roylance)
- Joanna Randall - (Olivia Hamnett)
- Rena McMaster - (Wendy Playfair)
- Princess Talitha - (Tamasin Ramsay)
- Chris Harper - (Graham Harvey)
[edit] Series ending
The final episode screened in Australia ended on a cliffhanger in anticipation of a second season. Closing scenes featured Dennis being knocked unconscious by an unseen assailant. Meanwhile, upstairs at Stephanie's mansion while a party went on down stairs, Jilly pulled a gun on Stephanie in yet another attempt to murder her. As Jake attempted to wrest the gun from Jilly it fired, fatally wounding Jake, and he careened into the hallway and down the stairs to die in view of the shocked party guests. Jilly slipped the gun into Stephanie's hands and as they ran out to check on Jake she announced to the assembled guests that Stephanie had shot Jake.
Unfortunately the ratings had not proved high enough to justify a renewal so this cliffhanger was never resolved for Australian audiences. The actors playing Stephanie, Jilly and Dennis were later brought back to film a hasty conclusion to the various unresolved story threads. Dennis' abductor, revealed as his half-brother and Stephanie's long-lost son Chris quickly abandoned his plan to hold Dennis to ransom when he learned Stephanie had been arrested for Jake's murder. Chris had in fact been following Stephanie so had witnessed the shooting incident, and what's more had photographs that proved what had happened. He quickly cleared Stephanie who was released while Jilly was arrested for murder. This new ending was never seen in Australia and only included in the version of the last episode that was sold internationally.
[edit] Analysis
The 1986 series of Return To Eden was obviously intended as an Antipodean answer to the glamorous "supersoaps" Dallas and Dynasty , with the requisite ostentatious fashions, boardroom struggles, bedroom romps and utterly outrageous storylines. At one point in the series Stephanie has to fake her own death yet again, this time coming back disguised as an Arab princess! It is fair to argue that Return To Eden successfully delivered all the stock soap pleasures with the Australian setting giving the show a certain ironic distance.
[edit] DVD Release
Both the series have been made available on DVD in Australia.
Kaleidoscope Film has released the original 1983 mini-series as two "Region 0" discs. Unfortunately, even though the packaging states "Digitally Enhanced", the picture quality of the discs leaves a lot to be desired and certainly is reproduced from many generations of copies down from the master. Bonus extras on the discs include interviews with Rebecca Gilling and James Reyne in 2001.
The 1986 series was released as a six disc set by MRA Entertainment. Marked as “Region 4” on the packaging and discs, it is actually encoded as "Region 0" and consequently will play on any PAL DVD player. Although the picture quality is generally better than the mini-series, various episodes seem to have been taken from different sources (as the different end boards show) and there is some tape distortion on some of the series. Disappointingly the set does not include the extra ending to tie up the loose ends – leaving the last episode with a cliff-hanger as originally shot.
