| Sally Fletcher | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Sally Fletcher | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Home and Away character | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Kate Ritchie Chloe Shelsher (flashback) |
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| Introduced by | Alan Bateman | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Duration | 1988–2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| First appearance | 17 January 1988 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last appearance | 3 April 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Classification | Former; regular | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | 9 February 1979 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Home | Phuket | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Student at Summer Bay Primary (1988–91) Student at Summer Bay High (1992–97) University student (1998–2000) Teacher (2000–) Principal of Summer Bay High (2003–04, 2007–08) Deputy principal of Summer Bay High (2004–07) Foster mother (2005–08) |
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Sally Louise Fletcher (née Copeland, previously Keating) is a fictional character from the Australian soap opera Home and Away, played by Kate Ritchie. She was the longest running original female cast member appearing from the Pilot episode on 17 January 1988 until 3 April 2008.
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Ritchie auditioned for the role of Sally in front of executive producer John Holmes in 1987.[1] Her audition scene involved strawberry jam and Sally's imaginary friend Milco.[1] Holmes revealed that Ritchie stood out among the other actresses auditioning for the role. He said "Actors always choose themselves for a role and in this case Kate Ritchie shone head and shoulders above all the rest."[1] During flashbacks to the character's childhood, Sally was played by Chloe Shelsher.[2]
Kate Ritchie said of her role, "I well and truly know the girl that is Sally Fletcher. If only I had realised earlier she wasn't my enemy, she wasn't the embarrassing little sister always trying to spoil my fun but, in fact, the best friend I ever had....In my Logie acceptance speech last year I said Home and Away had always been my constant and the same goes for Sally. We have spent the past 20 years side by side....Sally is a good person. She is the true meaning of the word good, often a quality that goes unnoticed and is most definitely underrated. Sounds crazy, but it is true."[3]
After twenty years, Ritchie departed Home and Away. Her last episode as Sally was shown on 3 April 2008. As Farah Farouque wrote, "the last episode featuring Sally is a TV moment of note."[4]
Twins Sally and Miles lived together with their alcoholic father Aaron Copeland (Timothy Walter) and mother Diana Copeland. Aaron used to beat Diana, so she left him and took Sally with her. Diana and new husband Derek Wilson had been killed in a boating accident. She went to live with her grandmother Mrs Keating, but she developed Alzheimer's Disease and could not look after her. Sally was soon fostered by Tom and Pippa Fletcher. In the confusion that was her early childhood, Sally forgot about her brother and father. However she had an imaginary friend named Milko that she had invented to help herself cope with her losses. What nobody at the time knew though was that Milko was in fact the nickname of Sally's twin. Aaron and Miles went to find Sally, but after seeing Sally was better of with the Fletcher family, they left.
Sally was one of Tom and Pippa's original foster children when they moved to Summer Bay, along with Carly Lucini, Steven Matheson, Frank Morgan, and Lynn Davenport. She would remain a mainstay in the family as others came and went around her. Of the others, she was closest to Sophie Simpson, Sam Marshall, and Shannon Reed. Her other close childhood friend was Lance Smart, who lived with his mother in a mobile home at the caravan park.
Unlike the other children, they adopt Sally. Not long after however Tom died. A year later, Pippa remarried to Michael Ross. After an uncomfortable start, Sally accepted him but it was not unknown for her to remind him she had been part of the family longer than he had. More tragedy was to follow for the family with the deaths of Sally's adoptive brother Dale, a victim of sudden infant death syndrome, and her foster sister Bobby Marshall in a boating accident.
Sally's first crush was on Damian Roberts, her foster brother, and she even went as far as to kiss him while he lay sleeping. She seemed more likely to succeed with Joe Lynch, a boy in the year above her. Although he initially seemed interested, when he found out Sally, who was taking maths classes with the year ahead, was a favourite of his mother Teresa, the school's deputy head, he took against her on principle, bullying and humiliating her at every opportunity. It took a long time for Sally to make anyone realise what was going on but finally succeeded when Donald Fisher caught Joe in the act of throwing ink into her locker (Sally eventually forgave Joe, although only after some much deserved payback).
Sally's first boyfriend was Gus Bishop, the younger brother of her teacher Donna, but his wild boy antics, including setting fire to Jack Wilson's, guitar soon proved too much for her. She later dated Nelson MacFarlane, Irene Roberts' nephew, but although they seemed happy together he was quick to cut her out when he was badly burned in a fire and had to leave town for treatment. Ironically Sally then started seeing Jack, who was partly to blame for the fire. However, when Sally wanted to let Brendan, a troubled young man who had abandoned his baby, use the caravan that Michael and Pippa had given them for privacy Jack refused. Sally was annoyed by his selfishness and broke up with him.
She encounters Moss, a man staying at the caravan park who believed she was the reincarnation of his daughter who had died seventeen years earlier, in a car accident when he had been driving. Certain evidence seemed to back up his claim: Sally remembered the song he used to sing her to her, even though she had never heard it before, and said goodbye to him in exactly the same way. When Sally and Shannon went for a drive with Moss, they found themselves reliving the accident, when another car forced them off the road. (The driver was never revealed although there is some speculation, unsupported by on screen evidence, that it was her former foster brother Dodge, who had apparently died the previous year but whose body had never been found.) This time, however, Moss made sure he was the one who died. Sally saw this as him being given a second chance to save her life.
Soon after, Michael drowned while saving Sam's life and Sally (who had once run away from home when Michael and Pippa seemed to be splitting up) lost a 'father' for the fourth time. Sal had always suffered from low self-esteem and began to feel unattractive and unliked with no close friends. Despite campaigning hard for a representative school council, she was passed over by her peers for a place on it. She made a play for Curtis Reed, who didn't even seem to notice, then let another boy, Charlie, kiss her even though she didn't like him. Finally in an attempt to cheer her up Shannon and Selina took her for a trip on a raft that Liam Tanner and Joey Rainbow had made from polystyrene. It sank and Sally was separated from the others. She was found by Jamie Grace, a backwards man who had been living as a virtual hermit since he was forced out of town for inadvertently causing a boy's death. Sally spent days effectively trapped in the woods, suffering from a fever and unable to convince Jamie of the seriousness of her condition, until she was finally rescued by Steven.
Sally began seeing Tim O'Connor and became closer to him than any other boyfriend previous, losing her virginity to him. However, he was then arrested when it was found he had been helping smuggle in illegal immigrants (his Vietnamese stepmother's family rather than for profit). Having lost the person she was closest to, Sally self-destructed, hanging out with bad boy Scott Irwin (played by Heath Ledger), sleeping with him and using Pippa's position as school secretary to steal exam papers for him. Her already strong sense of guilt was compounded when Tim returned to town, the charges having been dropped. Angry at Sally for getting them caught, Scott stole from Donald Fisher's office and planted the items in Sally's locker to frame her. However, Aaron Welles saw what he was doing and moved them to Scott's locker so he was caught and expelled. When Scott attacked Sally in the surf club for revenge, Tim came to her rescue and the pair were reconciled.
When Pippa decided to leave town to live with her new boyfriend Ian Routledge, Sally assumed she would let her and Tim move into the house. She was angry when instead she asked Travis and Rebecca Nash to move in so they could look after the other foster children, seeing it as Pippa putting the needs of those who hadn't been there as long before hers. However, she and Tim weren't to last much longer; he became insanely jealous, quizzing both her and Sam about her past boyfriends. When he saw her hugging Travis, he began spreading stories that Travis liked young girls. It was enough to break up him and Sally and see him run out of town.
With Pippa gone and Sally now at uni and not much younger than Travis and Rebecca, she found herself considered one of the adults of the house. Uncomfortable with the responsibility, she moved in with Vinnie Patterson and Jesse McGregor. She then started dating Sean Ellis, a much older man who had a daughter, Daria, who was not much younger than Sally (and dating Sam, her foster brother). Sally managed to win over Daria by sticking up for her when her mother Tanya neglected her but by then she and Sean were virtually over, since he had slept with Tanya during her brief visit. Around the same time, Sally was accidentally shot by a drifter named Murray during an armed robbery at the Diner but suffered only minor injuries.
Sally and Vinnie were astonished when they found themselves developing feelings for each other and started dating. However, although they softened each other's hard edges a bit, they were ultimately too different and split.
Sally goes to Ireland and returns with fiancé, Kieran Fletcher. She moves in with Shauna Bradley (Kylie Watson) and Leah Poulos (Ada Nicodemou). At her wedding Gypsy Nash (Kimberley Cooper) announces Kieran has been making advances towards her. Sally blames Gypsy but sees sense. Upset Sally starts suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder. Kieran's best man, Luke Harvey, arrives to help Sally through her troubles. The pair soon develop feelings for each other and become engaged. Sally abandons her plans to become an archaeologist and decides to become a teacher. Principal Judith Ackroyd (Anna Hruby) appoints Sally as Summer Bay High's new history teacher. Sally and Luke become distant due to work. Harry Reynolds (Justin Melvey) kisses her and she realises she has to call the wedding off. She starts dating colleague Brett Egan (Emmanuel Marshall), however she reports him for assaulting Noah Lawson (Beau Brady) and he leaves her. She and Gypsy become good friends.
Flynn Saunders (Martin Dingle-Wall) starts working at the Drop-In Centre, he and Sally start a romance. Sally is angry when she finds out Shauna has tried to seduce Flynn and ends her friendship with her. Whilst being hospital she discovers that she has ovarian cancer and has to have a hysterectomy. Before the operation she has some of her eggs frozen. Sally realises she cannot have children and thinks Flynn will leave her. Sally, Sophie and Blake Dean become lost in the bush after a boating accident, they are found safe. Sally moves in with Charlotte Adams, but when she dies, Sally agrees to let Flynn move in. Sally decides she wants to find a surrogate mother old school friend Tara and Angie Russell (Laurie Foell) agree to help but they both pull out. Sophie then agrees to do it. At the first ultrasound they find out she is carrying two babies with different parents: one is Sally and Flynn's, the other Blake and Sophie's. Soon after Sophie miscarries Sally's baby.
Sally becomes acting principal and Angie becomes annoyed. She plots to rid of her by triggering her OCD once more. She steps down handing the role to Paris Burnett. Sally proves that Angie tried to seduce student, Nick Smith. With Angie gone she becomes the new deputy principal. She clashes with Barry Hyde (Ivar Kants). Sally and Flynn later marry. Leah offers to be a surrogate mother for them. Sally 'turns a blind eye' to the various various problems during Leah's pregnancy, such as Flynn and Leah kissing. When she gives birth she gives her to Sally and they call her Pippa Saunders. Sally moves back into the house at the caravan park where she had grown up. Sally soon began fostering Ric Dalby (Mark Furze) and Cassie Turner (Sharni Vinson). Sally is pushed from a ladder by the "Summer Bay Stalker" and sufferes a brain haemorrhage. Whilst on a life support machine someone tamperes in an effort to kill her. Upon her release she is abducted by the culprit, Zoe McAllister (Emily Perry), she ties her up in an abandoned building leaking with gas, Sally manages to escape resulting explosion. Diesel Williams one of Sally's students, claims they are having an affair. Sally is investigated by both the police and the Department of Education. Diesel holds Sally hostage, Flynn saves her and he tells the truth. Flynn is diagnosed with skin cancer and his condition is too advanced to operate. His health slowly deteriorates and he dies. Alf Stewart moves in with her for support. Sally finds herself attracted to Brad Armstrong, she disappointed to see marrying Emily. However Emily dies from Leukemia. Emily gave her blessing to the pair to start a relationship before she died.
Sally tries to turn Rocco Cooper's life around. However, she is unsuccessful and Rocco is drawn back into his brother Johnny's gangsta world. Rocco has Johnny and his gang arrested, Johnny threatens to kill him if he does not get rid of Sally. Rocco stabs Sally and left her to die, but she survived. Johnny then has Rocco killed anyway. Sally's misery is compounded when Ric is imprisoned for Rocco's murder, although he is soon cleared. The incident brings Sally and Brad closer and he moved in. After being deputy under three principals, Sally finally becomes head again when Brad is forced to step down. Brad proposes to Sally only for her to turn him down. However, when he becomes lost at sea she changes her mind. She then regretted her choice and on their wedding day she jilts him over guilt for Flynn. Brad moves out in anger and Sally is left upset. Pippa is knocked over whilst Alf is driving. Sally cannot forgive Alf and throws him out. She later forgives him. When Sally and Brad share a kiss, Sally hopes they can reconcile and arranges some counselling. She then realises Brad wants something different and she decides to accept they are over.
Sally looks after a homeless man named Miles Copeland (Josh Quong Tart). He later reveals to her he is her long lost brother. She does not believe him at first, she thought her parents had died when she was three. He explains he is the "Milco" she used to imagine. He helps her relive some old memories and she realises he is telling the truth. They get to know each other and catch up on lost time. Johnny Cooper escapes from prison and stabs Sally, who nearly dies. She has a near death vision of her foster father Tom showed her what life will be like in Summer Bay without her, the effect of living and that of dying. Sally confided in Alf, who had undergone a similar experience. Sally resigned from the school after Martin Bartlett took her job. Sally realises that she no longer has any responsibilities in Summer Bay. She and Cassie make plans to leave the area and go travelling. Ric and Miles organise a leaving concert held at the school. Pippa, Carly and Steven return for her send off. Sally signs the house and caravan park over to Miles. She says goodbye to Alf and Miles and leaves. She leaves to join Cassie and starts a new life in Phuket.
Executive producer John Holmes said, "Sally is the most loved character on the show and the viewers feel passionately about her survival...No character over the last 19 years compares in popularity to Sally though, except maybe Ray Meagher (who plays Alf). Viewers have seen Sally grow up from an eight-year-old little girl and don't want to see her go."[5]
Character profile at the official AU Home and Away website
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