It may be a quarter of a century since McLeod’s Daughters first aired, but Myles Pollard has vivid memories of joining the series.
“I did a cast recall with Aaron Jeffery,” Myles, 53, tells TV WEEK. “I was just pretty stoked to see someone else that was six foot four. I’d found my family.”
For some, filming away from the city must have felt foreign, but Myles, who’d grown up in the West Australian bush, was right at home. Both he and Aaron bought houses in Gawler, South Australia, not far from the Drover’s Run set.
“I was living out there, one street back from Aaron, in an environment that I knew really well,” Myles says. “I’d ridden horses and motorbikes before, so I felt like I was in my happy place.”
Even so, Myles’ first scene as Nick, in which he rode a motorbike around the side of the house and pulled up next to Tess (Bridie Carter), didn’t go as planned.
“They called ‘action’, but I just got a bit excited, floored the bike on gravel around the corner and ended up on my arse,” he recalls with a laugh.
Because the show was filmed at what was then a fairly remote location, the cast and crew were left to themselves, for the most part, to make McLeod’s magic. And that suited Aaron, now 56, just fine.
“I remember every time I drove in that front gate at Kingsford, I would think, ‘How lucky am I to be working here?’” he remembers. “It didn’t feel like a job, as such, because it was so much fun.”
Aaron’s character, Alex and Myles’ Nick were involved in everything, including the hilarious Full Monty-style striptease episode,
“We were all really competitive, because we knew we were taking our kit off, so we got really fit,” Myles recalls. “No alcohol, no carbs and we were training up to four days a week.
“There we were in our jockstraps, half-naked, and all the extras in the crowd of that episode, who were female fans of the show, actually ran and stormed us up on the stage.”
Of course, Alex eventually married true love Stevie Hall (Simmone Jade Mackinnon), before later sadly passing away when he was crushed by a falling tree.
The tree used in filming may have been polystyrene, but the one that was added later with CGI was “massive”, he recalls.
“Alex must have had some kahunas if he was still alive after that fell on him.”
As entrances go, Luke Jacobz’s arrival by parachute in McLeod’s was certainly dramatic.
His adventurous character, Patrick Brewer, caught the eye of Kate Manfredi (Michala Banas). But one of his first scenes with Michala made Luke understandably nervous.
“I had to strip off completely naked, in front of Michala, get my bare backside out and jump into a dam,” Luke, 45, recalls. “That was day three, so it was quite a welcome.”
Patrick was the younger brother of vet Dave Brewer (Brett Tucker). In a powerful scene with Dave, Patrick learns his father took his own life.
“The director came up and grabbed me on the shoulders with both arms and said, ‘That was brilliant, mate,’” Luke says. “Because I was still fairly new to drama, it felt wonderful.”
To this day, McLeod’s remains one of Luke’s favourite jobs. “It was in a league of its own,” he says.
Fans can saddle up for a new series of McLeod’s Daughters on Stan in 2027! Posie Graeme-Evans, who created the show, has handed over the reins for the reboot to producer Joanna Werner.
“I don’t want to influence at all,” Posie told A Current Affair. “I don’t.”
Joanna, who has produced shows such as The Newsreader and Goolagong, says she couldn’t be more thrilled to step into such “amazing gumboots”.
“I can’t wait to find the cast that people are going to love,” she added.
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