HEARTBREAK HIGH… Like you’ve never seen it!
Original cast member Salvatore Coco recalls his fondest memories and opens up about his feeling towards the new series
It was a like a joyful family reunion when Sal made a comeback to Home And Away earlier this year, reuniting with original Heartbreak High stars Ada Nicodemou and Danny Raco, almost 30 years after they all became stars in the hit series.
“We did reminisce,” Sal tells Woman’s Day. “It’s interesting how you haven’t worked together for a long time, and then it’s just like it’s yesterday. It was great doing the first scene with Ada. It really was like we’d just come off the set of Heartbreak High.”
Back then Sal was playing Con Bordino, a wisecracking student with a mullet, who had feelings for fellow student Katerina Ioannou, played by a 16-year-old Ada in her first ever TV role. Danny joined in the fun a few years later, playing student Marco Vialli.
“They didn’t hook up, but there was romantic tension,” laughs Sal, 47, who made a reappearance back in Summer Bay in February, playing Dimitri Poulos, the older brother of Ada’s long-time character Leah Patterson.
FULL CIRCLE MOMENT
To complete the Heartbreak High reunion, Danny, 42, who played Leah’s and Dimitri’s brother Alex Poulos in Home And Away 20 years ago, is now on the other side of the camera and directed Sal and Ada in their Home And Away reunion episodes.
“It’s a really strange, but good set of circumstances,” Sal says.
Just like Danny, Sal has also expanded his CV, and on top of regular appearances on a slew of top TV shows over the years, he now also works as a wedding emcee. Home And Away star
Ada, 45, is now also a mum to nine-year-old Johnas.
FAMILY TIES
“I’m living the dream. I’m happy. I work in the wedding industry. I’m in the film industry. I have pretty much everything I need. I’m just missing kids and a partner,” beams Sal, who cheekily admits he may have hooked up with some Heartbreak High fans over the years.
Sal says the bond between the then young and relatively unknown actors, including Alex Dimitriades, Corey Page, Abi Tucker, Scott Major, Emma Roche and Lara Cox remains strong. “We always try to have a lunch or a dinner together. It created a family, and I think in another 20 years we’ll still be in contact. We’ll never lose touch with each other.”
The coming-of-age series ran for seven seasons from 1994, notched up 210 episodes and was a hit in 30 countries around the world, with fans connecting with the teachers and students at fictional Hartley High as they tackled issues like drugs, homelessness and racism.
Its gritty storylines made it one of the most progressive TV shows on air at the time, and the new Netflix reboot is promising to be an even more progressive and inclusive show, with gay, bisexual and nonbinary characters.
Sal admits he’s worried that the magic of the original series may be lost in this “woke” re-imagining of Heartbreak High. “The original series was such a big hit because it was real and it resonated with a whole generation,” he says.
‘We still chat and connect, it created family’
“I’m not saying the woke or binary movements aren’t real, because they are, but let’s hope it isn’t boring and just all about the pronouns.
“If it is, it’s only going to appeal to a particular audience and I don’t think that’s what Heartbreak High is all about.
“It was a series that appealed to a diverse audience and that meant everybody, not just a specific culture identity. It was for everybody, it appealed to everybody. And if they can do that, then they’ve got a hit.”