Return To Eden

Return To Eden was first shown in 1983 and starred Rebecca Gilling as Stephanie Harper, James Reyne as Greg Marsden and Wendy Hughes as Jilly Stewart. It was a three-part mini-series shown first on Sky, before later being shown on ITV.

I don't remember seeing the original mini-series, as I'd have been 14 at the time! I do remember watching the follow-up series of Return To Eden, produced in 1985, shown here in 1986, when ITV re-showed it as part of its Night Time service. This again starred Rebecca Gilling, but Peta Toppano replaced Wendy Hughes as Jilly and Daniel Abineri played Jake Sanders, the brother of Greg Marsden.

I loved the show, I was heavily into Dallas at that time, I still am, and this show seemed to be an aussie attempt at a Dallas-style show, with all the glamour, drama and boardroom shenanigans. It was also terribly OTT, with characters going into hysterics and coming back from the dead! What impressed me though was the originality of some of the storylines. Jilly being revealed as Stephanie's half-sister! Tom McMaster being Stephanie's son! And then nearly getting killed. Worse was Sarah Harper, Stephanie's daughter falling in love with Tom only to fall pregnant when it was discovered he was her brother! The plots were great, and the best of course was everyone thinking Stephanie had committed suicide after finding Jilly in bed with Dan, Stephanie's husband - the surgeon from the mini-series who had re-constructed her face using plastic surgery, but she wasn't dead at all, she was only biding her time to strike at Jake and Jilly who had hijacked her company: Harper Mining.

I also remember watching it again on Granada Plus on Sky in the late 90s. I could go on, but I better not!! A brilliant series!