Sally's fella eyes return to Summer Bay
Thursday Mar 16 13:17 AEDT
Sally Fletcher's first "real" boyfriend on the Home and Away soap is scrubbing up for a Summer Bay comeback.
Nick Hardcastle, who played Fletcher's love interest Tim O'Connell nearly a decade ago, hopes to reprise his character on the show.
And in the wake of Fletcher losing her husband Flynn Saunders to cancer recently, Hardcastle believes it may be very timely.
"At a party recently I was speaking with the show's script producer and he was keen on the idea," said the 29-year-old.
"With Sally's husband dead, I think it's about time Tim got off the bus at Yabbie Creek."
Hardcastle was on the show for a year from 1997 where he starred opposite Kate Ritchie, who has played Sally Fletcher for more than 18 years.
With a possible return to the show, Hardcastle also wants to dispel the myth that Hollywood spunk Heath Ledger was the one who officially "made Sally a woman".
Ledger played Fletcher's "one day" love interest Scott Irwin in 1997, but Hardcastle reveals it was he who slept with Fletcher for the first time.
"I'll admit I wasn't the first person to kiss her, but Tim was the character to share in Sally's first sexual encounter," laughed Hardcastle.
"Even John Holmes (the show's executive producer) has said 'Ok Nick it was you, but it's so much sexier to say it was Heath Ledger'.
"And Kate loves the idea that it was Heath, but now I can set the record straight. There are only so many pieces of pop culture that you can lay claim to and I am going to lay claim to this one."
Hardcastle, who has presented ABC children's program Creature Features for the past four years, says 2006 is shaping up well.
The actor/presenter says he's reading two feature film scripts and is in talks to star in another.
He's also releasing his first solo single, 4 Letter Word on March 20.
And if a major TV part doesn't come his way by July, Hardcastle will head overseas to promote himself as a singer.
"If by the end of this financial year I don't have a major role in a television series, I will go overseas," he said.
"But, the script producer of Home and Away is really into the idea of my return and I think when you look at the industry in Australia and the culture of television, a show like that is the best opportunity I could have at the moment."