Cameron Daddo was on the set of Home And Away when one of the crew members came up and said he had something to show him.
“He pulled out his phone and showed me a photograph of a wedding, and I was standing beside the wedding party,” Cameron tells TV WEEK. “I said, ‘Who’s that?’ and he said, ‘That’s my mum and dad. They met on Perfect Match. And you’re at their wedding.’”
It was back in 1987 that Cameron started hosting the popular dating show, taking over the role from Greg Evans. At the time, he was just 21 years old. It wasn’t his first TV role, but it was the one that made him a household name.
“It was massive,” he says. “Everywhere I went I was suddenly being recognised.”
Perfect Match involved a single person asking questions of three people hidden behind a screen. Based on the answers given, the person would choose one of the three people to take on a romantic getaway. Then the screen would slide back, and the person would get to see who they’d chosen. The couple would later return to report how the romantic getaway had gone.
Cameron remembers it as being a “wholesome” show, but he admits there were a few shocking things that happened on set.
“I remember one gentleman was giving a girl roses and she didn’t want them. The girl actually slapped him with the roses and one of the thorns caught him in the cheek and drew blood! I was like, ‘Whoa, okay! That wasn’t on the job description.’”
Cameron, who co-hosted the show with Kerrie Friend, says he thinks the concept would still work today.
“When the screen slid back and they clapped eyes on each other for the first time, the two faces would say everything. It was always worth waiting for. ‘Are they excited? No, they’re not. Ooh, awkward.’”
Now 59 and a dad of three grown-up children, Lotus, River and Bodhi, with model wife Alison Brahe, Cameron says he would “absolutely” host the show again if he was offered the chance. But he might be a different host.
“I notice different things these days, and I don’t mind calling them out.”
In 1988, just a year after he started on Perfect Match, Cameron left to focus on his acting career. After winning a TV WEEK Logie for his role in Golden Fiddles, he moved to the US, where he starred in the Melrose Place spin-off Models Inc and appeared in a string of other shows, including 24, NCIS and The Mentalist.
“I spent 25 years in Los Angeles acting and since I’ve returned to Australia I haven’t done very much,” he adds.
Cameron says the stint he did on Home And Away, playing Ryder’s (Lukas Radovich) long-lost father Evan, was “fantastic”. Having recently published his memoir, Keep It Smooth, he and his wife Ali are now working on writing two TV series of their own, both period dramas.
“We go off into our own corners, we write pages, then come back and talk about it.”
Cameron, Ali and their daughter Lotus recently appeared together on Christmas With The Australian Women’s Weekly, with Ali and Lotus modelling fashions.
“I’m so proud of Lotus,” Cameron says. “She’s such a smart, kind woman, and funny. And Ali just gets better and better. So watching those two do their thing together was just lovely.”
But Cameron says none of his three children have expressed any interest in following him into the world of TV.
“I think they’ve seen and experienced too much. There’s so much chance involved. They’d rather be in control of their lives. They’re very smart kids.”
As for today’s crop of dating shows, Cameron says he and Ali do watch Married At First Sight – “it’s hard not to” – and he thinks the idea of The Golden Bachelor is “great”.
“Why not have some more mature people finding love? They’re certainly looking for it. Good on ’em.”
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