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Martijn Kamphuis meets Sarah Kemp

Sarah Kemp
Martijn Kamphuis lives in The Netherlands and watched Sons and Daughters on Dutch TV and Belgian TV, where its run finished in 1989. He has been to Australia twice, and on the second occasion he lived in Sydney for a year, where he studied Advanced English at college and was amazed to find that his English teacher was none other than Sarah Kemp, who appeared in Sons and Daughters as Charlie Bartlett! When Martijn was looking for someone to interview for the college newspaper, popular opinion suggested he should speak to Sarah Kemp - so he did! Martijn has been kind enough to provide a transcript of the interview, which appears below.

INTERVIEW By Martijn from Advanced English

I interviewed the GE4 teacher Sarah Kemp. She teaches General English at Level 1. The interview took place in the common area on Level 4.

Sarah, how long have you been working as a teacher at SITEC?
I've been working as a teacher for 4 months.

What have you done before working here at TAFE?
I was an actress. Most of the time I acted on stage, and sometimes I did some TV work.

Who did you play in Sons and Daughters, which made you internationally famous?
I played Charlie Bartlett. She was very original! Charlie was a neighbour of the show's rich family, the Hamiltons. She was also the best friend of the show's evil woman, Patricia Hamilton. (Interviewer's Note: Charlie always had to listen to Patricia's evil plans!)

What was your favourite moment on Sons and Daughters?
Charlie had her own pet, a cute small white puppy dog, which she often carried in her arm! Some bad people on the show used my dog to search for a dead body as an unpopular woman was killed off. Another fine moment was Charlie marrying a very young handsome man in a beautiful back garden - that took place in the show's final episode.

Do you often get recognised [on streets] as Charlie from Sons and Daughters?
Yes, I often get recognised as Charlie! (Interviewer's Note: Sons and Daughters finished its run nearly 10 years ago!)

If somebody offered you a role on a another famous TV-series, would you say 'yes'?
Yes!


Martijn adds that, after the official interview had finished, he and Sarah Kemp started discussing the recasting of Patricia as Alison Carr, and Sarah Kemp recalled that, when she had her first scene with Belinda Giblin who played Alison, "She was smaller than Rowena [Wallace] was, and those eyes: way much bigger than Rowena's!"

Martijn states that he was also lucky enough to meet Anne Haddy (Rosie Andrews) and Ian Rawlings (Wayne Hamilton) while he was in Australia, but he sums up by commenting that, although Sarah Kemp walks like Charlie, she certainly has more brains than Charlie appeared to have!

 

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