Return to Eden
Encyclopedia
Return to Eden is an Australian television drama series starring Rebecca Gilling
, James Reyne
, Wendy Hughes
and James Smillie
. It began as a three-part mini-series, shown on Network Ten
in 1983. Gilling and Smillie would reprise their roles for a 22-part weekly series screened in 1986.
pro Greg Marsden (James Reyne), she believes that she has found true love. However, after the wedding, Greg promptly begins an affair with Stephanie’s best friend Jilly Stewart (Wendy Hughes). Greg then plots to get rid of Stephanie and lay claim to her fortune. Whilst on their honeymoon, Greg pushes Stephanie into a crocodile
-infested river, and watches as she is apparently mauled to death. However, Stephanie miraculously survives and is later found washed up on a river bank by hermit Dave Welles (Bill Kerr). Dave nurses Stephanie back to health, but her face and body are horrifically scarred from the encounter with the crocodile. Dave gives her a fortune in precious jewels that he mined locally, so that she can use them to try to move on with her life. Stephanie sells the jewels and goes to an island clinic where she meets Dr. Dan Marshall (James Smillie), a brilliant plastic surgeon
who uses his talents to repair her face and body. After the bandages are removed, Stephanie has been transformed into a beautiful woman. Using the alias Tara Welles, given to her by Dave, Stephanie returns to Sydney
and becomes a glamorous supermodel
and successful fashion house owner. Using her new identity and fortune, she plots her revenge on Greg and Jilly and aims to take back what is rightfully hers, particularly her beloved family home Eden, a vast estate in the Northern Territory.
. Stephanie's children, Sarah and Dennis, both teenagers in the mini-series, are now adults and work at Stephanie's companies. The opening episode featured Jilly's release from prison and ongoing storylines dealt with her bitter rivalry with Stephanie. The most prominent storyline was Stephanie's continued attempts to keep control of the family company, Harper Mining, which ruthless businessman Jake Sanders was trying to take away from her. Rebecca Gilling and James Smillie reprised their roles from the original mini-series, while Peta Toppano
took over the role of Jilly, playing her as a manic, petulant, scheming "superbitch", much in the style of Dynasty
's Alexis. In the series' first episode, it was revealed that Jilly was actually Stephanie's half-sister, whilst Jake Sanders (Daniel Abineri) was revealed to be the brother of the late Greg Marsden, out to avenge his brother's death.
The show's ratings had not been high enough to justify a renewal so this cliffhanger was never initially resolved for Australian audiences. The actors playing Stephanie, Jilly and Dennis were later brought back to film a hasty five-minute conclusion to the various unresolved story threads that was added to the end of the final episode. Dennis' abductor, revealed as his half-brother and Stephanie's long-lost son Chris (Graham Harvey), quickly abandoned his plan to hold Dennis to ransom when he learned Stephanie had been arrested for Jake's murder. Chris had in fact been following Stephanie so had witnessed the shooting incident from the bedroom balcony, and what's more had photographs that proved what had really happened. He quickly cleared Stephanie who was released while Jilly was arrested for murder. This new ending was never seen in the original Australian run and only included in the version of the last episode that was sold internationally. Network 10 repeated the series twice in the 1990s and at least one screening contained the revised ending.
In the UK
, Return To Eden was screened on ITV
and was a huge ratings hit during the summer of 1986. The 1986 UK transmission also ended with the original cliffhanger, as did the 1989 repeat screening. However, the newer ending was screened many years later when the series was repeated on UK satellite television, primarily the now defunct Granada Plus, which showed it twice. It was shown again in the UK in 2010 by the satellite channel CBS Drama
, which showed both the original 1983 mini-series and immediately followed this with the 1986 sequel series which included the revised ending.
, Dynasty
, and Falcon Crest
, with the requisite ostentatious fashions, boardroom struggles, bedroom romps and outrageous storylines. It is fair to argue that Return To Eden successfully delivered all the stock soap pleasures with the Australian setting giving the show a certain ironic distance.
in Australia. Kaleidoscope Film has released the original 1983 mini-series as two "Region 0" discs. Unfortunately, even though the packaging states "Digitally Enhanced", the picture quality of the discs actually leaves a lot to be desired and certainly is reproduced from many generations of copies down from the master. Bonus extras on the discs include interviews with Rebecca Gilling
and James Reyne
in 2001.
The 1986 series was released as a six disc set in Australia by MRA Entertainment. Although the picture quality is generally better than the mini-series, there is some tape distortion and interference on some of the episodes during the series. The episodes end on the newer 'zoom-in' Worldvision logo (present after the company was sold to Spelling Entertainment in 1988) except for the final episode which uses the original 'scroll' logo and is obviously the originally aired episode. The DVD boxset does not include the revised ending, leaving the last episode with the unresolved original cliffhanger ending.
The 9 DVD boxset released in The Netherlands does contain the revised ending.
. It was directed and produced by Rakesh Roshan.
album for the series, featuring music composed by Brian May was released on vinyl during the show's original airing. It was reissued on compact disc
on the Buy Soundtrax label in 2010.
The CD tracklisting is as follows:
1. Main Titles/Return To Eden
2. The Return To Eden
3. Fire & Fight
4. Problem For Dan and Steff
5. Lord Of All
6. Big Business
7. Jilly's Crack-Up
8. Tara's Love Theme
9. Harper's Mansion
10. A Man Not A Boy
11. Confrontation
12. Croc Attack
13. Steff Meets Jake
14. Corporate Espionage
15. Greg Returns
16. Scheming Jilly
17. Angelo's Theme
18. Night Interludes
19. Closing Titles
Notes about the CD: Track 1 is actually the feature-length opening theme of Return To Eden the series, used in the first episode. Although Track 19 is labelled "Closing Titles", it is actually the series regular opening theme music.
Rebecca Gilling
Rebecca Gilling is an Australian actress. Her first acting role was in Stone but who came to prominence as the "bad girl" flight attendant Diana Moore in the feature film version of soap opera Number 96 , in which she had several nude scenes...
, James Reyne
James Reyne
James Reyne is an Australian rock musician and singer/songwriter both as a member of the iconic 1980s band Australian Crawl and solo work.. He is a successful singer/ songwriter and prolific artist...
, Wendy Hughes
Wendy Hughes
-Career:Hughes began her career on television in the early 1970s with appearances in Homicide, Number 96, Matlock Police and in 1976, ABC Mini-Series, Power Without Glory...
and James Smillie
James Smillie
James Smillie is a Scottish-born actor, known for his role in both British and Australian stage and television productions. Smillie emigrated from the Glasgow tenements, carving out a career in Australia before returning to the United Kingdom to appear in stage roles in London's West End. On...
. It began as a three-part mini-series, shown on Network Ten
Network Ten
Network Ten , is one of Australia's three major commercial television networks. Owned-and-operated stations can be found in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to cover most of the country...
in 1983. Gilling and Smillie would reprise their roles for a 22-part weekly series screened in 1986.
Mini-series synopsis
Stephanie Harper (Rebecca Gilling) is a dull, frumpy "plain jane" heiress. When she marries a handsome but unscrupulous younger man, tennisTennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
pro Greg Marsden (James Reyne), she believes that she has found true love. However, after the wedding, Greg promptly begins an affair with Stephanie’s best friend Jilly Stewart (Wendy Hughes). Greg then plots to get rid of Stephanie and lay claim to her fortune. Whilst on their honeymoon, Greg pushes Stephanie into a crocodile
Crocodile
A crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia: i.e...
-infested river, and watches as she is apparently mauled to death. However, Stephanie miraculously survives and is later found washed up on a river bank by hermit Dave Welles (Bill Kerr). Dave nurses Stephanie back to health, but her face and body are horrifically scarred from the encounter with the crocodile. Dave gives her a fortune in precious jewels that he mined locally, so that she can use them to try to move on with her life. Stephanie sells the jewels and goes to an island clinic where she meets Dr. Dan Marshall (James Smillie), a brilliant plastic surgeon
Plastic surgery
Plastic surgery is a medical specialty concerned with the correction or restoration of form and function. Though cosmetic or aesthetic surgery is the best-known kind of plastic surgery, most plastic surgery is not cosmetic: plastic surgery includes many types of reconstructive surgery, hand...
who uses his talents to repair her face and body. After the bandages are removed, Stephanie has been transformed into a beautiful woman. Using the alias Tara Welles, given to her by Dave, Stephanie returns to Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
and becomes a glamorous supermodel
Supermodel
The term supermodel refers to a highly-paid fashion model who usually has a worldwide reputation and often a background in haute couture and commercial modeling. The term became prominent in the popular culture of the 1980s. Supermodels usually work for top fashion designers and labels...
and successful fashion house owner. Using her new identity and fortune, she plots her revenge on Greg and Jilly and aims to take back what is rightfully hers, particularly her beloved family home Eden, a vast estate in the Northern Territory.
Television series
Such was the enormous success of the mini-series that Return To Eden returned as a regular weekly series in 1986. The events of the series took place seven years after the end of the mini-series, with Stephanie now married to Dan Marshall and living at "New Eden", a mansion in SydneySydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
. Stephanie's children, Sarah and Dennis, both teenagers in the mini-series, are now adults and work at Stephanie's companies. The opening episode featured Jilly's release from prison and ongoing storylines dealt with her bitter rivalry with Stephanie. The most prominent storyline was Stephanie's continued attempts to keep control of the family company, Harper Mining, which ruthless businessman Jake Sanders was trying to take away from her. Rebecca Gilling and James Smillie reprised their roles from the original mini-series, while Peta Toppano
Peta Toppano
Peta Toppano is an actress who found success in Australian television. She is best known for her roles in popular television series such as The Young Doctors, Prisoner, and Home & Away, as well as Return to Eden in which she played a "superbitch".-Early life:Toppano was born in Finsbury Park,...
took over the role of Jilly, playing her as a manic, petulant, scheming "superbitch", much in the style of Dynasty
Dynasty (TV series)
Dynasty is an American prime time television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 12, 1981 to May 11, 1989. It was created by Richard & Esther Shapiro and produced by Aaron Spelling, and revolved around the Carringtons, a wealthy oil family living in Denver, Colorado...
's Alexis. In the series' first episode, it was revealed that Jilly was actually Stephanie's half-sister, whilst Jake Sanders (Daniel Abineri) was revealed to be the brother of the late Greg Marsden, out to avenge his brother's death.
Series ending
The final episode screened in Australia concluded with a cliffhanger ending in anticipation of a second season. Closing scenes featured Dennis being knocked unconscious and kidnapped by an unseen assailant. Meanwhile, upstairs at Stephanie's mansion while a party went on downstairs, Jilly pulled a gun on Stephanie in yet another attempt to murder her. Jake attempted to wrest the gun from Jilly but the gun went off in the struggle, fatally wounding him and splattering Stephanie with his blood. Stephanie then grabbed the gun away from Jilly as Jake careened into the hallway and down the stairs where he dies in full view of the shocked party guests. A horrified Stephanie, with blood on her face and clothes and still holding the gun in her hand, descends the stairs after Jake. Jilly then appears and tells everyone that she just saw Stephanie shoot Jake.The show's ratings had not been high enough to justify a renewal so this cliffhanger was never initially resolved for Australian audiences. The actors playing Stephanie, Jilly and Dennis were later brought back to film a hasty five-minute conclusion to the various unresolved story threads that was added to the end of the final episode. Dennis' abductor, revealed as his half-brother and Stephanie's long-lost son Chris (Graham Harvey), quickly abandoned his plan to hold Dennis to ransom when he learned Stephanie had been arrested for Jake's murder. Chris had in fact been following Stephanie so had witnessed the shooting incident from the bedroom balcony, and what's more had photographs that proved what had really happened. He quickly cleared Stephanie who was released while Jilly was arrested for murder. This new ending was never seen in the original Australian run and only included in the version of the last episode that was sold internationally. Network 10 repeated the series twice in the 1990s and at least one screening contained the revised ending.
In the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Return To Eden was screened on ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
and was a huge ratings hit during the summer of 1986. The 1986 UK transmission also ended with the original cliffhanger, as did the 1989 repeat screening. However, the newer ending was screened many years later when the series was repeated on UK satellite television, primarily the now defunct Granada Plus, which showed it twice. It was shown again in the UK in 2010 by the satellite channel CBS Drama
CBS Drama
CBS Drama is a television channel in the United Kingdom and Ireland - home of 'modern US TV classics'.On 14 September 2009, it was revealed that the international arm of CBS, CBS Studios International, struck a joint venture deal with Chellomedia to launch six CBS-branded channels in the UK during...
, which showed both the original 1983 mini-series and immediately followed this with the 1986 sequel series which included the revised ending.
Analysis
The 1986 series of Return To Eden was clearly intended as an Australian answer to the glamorous American "supersoaps" DallasDallas (TV series)
Dallas is an American serial drama/prime time soap opera that revolves around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching industries. Throughout the series, Larry Hagman stars as greedy, scheming oil baron J. R. Ewing...
, Dynasty
Dynasty (TV series)
Dynasty is an American prime time television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 12, 1981 to May 11, 1989. It was created by Richard & Esther Shapiro and produced by Aaron Spelling, and revolved around the Carringtons, a wealthy oil family living in Denver, Colorado...
, and Falcon Crest
Falcon Crest
Falcon Crest is an American primetime television soap opera which aired on the CBS network for nine seasons, from December 4, 1981 to May 17, 1990. A total of 227 episodes were produced....
, with the requisite ostentatious fashions, boardroom struggles, bedroom romps and outrageous storylines. It is fair to argue that Return To Eden successfully delivered all the stock soap pleasures with the Australian setting giving the show a certain ironic distance.
DVD release
Both the original mini-series and the follow-up weekly series have been made available on DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
in Australia. Kaleidoscope Film has released the original 1983 mini-series as two "Region 0" discs. Unfortunately, even though the packaging states "Digitally Enhanced", the picture quality of the discs actually leaves a lot to be desired and certainly is reproduced from many generations of copies down from the master. Bonus extras on the discs include interviews with Rebecca Gilling
Rebecca Gilling
Rebecca Gilling is an Australian actress. Her first acting role was in Stone but who came to prominence as the "bad girl" flight attendant Diana Moore in the feature film version of soap opera Number 96 , in which she had several nude scenes...
and James Reyne
James Reyne
James Reyne is an Australian rock musician and singer/songwriter both as a member of the iconic 1980s band Australian Crawl and solo work.. He is a successful singer/ songwriter and prolific artist...
in 2001.
The 1986 series was released as a six disc set in Australia by MRA Entertainment. Although the picture quality is generally better than the mini-series, there is some tape distortion and interference on some of the episodes during the series. The episodes end on the newer 'zoom-in' Worldvision logo (present after the company was sold to Spelling Entertainment in 1988) except for the final episode which uses the original 'scroll' logo and is obviously the originally aired episode. The DVD boxset does not include the revised ending, leaving the last episode with the unresolved original cliffhanger ending.
The 9 DVD boxset released in The Netherlands does contain the revised ending.
Khoon Bhari Maang
Return To Eden was remade in India as the 1988 film Khoon Bhari MaangKhoon Bhari Maang
Khoon Bhari Maang is an Indian Bollywood movie released on 12 August 1988, directed and produced by Rakesh Roshan. It is a remake of the Australian mini-series Return to Eden , and is about a wealthy widow who is almost killed by her lover and sets out for revenge.-Synopsis:Aarti Verma is a widow...
. It was directed and produced by Rakesh Roshan.
Soundtrack
A soundtrackSoundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
album for the series, featuring music composed by Brian May was released on vinyl during the show's original airing. It was reissued on compact disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
on the Buy Soundtrax label in 2010.
The CD tracklisting is as follows:
1. Main Titles/Return To Eden
2. The Return To Eden
3. Fire & Fight
4. Problem For Dan and Steff
5. Lord Of All
6. Big Business
7. Jilly's Crack-Up
8. Tara's Love Theme
9. Harper's Mansion
10. A Man Not A Boy
11. Confrontation
12. Croc Attack
13. Steff Meets Jake
14. Corporate Espionage
15. Greg Returns
16. Scheming Jilly
17. Angelo's Theme
18. Night Interludes
19. Closing Titles
Notes about the CD: Track 1 is actually the feature-length opening theme of Return To Eden the series, used in the first episode. Although Track 19 is labelled "Closing Titles", it is actually the series regular opening theme music.
Principals
- Stephanie Harper - (Rebecca GillingRebecca GillingRebecca Gilling is an Australian actress. Her first acting role was in Stone but who came to prominence as the "bad girl" flight attendant Diana Moore in the feature film version of soap opera Number 96 , in which she had several nude scenes...
) - Dan Marshall - (James SmillieJames SmillieJames Smillie is a Scottish-born actor, known for his role in both British and Australian stage and television productions. Smillie emigrated from the Glasgow tenements, carving out a career in Australia before returning to the United Kingdom to appear in stage roles in London's West End. On...
) - Bill McMaster - (Peter Gwynne)
- Greg Marsden - (James ReyneJames ReyneJames Reyne is an Australian rock musician and singer/songwriter both as a member of the iconic 1980s band Australian Crawl and solo work.. He is a successful singer/ songwriter and prolific artist...
) (miniseries) - Jilly Stewart - (Wendy HughesWendy Hughes-Career:Hughes began her career on television in the early 1970s with appearances in Homicide, Number 96, Matlock Police and in 1976, ABC Mini-Series, Power Without Glory...
) (miniseries) - Dennis Harper - (Jayson Duncan) (miniseries)
- Sarah Harper - (Nicole Pyner) (miniseries)
- Jilly Stewart - (Peta ToppanoPeta ToppanoPeta Toppano is an actress who found success in Australian television. She is best known for her roles in popular television series such as The Young Doctors, Prisoner, and Home & Away, as well as Return to Eden in which she played a "superbitch".-Early life:Toppano was born in Finsbury Park,...
) (weekly series) - Jake Sanders - (Daniel AbineriDaniel AbineriDaniel Abineri is an English actor, songwriter and playwright, famous for writing the book, music and lyrics for the controversial musical Bad Boy Johnny and the Prophets of Doom....
) (weekly series) - Cassie Jones - (Megan Williams) (weekly series)
- Dennis Harper - (Peter CousensPeter CousensPeter Cousens is an Australian actor, born in Tamworth NSW.He attended The Armidale School in Armidale and then Gordonstoun School, Scotland. He then spent a year reading Arts at St Paul's College, Sydney University before studying at the National Institute of Dramatic Art , graduating in...
) (weekly series) - Sarah Harper - (Nicki PaullNicki PaullNicola Paull is an Australian actress. Though predominantly known for her work on television, she has also appeared in films and on stage, as well as performing as a voice-over artist and narrator....
) (weekly series) - Tom McMaster - (Warren Blondell) (weekly series)
- Angelo Vitale - (Angelo D'Angelo) (weekly series)
With
- Jessica Stewart - (Saskia Post)
- Johnno Ryan - (Keith Aberdein)
- Dave Welles - (Bill KerrBill KerrWilliam 'Bill' Kerr is an Australian film and television actor. He was born into a performing arts family in Cape Town, South Africa, but grew up in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia....
) - Philip Stewart - (John LeeJohn Lee (actor)John Lee was an Australian actor.He is remembered for his roles on television, including Andrew Reynolds in Prisoner and Philip Stewart in Return to Eden....
) - Sheik Ahmal - (Robin RamsayRobin Ramsay (actor)Robin Ramsay is an Australian actor of television, film and stage.Ramsay is the grandson of Kiwi shoe polishfounder William Ramsay and father of Robina Ramsay, an internationally ranked dressage rider, and Dr Tamasin Ramsay....
) - Olive Down - (Suzanne Roylance)
- Joanna Randall - (Olivia HamnettOlivia HamnettOlivia Hamnett was a Manchester-born actress who found success after emigrating to Australia in the early 1970s. In the UK Hamnett had guest roles in such television programs as Department S and Randall and Hopkirk in 1969.She continued to act after moving to Australia, appearing in films and in...
) - Anton Pascal - (Rod Anderson)
- Rena McMaster - (Wendy PlayfairWendy PlayfairWendy Playfair is an Australian actress, best known for her role as Minnie Donovan in the television series Prisoner. She was educated at the prestigious Ascham School in Sydney....
) - Princess Talitha - (Tamasin Ramsay)