WILL ASH LEAVE THE BAY FOREVER?
Still reeling from his break-up with Tori (Penny Mcnamee), Ash (George Mason) is more confused than ever. He is struggling to decide what he wants in life.
These feelings are only made worse after a run-in with Leah (Ada Nicodemou), who gushes about her upcoming trip to Cyprus to visit Luc.
Later, Ash reveals to Justin (James Stewart) that he misses his niece and desperately wants to visit her. A worried Justin thinks that Ash is just trying to run away, but he has made up his mind and he purchases a one-way ticket. Could he be leaving the Bay for good?
Ash confronts Tori and reveals his plan, telling her that he doesn't know when he will be back.
Tori is initially shocked by the news and refuses to accept that Ash might not be coming back. Tori is the best thing that ever happened to Ash and he wants to leave on good terms. He calls her one last time, but Tori doesn’t answer.
Justin later convinces Tori to talk to Ash, but is it already too late?
It’s hard to believe it’s been almost 10 years since credits rolled for the final time on the internationally cherished Aussie outback drama Mcleod’s Daughters. Since then, life has certainly changed for one of the show’s biggest stars, Bridie Carter.
These days the actress, with her hubby of 14 years, Michael Wilson, not only call a farm near Byron Bay home, but is now a mum to sons Otis, 13, and Tobias, eight, as well as stepson James.
‘A lot has happened and they’ve all been blessings,’ says Bridie, who played the hugely popular Tess Silverman Mcleod. ‘I have a really wonderful, rich life and I’m very, very fortunate in that way. I think because an actor’s life is so transient, so forever changing, and nothing is sure, that’s been for me the steadfast in my life – the fact that my family life is so strong and steady. And ironically I live on a farm and I have Tess moments all the time!’
Best of all, Bridie wouldn’t have it any other way.
‘Living here, I feel really connected to the land, weather and the environment,’ she says of her rural home. ‘They’re all blessings that have been given to me from Mcleod’s that are echoing in my real life today. Life becomes very simple and you really appreciate every moment.’
Bridie has long made it a rule never to be away from her brood for more than a few days at a time.
‘I have my five, six night rule,’ she says. ‘When I was working in New Zealand on 800 Words, I would catch the red-eye flight home so I could be on my farm by 9.30 in the morning. I would
come home for 24 hours if that’s what it took to see my children and my husband. My family are number one.’
Meanwhile, Bridie confesses that she couldn’t be more excited by the fact that she will soon be reuniting with her former castmates, whom she truly regards as her second family. Lisa Chappell (Claire), Aaron Jeffery (Alex), Aaron’s real-life partner and former co-star Zoe Naylor (Regan) and Myles Pollard (Nick) will be with Bridie again – this time on stage for an ‘In conversation with’ at the Roxy Theatre in Leeton, NSW, on Saturday, July 21.
‘It’s really exciting,’ says Bridie. ‘ Mcleod’s Daughters bonded us in a way that no other job ever has. We all say that the show had a life unto itself – it was bigger than all of us. The fact that there are still such incredible fans out there, where box-set DVDS are still selling out, is absolutely mind-blowing to me.
‘So we’re taking ourselves to the people for this reunion and it will be emceed by Zoe. I think what people love is the dynamic of us together – they see that it’s real. We have an absolute love of each other and that has never been lost.’
Asked why she believes they formed such a strong and enduring bond, Bridie replies: ‘We all put our hearts and souls into the show. We were away from everything and everyone – we weren’t in the middle of Sydney or Melbourne filming. We were in the outback in South Australia, so everything was the show. And as much as it was a wonderful show, it was gruelling. We were filming in freezing temperatures and then we were filming in 46 degrees. There were many physical challenges, as well as the mental and emotional challenges of being away.’
Not surprisingly, too, there were some hilarious behind-thescenes moments.
‘One that the four of us always reminisce about is of Aaron falling asleep during a scene,’ she says. ‘We were all in sleeping bags, and we had a campfire in the scene. We were all sitting around talking, but when it came to Aaron’s line there was this deathly silence and then we all heard a snore! Those were the times that we had. While we worked incredibly hard, there was a lot of laughter as well.’