Summer Bay bust-up!
After months of anguish the relationship between Shane (Dieter Brummer) and Angel (Melissa George) finally hits the rocks — and the catalyst for the bust up is Jack (Daniel Amalm). Jack has a teenage crush on Angel, so Shane, seething with jealousy, sets him up for a dream date. “Shane sets Jack up, writing a letter from Angel saying she’s fallen for him and inviting Jack to meet her at the bedroom window,” said George. Any chance of romance is dashed when Jack is sent to the wrong bedroom window and almost sharing the bed with an irate Mr Fisher (Norman Coburn). When Angel finds out Shane is the culprit then that’s when they break up — the culmination of months of drama including the pressures of living together, Angel’s personal ambitions, and Shane’s lack thereof, and the frustration of loving a child that cannot be a part of their lives.

“This is Hollywood at its dirtiest”
Just after Cameron Daddo scored a role in the upcoming US series Models Inc, his wife Alison Brahe has turned down a role in another series. “I definitely got the job, but I don’t think I’m going to take it because they are tying me up for four years,” Brahe told TV Week. The series, a television adaptation of Valley Of The Dolls, is to be produced for cable TV. Brahe had auditioned for the role of Jennifer, a bitchy woman high on drugs, but instead got the role of Anne, a naive mid-western girl who comes to LA and gets taken over by LA bigwigs. The change in role led to producers seeking to include a nudity clause in Brahe’s contract — and stretching the three months of production out to four years. Her manager Hank McCann (who also manages Daddo) described it as ‘Hollywood at its dirtiest’.

Goodbye Paradise!
Paradise Beach star Tiffany Lamb (pictured) is to leave the Nine Network series, but not without some steamy romance on her way out. Lamb’s character Lisa Barsby falls for an “arrogant young stud”, ex con Angel Bannister (Lochie Daddo). The smooth talking Angel is also to prove irresistible to a number of women around Paradise Beach and is set to change some of their lives forever. Daddo, recently seen as a gay man in an episode of GP, will be on the Gold Coast for four weeks of filming. “It’s a role I can really get my teeth into and it should be good to play,” he told TV Week. Lamb, who has been with Paradise Beach since its inception, is returning to Melbourne. She admits working on the series has been difficult given its struggling ratings and harsh critics. “You get to a point when you’re in a show that you’ve been in it for a year you start to feel it’s long enough,” she said.

Briefly…

• Actor and Play School presenter Simon Burke is headed for UK stardom, with a role in the West End production of The Phantom Of The Opera and with his name being linked to a number of major television and stage projects. “The next few months will really tell whether I’m going to make it there in a big way, or not, I suppose,” he told TV Week after taping what could be his last series of Play School. But despite his career success in Australia, with credits including The Devil’s Playground and Brides Of Christ, he’s discovered one stumbling block to breaking into the UK. “I didn’t have the help of being a soapie star! When I first joined Phantom, these opera singers, people who have sung at Covent Garden, were asking me, ‘Have you been in Neighbours?’, ‘Have you been in Home And Away?’. I’d say no, and they’d say, ‘Why not?’. They didn’t want to know me because I hadn’t been in a soap. That’s kind of cute in a way, and I can understand it.”
• It looks like Derryn Hinch, axed from Network Ten late last year, may have had the last laugh. Not only has he scored the hosting gig on Nine‘s Midday but it looks like his Ten successor Alan Jones is on the way out. Poor ratings have led to speculation that Jones will be paid out of his contract and Alan Jones Live to be finished by the end of June.
• It seems that to be a guest on Burke’s Backyard you don’t actually need a backyard. Supermodel Elle Macpherson, back in Australia to promote the launch of the film Sirens, has had to ‘borrow’ the leafy grounds surrounding the Norman Lindsay gallery and museum in the Blue Mountains for her guest spot. The location was the setting for Sirens, where Macpherson played the part of Sheila, one of Lindsay’s uninhibited models who featured in his erotic canvasses.
• Molly Meldrum has spoken to TV Week about smashing 20 bones in his foot when he fell off a podium while being a guest DJ at a Sydney nightclub. “It felt like a Violet Crumble being crushed,” he said. “There was something slimy like soft drink on the podium and I slipped and fell. I took the whole fall on my foot and shoulder.” He is now facing extensive surgery to reconstruct his left foot. The nightclub incident came not long after Meldrum survived a New York mugging!

Lawrie Masterson: The View From Here

“Even after all this time, it still amazes me how quickly the vultures come in to land after the TV Week Logie Awards each year. We accept that type of thing as part of life, just as we accept any fair criticism of the awards themselves, and even those who get a few good-natured laughs at our expense. What shot up my nostrils most, actually, was a release from the Seven Network‘s publicity department in Melbourne, four days after the Logies. Headed “Laughs over Logies? It has to be Seven!”, the release trumpeted the success of Seven’s telecast of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival charity benefit night and compared it with “the homogenised Logie Awards ceremony”. The comedy night was a great success, granted, but now some publicist at the Seven Network has suddenly become a critic? And now Seven’s policy is to turn on the Logie Awards, which they had spent the preceding days milking relentlessly as they plugged the network’s winners? Love us or hate us — and either is just dandy with me — but surely, Seven Network, you can’t expect to do both and maintain your credibility with anyone.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, May 7-13):
Saturday: The NBL Mitsubishi Challenge — Melbourne Tigers versus Brisbane Bullets — is given a late-night delayed telecast (12am, Ten).

Sunday: Six hours of live AFL coverage starts with Sydney Swans versus St Kilda (1pm, Seven) from Sydney, then West Coast Eagles versus Carlton,  from Subiaco Oval. Then there are late night highlights of the Geelong versus Collingwood match at the MCG (10.50pm, Seven). Jimeon‘s self-titled comedy show reaches its series final. Sunday night movies are Regarding Henry (Seven), The Rookie (Nine) and Sleeping With The Enemy (repeat, Ten).

Monday: Comedians Nick Giannopoulos and Mandy Salomon and comedy writer John Vorhaus are guests on Mary Kostakidis‘ The Talk Show (7.30pm, SBS). Commercial TV current affairs is the topic of the new comedy series Frontline (8pm, ABC) from the D Generation — featuring Rob Sitch as Mike Moore (pictured), an ex-ABC journalist now hosting a mildly successful current affairs program, and Jane Kennedy as ambitious reporter Brooke Vandenberg.

Tuesday: In Blue Heelers (7.30pm, Seven), the return of a convicted child killer to Mount Thomas could have grave consequences for the town. Jim Middleton and Paul Lyneham hosts one-hour coverage of the Federal Budget (7.30pm, ABC). Sigrid Thornton guest stars in GP (8.30pm, ABC) as Renee Jackson, a friend of Martin’s (Damian Rice) who comes to the surgery for treatment for schizophrenia, but Dr Ian Browning (Tony Llewellyn-Jones) finds that Renee has been misdiagnosed and is displaying the classic symptoms of manic depression.

Wednesday: In A Country Practice (7.30pm, Ten), Claire (Claudia Black) becomes involved with a young, single father who is trying to look after his baby. When the baby’s teenage mother returns, Claire’s attempts at marriage counselling stir up trouble. In Hey Dad! (8pm, Seven), Greg (Mark Owen-Taylor) stuns everyone when he brings home a brand new sports car.

Thursday: Getaway reporter Tina Dalton presents new series Deadly Australians (7.30pm, Nine), a look at Australia’s natural environment and the deadly creatures and plants that inhabit it. In Beyond 2000 (7.30pm, Ten), Iain Finlay reports on Britain’s most sophisticated urban closed circuit television security system, and Dr Caroline West investigates RAPEL, a safe and effective method of preventing sexual assault by using a small plastic vial.

Friday: In Neighbours (6.30pm, Ten), Kris (John Higginson) continues to romantically pursue Gaby (Rachel Blakely) but she wants to keep their relationship strictly business. In Home And Away (7pm, Seven), Tugs (Tristan Bancks) feelings for Beth (Toni Pearen) could have disastrous results for both of them. Friday night football includes delayed coverage of the Richmond versus Carlton game (9.30pm, Seven).

Source: TV Week (Melbourne edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide. 7 May 1994. Southdown Press.