Drama? You Must Be Joking!
From TV Week, 16 August 1986. Written by Paul Mann.

   

    The truth is finally out - for the last 10 weeks of filming Return To Eden even the cast had trouble keeping a straight face.

    Especially Daniel Abineri, who played Jake Saunders in the high gloss but heavily panned super soapie.

    "About halfway through it got really silly," he says. "And, for an actor, as soon as you can't take something seriously it becomes very hard to play it with a straight face.

    "Keeping a straight face for the last 10 episodes of Return To Eden was unbelievably hard for all of us on the show. We were getting the scripts a day or two before shooting and peals of laughter would ring out from all the actors."

    To keep his spirits up, Daniel started sending the show up by slipping little jokes into his scenes. Like the wedding with the scheming Jilly, played by Peta Toppano, in which he kissed her at the altar then turned to the camera and wiped the kiss on his sleeve.

     Or the scenes in the final episode when he drove to the party where he was to be killed off and he whistled My Way the whole time.

    "I wanted to die with a smile on my face" adds Daniel. "But they wouldn't let me."

    In the lead-up to the final episode, Daniel began receiving sharply worded memos from the producers about his tie.

    "They really worried that I never had it done up tight like a real business tycoon. So, just for a little revenge, I had a scene where I had to throw Jilly around the bedroom and my tie came loose. I made a point of staring right down the lens of the camera and straightening my tie. The producers were cool though. They knew what I was up to. They put a big dramatic, orchestral sting in, a big "bu-bomp" just as I straightened my tie - made it much more dramatic."

    Clearly, Daniel Abineri is not the kind of man who is going to keep his opinions to himself.

  &nb sp "Life's too short to be dishonest," he says. "Besides, I think the show's success will transcend any of my jokey little remarks."

    And there rests the ultimate irony about Return To Eden. While it scored disappointing ratings in Australia and was blasted by the critics, it has been immensely successful overseas, especially in Britain.

    "I think they really go for all that Dynasty stuff in Britain," says Daniel. "And Return To Eden was just like Dynasty, " he said. "It's not something I would sit down and watch. In fact, I don't see much television. You've got to hand it to the producers for pulling it all together. It was a major TV series, a big gamble and at least they've satisfied the overseas market. I knew when I was signed for Return to Eden that I couldn't muck it up because it was going to be seen all around the world."

    Despite the fairly permanent nature of Daniel's exit from Return To Eden, apparently he was offered an option to come back should another series go into production.

    "I don't know how they were going to work it," he says with a grin. "But I told them once was enough. Let Jake rest in peace."

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