TV Week
1st September 1990
A Flying Doctor meets his match — but tragedy strikes.
FLYING DOCTORS star Brett Climo despises the superficiality of many male acting roles.
So Brett, who plays medico David Ratcliffe in the Nine Network series, is ecstatic about the episode which goes to air on September 5.
In it, David shows a vulnerability and emotions too often reserved for female characters.
Dr Ratcliffe, in what is a major change for the character, proposes marriage to Andrea Grayson (played by Suzie Dougherty), a visitor to Coopers Crossing.
But Andrea is dying of hodgkin’s disease.
“I was talking to one of the writers and we discussed what sort of situation would ‘strip’ Dr Ratcliffe completely … what would make him insecure and uncover his feelings,” Brett says.
“Dr Ratcliffe believes he has the answers to most things and seeks out as much medical knowledge as he can to try to get answers (to rectify the illness).”
He now faces the possibility there may be nothing he can do.
“I enjoy watching males in those circumstances and, to me, it can only be healthy for relationships between men and women generally,” Brett says.
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