Robert Trathen
As Shortland Street creeps closer to another end-of-season cliffhanger, amid the drama will be a heartwarming reunion – soap legends Fleur Saville and Alison Quigan are back together again as Libby Jeffries and her mum Yvonne!
Having returned to the iconic series last year, Fleur, 42, tells Woman’s Day, “I’m very grateful to be back. The culture is really beautiful and everyone who’s involved wants to be there.
The cycle ebbs and flows, but I feel like Shortland Street’s cool again.”
The long-awaited reunion
Meanwhile, newly returned to Shorty after her 2011 exit, Alison is gushing over being reunited with co-star Michael Galvin, who plays Ferndale stalwart Dr Chris Warner. “And, of course, my darling Fleur, who was my baby. We just fitted in together again, like we were mother and daughter but also colleagues.”
Fleur had texted Alison asking if she would be available, purely hypothetically, to return to Shorty. By the time the official call came, the answer was yes.
They reunited in the makeup room on set, with Fleur calling out, “Mama!” and Alison exclaiming, “Baby!” before wrapping her on-screen daughter in a hug.
Fleur recalls, “There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. It was truly like going back home because we’ve always got on really well.”
An unbeatable on & off-screen bond
The pair filmed their first scene together in 2006 and Alison has been mothering Fleur since day one, when they spent hours wearing high heels on set.
Alison recalls, “Afterwards, we were lying on a double bed like stunned mullets and I could just feel Fleur’s poor little feet.”
Chuckling, Fleur remembers, “It was 12 hours wearing heels and Alison took off my shoes to massage my feet. I was like, ‘Who is this woman? She’s incredible!’ I’ve learned to wear Uggs on set now, then in the final take, I’ll change to my heels because I’m just not built that way!”
Fleur also fondly recalls her on-screen mum advising her to take a shower and “wash off the character” after a day on set.
She grins, “I’ve shared that with so many people and I always credit Alison. She became a mentor, a friend and a surrogate mother from the start. Coming back to that has been such a gift and we continued like not a day had gone by.
Real life impact
“With Faye [Smythe] and Anna [Jullienne, her on-screen sisters], we’re so lucky that all of us got on really well. We’re all still friends today. And we can’t mention the Jeffrieses without our darling Harry McNaughton [who played her husband Gerald], the cherry on top.”
Alison, who acted alongside Happiness star Harry behind the hospital reception desk, adds, “He was gorgeous.
He’d sometimes be very bossy with the directors, which was hilarious. We got right into each other’s lives because we share a lot of ourselves, we love to gossip and we’re there for each other.”
Alison recalls a past storyline in which Yvonne was diagnosed with cancer and how she opted to have her hair shaved on screen.
She remembers, “A woman stopped me in the supermarket and said, ‘Thank you for sharing my story because that’s my life right now.’ She had a scarf on and I thought, ‘I’ve done my job!’ That’s what we were there for – to tell the stories of people who can’t tell them so they feel seen.”
“That’s the amazing thing about working with Alison,” says Fleur. “She’s so brave, she’s an acclaimed writer and she has so much to offer on set. It’s a brilliant thing to witness.”
The power of the dynamic duo
Despite it being 14 years since they last worked together on Shorty, both making reappearances for the show’s 20th anniversary in 2012, they easily slipped back into the same dynamic.
“We never lost it,” Alison quips. “We have a similar rhythm – we speak very lightly and quickly.”
Praising Fleur, she continues, “It distils to a love of life, for the world and for other people. She has a lightness of being. She’s pushing that out and embracing people with that love.”
“Stop it – you’ll make me cry,” insists Fleur, going on to add that Alison is kind and generous but also a bit naughty. “She’s so unbelievably playful. I love it when people say, ‘You can’t say that around the matriarch Alison,’ and I’m like, ‘She’s the one who taught me!’”
Alison recently starred in a play that had all the foul language removed from the script, but she slipped in some cussing right at the end of the show. Fleur laughs,
“She just can’t help herself!”
“I didn’t plan it!” insists Alison. “But if swearing’s good enough for Dame Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, then f*ck it!”
Shortland Street screens 7pm Monday to Wednesday on TVNZ 2 and streams on TVNZ+.
