When Kate "Sally Fletcher" Ritchie left the cast of Home & Away after what seemed like five million years (approximately), it looked as though that was it for the former child actress; radio was her new frontier and all the Summer Bay fans best suck it up!

Well, perhaps said suckage can be put on hold - Ritchie is rumoured to be returning to the world of television, to appear in the remake of The Young Doctors, which has perplexingly dropped the "The":

Described as "Grey's Anatomy meets The Secret Life of Us", the series is currently in development with production company Fremantle Media and Channel 9, but is not likely to be seen on screens until next year.

While an official approach is yet to have been made to Ritchie's agent, both Fremantle and Nine are eager to swoop on the viewer favourite after she ended her 20-year association with Seven soap Home and Away.

"The program is still in very early days of scripting and character development, but we think Kate is fantastic and would love to have her on the network at some stage," a Nine spokeswoman told Confidential.

You know, I can - for some reason - handle the whole remake fever when it comes to multiplex fare, but there's something about television remakes that is scraping the bottom of the "scraping the bottom of the barrel" barrel.

But if this is the new trend then I'd like to suggest that someone remakes Chances.

If you're one of those fans who just can't wait to see what your favourite Australian star wears to the Logies, you'll likely be excited by this news: about 90% of the Logies frocks - which are borrowed for the night - are on their way back to the designers.

However, those wishing to snap one up and wring out the sweat of their idol may be disappointed: not all the dresses are going back on sale. But that won't stop them from sniffing under the arms looking!

A few will be kept in designers' stores for customers to try on, but a handful - including Lauren and Patti Newton's frocks - will hit clearance stores at a discount.

Fans of Sibylla Budd can walk into designer Gwendolynne Burkin's Fitzroy store to try on her near-$4000 dress.

But it's not for sale, and the best her fans can do is order one the same, as a few did for her flowing, heavily beaded oyster-coloured dress by Gwendolynne for last year's AFI Awards.

The $3000-$4000 Mariana Hardwick dresses worn by Lauren and Patti Newton will be part of a Logies gowns display in the designer's Sydney Rd, Brunswick, store by the end of the week.

Forget this year's frocks, though - I'm still trying to find out where I can get my hands on Sandra Sully's Technicolour dream dress from last year. And to think those scurrilous rumourmongers say she likes a bong or four...

Not only has Chris Lilley managed to hit the ARIA charts with his 'Naughty Girl' masterpiece - sure, down to #12 this week but we still suspect he's got more of a chart future than the poor Young Divas these days - but he's now one of the contenders for the coveted little gold man at the Australian showbiz glittering night of nights, the Logies!

It's a battle of the golden girls and some of the small screen's favourite hosts for this year's Gold Logie, Australian television's biggest award.

ABC Television's Andrew Denton, Chris Lilley and Adam Hills, and Ten's Rove McManus will vie against former winners Kate Ritchie and Lisa McCune for this year's Gold Logie for Australia's most popular television personality.

Neighbours star Natalie Blair and All Saints veteran John Howard round out the nominees.

Will he win it? The competition is indeed tough. The lovely Adam Hills is certainly adored by Spicks and Specks fans (and lord knows, the sell out live show the Spicks team toured around the country not that long ago proved there are huuuuuuuge numbers of folk who go weak at the knees for Adam's affable charms) but are Spicks enthusiasts TV Week readers? Kate Ritchie has obviously won the nation's heart after clocking in over 20 years at Home & Away, and she's also now a radio star, so she's a strong contender. But Rove McManus is an almost - almost - unstoppable Gold Logie winning force most years... although Lisa McCune may "bring it" once more. The John Howard it's okay to like strikes us as John Wood v2.o (which means we don't think he's in with a chance), and we'd like to think Natalie Blair is an outsider for this award, but you never know, people are strange - especially those who vote for the Logies.

In short - we'd like to see Chris Lilley win, we'd be pleasantly surprised if Adam Hills pulled it off, we'd expect to see Kate Ritchie, Rove McManus or Lisa McCune delivering a thank you speech, and we'd fall over in shock if John Howard, Andrew Denton or Natalie Blair sauntered off stage clutching the Gold.

Two and a half months after originally announcing she was leaving the television show which has employed her since she was but a pup, Kate Ritchie has filmed her final scenes as Home & Away's Sally Fletcher. Sure, she'll soon be joining the breakfast team of Merrick and Rosso on Nova (one of the many new breakfast radio combinations we'll be keeping our eye ear on - AND JUDGING HARSHLY IF NEED BE - during 2008), but the fact remains... however will Home & Away survive without Sally? Huh? Why not get rid of Alf Stewart too, and totally fuck up our life?!

(cries hysterically)

(composes self)

Michael Idato isn't fearing change and sooking like a child, so let's hear from him now, shall we?

Since announcing her intention to quit the top-rating soap in September, Ritchie said preparations for her departure had almost overwhelmed her. "I've been trying to gather my thoughts and reflect on a few things. I feel such an intense, deep sadness.

"It's so hard to explain because on the other hand there is this overwhelming sense of excitement as well. A lot of people are joking about whether I will enjoy retirement, but I really feel like it's the beginning of something."

But here's something which has us unreasonably excited about the 2008 series of Home & Away.

The final episode for 2007, which aired last week, featured the arrival of a stranger, played by Josh Quong Tart, the word "Milco" (the name of Sally's childhood imaginary friend) written in the sand and an on-air promotion campaign which promises to solve "a 20-year-old mystery".

MILCO! MOTHERFUCKING MILCO!

Your move, Neighbours.

After announcing that this season of Home & Away would be her last after approximately 78 years on the popular soap, it's safe to say most media observers wondered what the bloody hell Kate Ritchie would be doing with her "retirement" time.

Well, it turns out her not-very-well-kept secret is that she's heading to radio - and not just the midnight shift or presenting the Saturday Night CD Jukebox, but morning.

The Home & Away hottie was groomed for the new gig earlier this year, switching from The Akmal Show to team with Merrick Watts and Tim Ross for an all-star assault on the number one FM spot.

Ritchie, who will be pitched as Nova's answer to 2Day's Jackie O, will up the oestrogen levels set to drop when newsreader Sami Lukis leaves for Brisbane next week.

Lukis is understood to have given her replacement her blessing, telling one Confidential source "she works really well with the boys and will be a great part of the team''.

Anyway, this is quite a coup for Ritchie, given that most breakfast radio presenters are paid largely in unused $100 notes and gold bullion.

But the question we're sure everyone is asking now is: how soon before Alf Stewart joins the airwaves? The answer is of course, "Not soon enough."

We knew it had to happen sooner or later - Kate Ritchie has revealed she will be leaving Home and Away at the end of the year.

After playing Sally Fletcher for 20 years on Channel Seven's hit serial drama, Kate Ritchie will farewell Home And Away in mid-December when she films her final scene.

Kate has been a permanent cast member since its pilot aired 20 years ago, in 1987.

"I have been blessed with a job that I have loved for the past 20 years and I wouldn't take back one moment of my time on Home And Away but I feel that it is time for change." said Kate today.

Ritchie managed to achieve the dream of every Australian actor by winning the TV Week Gold Logie earlier this year for her role on the program, and we must commend her for her bravery in leaving the soap at the height of her fame rather than run the risk of being typecast as Sally Fletcher for the rest of her life, a disastrous turn of events which would have undoubtedly occured had she chosen to pursue more than twenty years with the program.

We congratulate Kate Ritchie on a sterling career so far, and look forward to seeing where life takes her (the UK panto scene, the pop charts, a second shot at grainy video infamy, etc)

After the jump, some classic Sally moments from history!

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Boom, as they say, and tish.

(We'll get our coats).

Turns out Defamer Australia had an operative working at the TV Week Logie Awards, gathering secret footage via the magic of a mobile phone video recorder, AND WE DIDN'T EVEN REALISE.

Well, to be fair, we never asked Red Symons to collect such blurry nuggets of behind-the-scenes gold for us, but thank god he did. Well done, sir.

Featuring cameo appearances from Larry Emdur, Grant Denyer, Jennifer Hawkins, and Kate Ceberano's cans, we couldn't be more pleased with the clip, as it shows us - in a total Being John Malkovich sort of way - just what it's like to experience the wonder of the TV Week Logie Awards from the perspective of a guest.

How on earth do we begin wrapping up an awards ceremony as ridiculously extravagant and gripping as The Logies? With great haste, little introduction, and by using an excessive amount of bold capitalised font to appropriately convey our over-excited perspective on the evening. Let's roll.

BIGGEST SHOCK OF THE EVENING! When the award for Most Outstanding Children's TV Program went to the Umbilical Brothers, we were gutted to discover the two are not in fact brothers, and it's not as if it's a case that they both coincidentally share the same surname of Umbilical. They're totally unrelated, and their names are Shane Dundas and David Collins. We feel like we've been lied to all our lives. On the upside, their onstage antics (peace signs behind the head of their producer, the odd popping sound) proved once and for all their special brand of comedy will never age, but rather stay as fresh and relevant as ever. Ahem.

More after the jump...

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