LOC. EXT: BEACH - LATE AFTERNOON DAY 3
SALLY, LEAH, N/S SURFERS

Miserable and confused, biting back the tears, SALLY is now walking along the beach... LEAH catches up to her...

LEAH
Sally, what’s going on?

SALLY
Don’t ask, Leah... I can’t
explain myself. No one
understands - not Brad, not
Ric...and you won’t either.

LEAH
But this isn’t like you at all.
You know how much Pippa loves a
party - normally you’d jump at
the chance to make her happy.

SALLY
I know... I know you’re trying to
do something lovely... But I just
can’t cope with having to pretend
because I don’t feel right.

LEAH
You haven’t felt right for a
while.
(off SALLY’s look)
But a little surprise shouldn’t
set you off like this. You’re in
some state that I can’t really
grasp... but I want to, so can
you please try to let me in?

Strained, SALLY walks along with her friends, grappling to find the feelings and pin them down into words. LEAH gives her a moment to do it... Finally...

SALLY
He was my rock... Mr Stewart has
been the one constant in my life
since I was a little girl...

She takes a breath, pushing down the rising emotion.

SALLY (CONT)
When I came here with Pippa and
Tom, I was still lost, you know?
They were my foster family and
I’d already had this huge...
upheaval in my life... And moving
here was another one.

LEAH
(softly)
I can imagine.

SALLY
I look back now and realise how
little I was; how much I needed
something solid to cling to...
And this place became that. And
Alf Stewart was the biggest part
of it. In the end, everyone
left...even Pippa, but he was
always there, always my
touchstone.

LEAH is listening, understanding. She takes SALLY’s hand as they walk along, comforting and supporting...

SALLY (CONT)
I trust him with my life, and I
trusted him with Pippa’s... And
he let me down. I told him not to
drive... Failing eyesight, no
license, he knew he shouldn’t
have got behind the wheel. He
should’ve been looking after my
little girl.

SALLY looks tortured, at LEAH, and her heart is wrenched...

SALLY (CONT)
He took away my safe place and
I’m... I’m just so angry... I
want it back, Leah - I want
everything back the way it was...
I want to feel safe again.

With that, she sobs on LEAH's shoulder as Leah holds her. SALLY is deeply distressed, but is this the break-through she needed?

The "will she or won't she die" saga surrounding Home and Away character Sally Fletcher has given the show its biggest audience in almost two years.

An average of 1.53 million viewers tuned into the soapie when it returned to TV screens last night.

The Seven Network said it was delighted with the figure, considering the show returned four weeks before the start of the official ratings season, when it usually averages about 1.2 million viewers.

Last night's audience peaked at 1.75 million.

The figures were the show's biggest since two years ago when the Summer Bay stalker storyline attracted an average 1.7 million viewers in May 2005.

This year's series return continued a cliffhanger storyline from the program's 2006 finale in which Sally, played by Kate Ritchie, was stabbed.

Last night's episode, the first of two parts to be continued tonight, would have given little satisfaction to fans who have waited over the Christmas break to discover the fate of a character who has been part of the show for its entire 19 years.

Teacher and foster mother Sally was found dying in the Summer Bay school carpark, rushed to hospital and spent the rest of the episode unconscious.

It is understood the drama will be resolved

By Michael Gadd
January 12, 2007 10:06am

SALLY Fletcher was left for dead after being stabbed in a carpark at the close of the 2006 season of Home and Away.

Now, the wait is almost over to discover the fate of the character played by Kate Ritchie in one of the biggest storylines in the show's entire 19-year run.

Channel Seven has ramped up its hype machine with a teaser campaign in the lead-up to its series return on Monday, fuelling speculation that Ritchie could be leaving Summer Bay.

But the network has remained tight-lipped about the fate of its loyal star.

The cliffhanger has produced Home and Away's arguably most anticipated season opener with the potential end for Ritchie, who with castmate Ray Meagher, appeared on the show's first episode in 1988 and holds the Guinness Record for the longest running character in an Australian drama.

Seven's head of drama and Home and Away executive producer John Holmes said the show's cast had fielded queries from devastated fans during their Christmas break about Sally's future.

"Sally is the most loved character on the show and the viewers feel passionately about her survival," Holmes said.

He compared the saga to 2005's heavily promoted "Summer Bay stalker" storyline.

But while that plot line dragged on for weeks, there is no mystery about the cold-blooded stabbing by Rocco, a bad boy who Sally took into her foster home in a bid to put him on the straight and narrow.

"There hasn't been this much hype or hysteria about a character leaving the show since Bobby died in 1993 in a tragic boat accident," Holmes said.

"No character over the last 19 years compares in popularity to Sally though, except maybe Ray Meagher (who plays Alf).

"Viewers have seen Sally grow up from an eight-year-old little girl and don't want to see her go."

Home and Away turned to more risky material involving drug use, violence and saucy love affairs in 2006, and continues to rate well with more than one million viewers during the 46 weeks it airs each year.

Seven has been unwilling to disclose the details of Ritchie's contract with the network, although the 28-year-old last year hinted that an end to her time at Summer Bay could be on the cards.

"It has been a fantastic experience but now I think I might be ready to look past that," she was quoted as saying by the Daily Telegraph.

Last year, Ritchie took a small role in the telemovie Stepfather of the Bride and appeared on Seven's celebrity singing contest It Takes Two


Kate's Summer Bay farewell, The Sun (UK/Ireland)

By NADIA MENDOZA
December 08, 2006

HOME AND AWAY actress Kate Ritchie is leaving the Aussie soap after 19 years playing Sally Fletcher.

She will enter the Guiness Book of Records as the longest serving actor in an Oz drama series - along with fellow original cast member Ray Meagher, who played Alf Stewart for 18 years.

She has starred in the show since the series began in 1988, but now the 28-year-old star says she is leaving as she needs to spread her wings.

In 2000, an explicit sex tape, widely reported to feature Ritchie and her ex-boyfriend, began circulating on the Internet, but to this day Ritchie has never publicly commented on it.

In the 2006 Home & Away season finale, Sally was stabbed and left slumped alone on a dark footpath. This was followed by a video montage of her life in the Bay.



news.com.au;

Kate set to leave Home

AFTER a record breaking 19 years playing Sally Fletcher, Kate Ritchie is ready to begin life away from her home on the set of Summer Bay.
Ritchie, listed in the Guinness World Records as the longest-serving actor in an Australian drama series, is reassessing her professional career and seeking "new opportunities'' away from Channel Seven's soap staple Home and Away.

"It's been a fantastic experience but now I think I might be ready to look past that,'' Ritchie, 28, told Confidential.

"While the public might have