STEPHEN'S BACK IN TOP SOAPIE
Heart-throb actor returns to Sons and Daughters fold

Stephen Comey is coming home.

The handsome 20 year-old actor is making a welcome return to Sons and Daughters, the series which made him a household name.

Stephen - who won a TV WEEK Logie for Most Popular New Talent of 1982 for his portrayal of teenage dad Kevin Palmer in the top-rating Seven Network series - will be back in the Sons and Daughters studios at the end of April.

"It's like coming home," he told TV WEEK.

"When I moved from Melbourne to Sydney for the show I was 17 and the only people I knew and saw a lot of were the people in the cast.

"So, obviously, it's really like going back to the family."

An original cast member, Stephen quit the series late last year.

It was a mutual decision between Grundys, the show's producer, and himself.

The young actor had been unhappy about the way his character was heading. As he told TV WEEK at the time: "It felt to me that Kevin was getting a bit stale and he needed more scope."

But a few weeks ago the producers approached Stephen and asked him to return to the show for one month.

"It should be good, I'm looking forward to it. I realise I'm going back to play the same character but there have been sufficient changes to Kevin," Stephen said.

"Also the storylines for Kevin are very good."

When viewers last saw Kevin he was off to London to start a new job. His wife, Lynn (Antonia Murphy), and their baby, Davey, remained behind.

He re-appears to visit his young family. "My return is a tidying-up of some storylines," Stephen explained.

Since he left the series in November, Stephen has not been idle.

A giant Christmas cracker he made for Sydney's Pier One tourist spot won him a place in the Guinness Book Of World Records and, after gaining his underwater diver's licence, he flirted with danger among the sharks at Manly's Marineland.

While no other acting jobs have been forthcoming, Stephen has managed to secure his own nationally-syndicated radio show.

He will host a showbusiness program, a series of 90-second radio spots, which has been sold to several radio stations around Australia.

"I'm going to Melbourne soon to talk to a few stations and we've done a lot more research and had a lot more response to the show," Stephen said.

That promising radio commitment is one reason Stephen is happy his Sons and Daughters return is only for one month.

"The radio show is taking up quite a bit of my time and the moment and also, I think if I stayed much longer Kevin would again become stale," he explained.

"It's nice that there is a beginning and end and I'm looking forward to working with Leila Hayes, Tom Richards and Antonia Murphy again - it's working with good friends."

Sons and Daughters producer John Holmes said: "We're happy to have Stephen back. We have a nice story for his character, Kevin, and he was available to come back.

"Once a cast member leaves the show it's not the end of the road - we never lose a good character. Two examples are Doug and Rosie Palmer (Syd Conabere and Anne Haddy) - we will see them from time to time."

There will be several comings and goings among the cast of characters during the next couple of months.

Cast members Peter Phelps (who plays John Palmer), Ilona Rodgers (Margaret Dunne), Michael Long (Stephen Morrell) and Andrew Clarke (Terry Hansen) have left the show, while original cast member Ally Fowler (Angela Keegan) and Mark Ferguson (Paul Sheppard) join Stephen in returning to the series.

 

By: Stephen Cook
Source: TV Week
Date: 7 April 1984