Why Kate Ritchie is returning to Channel 7's Home and Away

WHEN Channel 7 announced Kate Ritchie was returning to Home and Away, you could hear the critics sharpening their knives.

kate ritchie

WHEN Channel 7 announced Kate Ritchie was returning to Home and Away, you could hear the critics sharpening their knives.

The dual Gold Logie award winner left the Channel 7 soap in 2008 after 20 years playing Sally Fletcher.

Ritchie felt it was time to move on to something fresh.

Unfortunately, her TV work over the past five years has been a mixed bag.

Ritchie shone in the small role as Judi Kane, the wife of slain 1970s criminal Les Kane, in Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities.

Far less successful was Ritchie's first leading role - Det Senior Constable Samantha Cooper in Cops LAC. Nine's police drama was widely considered one of the biggest bombs of 2010.

Last year, Ritchie hosted Ten reality series Don't Tell the Bride and scored another clanger.

The 34-year-old knows critics will see her return to Summer Bay as a retreat - a backward step, a return to past glories after a string of duds. Guess what? Ritchie doesn't care.

Home and Away series producer Lucy Addario initiated discussions about Ritchie's return, something that caught the actor by surprise.

"It wasn't anything I had ever entertained," Ritchie says.

"I thought about it overnight. I guess I started thinking, why would I go back? Of course, I also thought, what will everybody think about me going back to a job I've done before?

"Then I started to think, I'm five years down the track of trying other things and becoming a different person professionally and personally, and what if I go back and it ruins some kind of memory I have of the show.

"It could be like revisiting an old boyfriend. You think it is a good idea until you're there.

"Then I realised I was turning myself inside out about what is actually quite a simple decision.

"The questions should really be, why not go back and do a job that you love, and, why not have a few months at work feeling invigorated.

"Now, in hindsight, it was all so silly. I've had a great time. All of my fears were ridiculous. Why do I even have to explain it?"

When viewers last saw Sally Fletcher, she was heading to Phuket with daughter Pippa.

Sally had resigned as principal of Summer Bay High and was looking forward to time overseas.

Sally returns to Summer Bay under the guise of a holiday but there is a deeper reason for her reappearance. She is overwhelmed by events in her life. She is searching for answers in the place where she feels most safe.

"Moving on from Home and Away was hard," Ritchie says. "I think I missed the character more than anything.

"I know it sounds crazy but I missed playing her because she was like my friend. Anything that I had ever achieved in my life was in some way directly connected to her.

"Everywhere I've ever been, people know Sally as well. Then all of a sudden you stop filming and it is like she is dead.

"She was my mate. She was always by my side and when things weren't fabulous personally I could go to work and take refuge in her.

"When you've got to be at Palm Beach (Home and Away location) at 5am you can retreat into that - Sally's having a great day - and forget about things."

Ritchie's personal life has gone through a massive change in the past five years, too.

In September 2010, Ritchie married former St George Illawarra Dragons player Stuart Webb. The couple tied the knot in a small ceremony - about 50 family and guests - at the historic Quamby Estate near Launceston.

"Stuart was one of the reasons I went back (to Home and Away)," Ritchie says. "He said why are you thinking about this (so much). Didn't you really like it? So what's the problem?

"He thinks I can do anything. If only I had that confidence in myself. We've been each other's cheer squad.

"Stuart has been going through quite a big career change, too, over the last few years. He is learning to be a chef in one of the restaurants here (in Sydney). He's had such a big career change.

"Over the past five years I've learned that I'm OK without Home and Away. I didn't know life without it so it was really important (to leave).

"Those fears of stepping into other environments and the worrying about what other people would think have all dissipated."

With her latest stint on Home and Away under her belt (the storyline will play out over the next few months) Ritchie is looking to the future.

She has seen former Home and Away stars including Chris Hemsworth and Isla Fisher leave to succeed in Hollywood.

America isn't on the cards. Instead, she would love to be part of a large TV show ensemble cast again. She says that she was never comfortable with the pressure of being the star of Cops LAC.

"I'd love to do something long running," Ritchie says. "It (filming Home and Away) is a hard slog but I feel as if I function better when I'm working at that pace.

"Mind you, if someone called me up and said Nicole Kidman needed a shorter, slightly rounder sister (in a movie) I'm never going to say no.

"I'm proud of them (Hemsworth and Fisher). I've never had a feeling of, oh, if only - that could have been me.

"A lot of people say Home and Away is a good training ground or stepping stone. Yes, it is but it is also a very good career.

"To continue to talk about it as a training ground or a stepping stone inadvertently insults the likes of Ray Meagher and Georgie Parker and Marcus Graham - and me.''

Home And Away, Channel 7, weeknights, 7pm