Good bye Kate Ritchie (Sally Fletcher)

My thoughts:  What a sad sad day for australian television. Although I have moved away from watching Home Away due to the downward spiral of the storylines and plots, I have always enjoyed watching Kate Ritchie on the show. She is a great role model for young woman in Australia. I hope she goes on to greater things, she deserves it.

 

Michael Idato
December 14, 2007

FOR the actress Kate Ritchie today is her first day of unemployment in 20 years. The Home and Away star, who has matured from child actress to leading lady over two decades, filmed her final scenes as Summer Bay's Sally Fletcher last night.

It is a technicality - Ritchie has signed a contract to work for the radio station Nova next year - but the impact is no less significant. "It's a new beginning for me. I don't know myself without Sally Fletcher," she said.

Since announcing her intention to quit the top-rating soap in September, Ritchie said preparations for her departure had almost overwhelmed her. "I've been trying to gather my thoughts and reflect on a few things. I feel such an intense, deep sadness.

"It's so hard to explain because on the other hand there is this overwhelming sense of excitement as well. A lot of people are joking about whether I will enjoy retirement, but I really feel like it's the beginning of something."

Ritchie will start the first day of the rest of her life with her regular workout at the gym, followed by a day of running pre-Christmas errands.

"It's a good time of the year to be leaving, because life doesn't stop. I'm [going to be] hosting Carols in the Domain, and I have a lot to get done, which is a really good thing."

The show's producers paid tribute to her on the set last night, and tonight she will be the guest of honour at a farewell party thrown by the show's cast and crew. Tomorrow night she will have a small dinner with her family.

"I didn't make the decision to leave overnight. It was something that has been, if I want to be honest, floating around in my head for years, so to finally say the words out loud and to say I was leaving was almost a relief," Ritchie said.

"On days like today I worry about getting through the day, and saying goodbye, but there is never a moment that I worry I have made the wrong decision."

The final episode for 2007, which aired last week, featured the arrival of a stranger, played by Josh Quong Tart, the word "Milco" (the name of Sally's childhood imaginary friend) written in the sand and an on-air promotion campaign which promises to solve "a 20-year-old mystery".

For Ritchie, the link between her first and final storylines in the show is serendipitous. "When I first sat down with the producers , I was really pleased, not only with the way I leave the show, but all the stories which lead up to the last days of Sally Fletcher in Summer Bay," she said.

"Revisiting the past has given me an opportunity, as an actress, to tie up a few loose ends and say goodbye in a funny sort of way."

Ritchie's final episode will air next April.