Return to Eden The Complete Series - The Memorable TV DVD Review

Distributor: MRA Entertainment
Certificate: M | Region 4 | 1032 minutes Minutes
Available to buy

Release Date: 3 April 2006
Extras: No

ANYONE IN IT WE KNOW?

Rebecca Gilling, Peta Toppano,

WHAT’S IT ABOUT THEN?

Over the years the 22 part series of Return to Eden has generated a huge amount of correspondence with our visitors, many people remembered this camp classic from 1986 with a great deal of affection, now at last, thanks to MRA, we can sample the delights

of the show once more. Eden had originally appeared in 1983 as a lavish 6 hour mini series filmed in various glossy locales around Sydney and the Barrier Reef; Rebecca Gilling headlined as Stephanie Harper who gets caught up with evil tennis pro Greg Marsden (played by singer James Reyne), his plot to murder Stephanie to get his hands on her money go awry when she manages to escape from the crocodile infested swamp he left her for dead in. Stephanie, in full on Dynasty mode, undergoes plastic surgery and emerges transformed as Tara Welles intent on revenge on Greg..... cue the series.

Although only 3 years had passed in the real world the series was set seven years after the events of the mini series and in the opener Jilly (Peta Teppano in a career defining superbitch role, giving Pat the Rat a run for her money), who had been in partnership with the evil Greg to swindle Stephanie, is fresh out of prison and determined to succeed at any cost, much of the action over the course of the 22 episodes centres on the feuding between Stephanie and Jilly and later it's revealed that they are actually half sisters.

Hugely enjoyable, Return to Eden is Australia's answer to Dallasty et al, a glossy supersoap of the kind that Australian TV networks rarely attempted, it touches all the bases that inhabit the genre, the fashions, the cars, the shoulder pads, the hair (male and female cast members of course, this being the hair spray 80's) and the outrageous plot lines, at one stage Stephanie fakes her own death and comes back in disguise as an Arabian princess. Telling Return to Eden had financial assistance from Hanna-Barbera as part of their failed attempt to break into live action, definitely must see TV (not always for the right reasons of course), Return to Eden would have to be our release of the month!!!

ANY SPECIAL FEATURES?

No extras.