Georgie Parker’s face lights up in absolute delight as she reveals it’s been 20 years since she said goodbye to one of her most popular TV characters, All Saints’ nun-turned-nurse, Sister Terri Sullivan.
Having been the beating heart of Channel Seven’s medical drama since it began in 1998, Georgie hung up her stethoscope and left the fictional All Saints Western General Hospital for good in June 2005, still mourning the loss of her love, Dr Mitch Stevens (Erik Thomson), two seasons earlier.
In a recent interview to mark her big milestone, a beaming Georgie, 60, confessed she “adored” being part of a TV golden couple with Erik, 58.
“I loved Mitch and Terri’s relationship,” she said. “They had a huge history together and then ended up meeting again and finally got together. We had enormous fun playing them, because we trusted each other physically and we got along so well.”
Terri and Mitch proved so popular with All Saints fans during the four years Erik was on the show (he joined in March 1999) that Georgie picked up two consecutive TV Week Gold Logies in 2001 and 2002. She also won Most Popular Actress in 2001 while Erik took home Most Popular Actor in 2003.
When Mitch tragically died of a brain tumour just days after marrying Terri in 2003, fans were so devastated that ratings plummeted and producers had to reinvent the show, moving the action from Ward 17 to the Emergency Department to save it.
Even though it’s been 16 years since the series ended, it has lost none of its appeal to diehard fans.
“I was so invested in Terri and Mitch. Huge part of my life,” posted one fan on Georgie’s Instagram.
“Forever my favourite show and favourite TV couple, Terri and Mitch,” posted another.
One committed fan even asked: “Is it terribly sad that I named my first son Mitch after Erik Thomson’s character?”
Georgie, who got her first big break playing another nurse, Lucy Gardiner in A Country Practice, even said last year that she would consider revisiting Terri if there was ever to be a reboot of All Saints.
“It is one of the first shows I’ve been a part of from the beginning of it all, the way through. I was on it for eight years, and it meant an enormous amount to me,” she shared just last month.
Georgie, who has spent the past 15 years playing Roo Stewart on Home and Away, admits Terri was “very different” from who she was away from the cameras, even though they share an incredible commitment to their callings.
Georgie famously returned to work on All Saints just 17 weeks after giving birth to daughter Holly, whom she shares with her husband, author and screenwriter Steve Worland.
