kate ritchie

Kate Ritchie’s Retirement From Acting Possibly Not Necessarily A ‘Retirement’

9:11AM Clem Bastow | 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. Yes, you read that right – “Grey’s Anatomy meets Secret Life Of Us“. 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. More »

It’s Gold Logie Fever!

1:51PM Jess McGuire | 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. More »

Kate Ritchie Announces Departure From Summer Bay

9:18AM Jess McGuire | 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! More »

Insider Footage From The TV Week Logie Awards

2:21PM Jess McGuire | 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. More »