Love in the time of Covid

Romantic challenges for Home And Away

After failed romances with four New Zealand lads, Home And Way’s Dr Tori Morgan seems to have met her match in a quintessential Aussie bloke.

“This is the first time I haven’t had a Kiwi love interest in a long time,” says Penny McNamee, who has played the unlucky-in-love medico for more than four years.

Instead, Tori is getting all hot and steamy with neurologist Dr Christian Green (Ditch Davey) – the man she brought to the bay to save the life of her brother Justin (James Stewart) – and the actor has strong hopes her character will find lasting happiness this time.

Shortly after joining Home And Away in 2016, Tori started a relationship with fellow doctor Nate (Kyle Pryor) and, when that relationship ended, she went on to attract the eye of Alf Stewart’s wayward son Duncan (Benedict Wall). Then came a fling with former boyfriend Riley (Ryan O’Kane) and, finally, there was a tempestuous fling with Ash (George Mason).

However, the lack of a partner didn’t stop the committed doctor from becoming a mother.

She convinced good mate Robbo (Jake Ryan) to act as a sperm donor, but that ended in tragedy when he died – only weeks after the birth of baby Grace – at the beginning of this year.

In February, McNamee revealed she had told the drama’s writers Tori needed to be “making jokes and making out” and it seems they took her at her word.

Even the actor, who has been married to her high school sweetheart Matt Tooker for more than a decade, is surprised at just how hot and heavy the romance is between the two doctors.

“I think the writers were feeling like Tori had had a long time without a love interest, so they

had better make it worth her while,” McNamee says, laughing.

However, while the romance appears spontaneous on screen, she says there was a lot of planning that went on before the scenes could be filmed.

Not only had mother-of-two McNamee and Davey never met before, they had to get up close and personal in the middle of a pandemic.

“We had to get to know each other fairly quickly so we could trust each other, feel comfortable with each other because we had to do quite a few intimate scenes early on,” she says.

“Luckily for me he’s a really beautiful man. He’s very respectful and very professional and we have a laugh so it was a great start.”

Filming stopped on Home And Way for a month in March after Sydney went into lockdown to stop the spread of Covid-19.

When production did resume, there were strict hygiene and social-distancing conditions in place to keep the cast and crew safe.

“On set our crew and makeup department wear masks. We all get our temperatures checked when we arrive in the studio or on location, we have to sanitise our hands and, if there is any food provided, it’s all individually packaged. If anyone does have a cold or temperature then they must stay home. It’s all very Covid safe,” McNamee says.

With that in mind, the romantic scenes between McNamee and Davey were delayed to give the actors time to consider any concerns.

“We had to make the decision that we were happy to go ahead before the producers scheduled those kind of scenes, so both Ditch and I had private conversations about it to decide how we felt,” says the actor, who has two small children, Jack, five, and Neve, nearly 20 months.

“Both of us have families and had really just been locked down with them. We weren’t seeing other people, we weren’t going out, so we both felt safe and confident that the other partner in the on-screen relationship hadn’t been exposed to many other people.

“But there’s a lot of trust involved. You’re spending a lot of time with each other under quite stressful situations, so for it to be a really good working relationship there does have to be a lot of trust and a lot of open communication as well.”

McNamee hopes the on-screen relationship will turn out just as happily as her real-life one.

“I met Matt in high school and we got married when we were 26. We’ve been married 11 years this year so my romantic life is much more settled and content than poor Tori’s,” she says.

“Tori’s a real romantic and I don’t want that to be crushed. She’s not had the best year but maybe things are about to change now.”

“We had to make the decision that we were happy to go ahead before the producers scheduled those kind of scenes.” – Penny McNamee