For TV, film and stage legend Peta Toppano, it was much more than a Prisoner cast reunion. It was also a joyous chance to reconnect with dear friend, ex-husband and former castmate Barry Quin.
On screen the couple sizzled as inmate Karen Travers – the first character seen in the cult soapie’s first episode – and handsome jail doctor Greg Miller.
Playing old flames who rekindled their relationship behind bars, they wed in a dramatic storyline and went on to marry in real life.
Fans couldn’t get enough of the romance and beautiful Peta’s iconic TV and stage roles – as a “triple threat” actor, dancer and singer – made her one of Australia’s most popular cover girls in the 1980s.
Peta was the evergreen star of top-rated shows from Heartbreak High to Return To Eden, A Country Practice, The Young Doctors and Home And Away, in which she played Ada Nicodemou’s mother.
TV MARRIAGE
But Prisoner remains a favourite, not least because it reconnected Peta, now 74, with the charming British actor she’d first met when they appeared at neighbouring Melbourne theatres.
“He’s one of the funniest people I’ve ever met!”
Despite their developing relationship, Barry had to return to England.
Then fate took a hand when Peta, then cast in Prisoner, was asked if she knew someone suitable for Wentworth Detention Centre’s hunky doctor.
“So of course I said, ‘Yes, my boyfriend!’ And luckily the producers thought Barry was a skilled actor,” she says.
“He flew back to Australia, we were in Prisoner together and eventually got married [in 1979] at my parents’ house in Sydney.”
Despite their subsequent divorce in 1989, Peta remains friends with Barry and her other castmates, and was delighted to catch up with “all the girls” at their recent reunion.
“We all had the best time,” she enthuses. “Maria Mercedes is one of my dearest friends. Carole Skinner was there, Paula Duncan, Sandy Gore… such a great group.”
Today Peta has stayed in “the only business I’ve ever known,” although largely on the production side.
Coming from a family of entertainers – her father and mother, Enzo and Peggy Toppano, performed all over the world – she was destined to be a star.
Peta was a scholarship ballet student in the south of France at 16, but homesickness – and a bad fall – soon brought her back to appear in the family act.
“It’s been an extraordinary life, really,” she reminisces. “Drama, musicals, a one-woman show…lots of jobs I’m really proud of.”
Along the way, there were battles with depression and a high-profile marriage to media tycoon Kerry Stokes.
“It only lasted a short while but we had lots of fun times and I was introduced to things that I never would have experienced otherwise. I loved learning how to scuba dive and ski. Our lives just went in different directions.”
Since the sudden death of her latest partner on Christmas Eve three years ago, Peta has lived alone in the scenic Blue Mountains outside Sydney, keeping busy with community theatre.
“I’m not trying to make my way back into show business,” she says, spiritedly.
“I’ve got good friends and I’m managing to forge a new life for myself at this stage. I really enjoy being on the other side of the footlights or camera. It’s a comfortable time, being able to kick back and enjoy things without the stress of having to perform every day of my life.”
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