TV Week
17th July 1993
Police Rescue’s Jeremy Callaghan gets to hit the heights in Sydney …
Police Rescue star Jeremy Callaghan will never forget the day after the TV Week Logie Awards this year.
While most of his castmates were recuperating after celebrating co-star Gary Sweet’s double Silver win, Jeremy and Tammy MacIntosh found themselves hanging over the edge of Sydney’s Qantas building – 44 floors above the street.
For 25-year-old Callaghan, who plays Constable Brian Morely, it was a frightening return to reality after the revelry of the night before, and it was definitely the most precarious adventure of his life … so far.
Viewers can see his exploits in an episode titled Whirlwind, screening on the ABC soon.
“It was 640 ft (195m) of sheer terror,” he tells TV Week. “I was absolutely terrified, I’d returned from Melbourne only that morning and I had to rehearse this scene almost immediately.
“I stood at the bottom of the building with Tammy (who plays Constable Cathy Orland), looked up and said, ‘I’m telling you now, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do it’. We went to the top and I was still protesting.
“Eventually I went over the rail, and the only thing that stops you from freaking out is the logic of the safety procedures. You know you can trust those in charge.
“When you’re hanging out there on the side of a building, your knees tremble, the adrenalin powers through your legs – you can feel the tingle in your joints. The only thing that stops your heart and guts from coming out of your mouth is the knowledge that you cannot fall.”
Callaghan shakes his head, laughs and adds: “One rescue guy told me you can fall four storeys and still survive – but anything over four is bye-bye. It’s not such a comforting thought 44 floors up, because you have time to think what could happen on the way down.”
But what a life, he says, despite all the hairy moments he’s endured since going the series almost a year ago. He has changed in that time: he’s more confident, assured, more knowledgeable about his craft and much more talkative.
Gary Sweet and Steve Bastoni have been great inspirations through their professionalism, friendship and advice.
Jeremy’s character, Brian, is “a bit of a dork but maybe I shouldn’t say that”, he says. And although Brian secretly has a thing for Cathy, he doesn’t do much about it.
“He has a problem with confidence, particularly in matters of, shall we say, the pillow – the opposite sex. He goes weak and his knees turn to jelly.
Not so Callaghan himself, very happily in a relationship with Diana Reid, which is also in the business.
They co-produced the successful play The Girl’s Gotta Eat, with sell-out seasons in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne.
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