New family coming to UK screens - The Campbells

This is coming really soon to UK screens but I'm not sure of the date. From homeandaway.com.au

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Three new characters arrived on our screens (and in Martha’s face) this week. First, grumpy old Bruce Campbell showed up at Jack and Martha’s picnic and promptly fired off a round (literally). Then Annie and Geoff, Bruce’s grandchildren, had the hide to wake Martha up after she’d spent the night in their barn. Yep, it was just another typical 24 hours in the life of Jack and Martha. But enough about them…

The Campbells are an interesting addition to the Summer Bay community. They’re not from the Yabby Creek, they’re not from the coast and they’re not from (Gasp! Horror!) the city.

The Campbells are from the country. A small family unit trying to make ends meet living on a farm.

Chris Haywood plays Bruce. You might have seen him before on any one of the many TV shows he’s worked on (such as All Saints) or one of the eighty or so feature films he’s made (including Breaker Morant with Ray Meagher). Chris tells us that the Campbells have been working on the land for generations.

“They’ve been on this property since the 1800’s but you don’t see them around Summer Bay because they’re tied up with the farm, that’s the reason they haven’t been there before,” says Chris.

That and the family patriarch is just a little bit of a nutter.

“Bruce is not a modern-thinking man, he’s a religious zealot and he’s quite narrow in the way he approaches life.”

Behind all the bluster, though, Bruce just wants to keep his family and their way of life together. But even before a certain Acting-Principal came sniffing around for truant school kids, Bruce was already losing his grip on his wishes.

“I reckon the farm is too small to be economically viable in the modern world which is why the problems are there,” says Chris. “Probably the drought has affected them a bit, but I think it’s more about the viability of the size of the thing in the modern world of farming and the old man hasn’t really bitten the bullet and either sold up or bought up more. Now I think he’s a bit lost in the sense of he’s trying to keep the whole thing going and to keep his grandchildren happy.”

Ask any farmer and they’ll tell you farmin’ aint easy. With the drought still going and the general decline of small farms, a family of three can find it tough to get by. Especially when two of those three are still teenagers.

Annie particularly, and Geoff somewhat quietly, both like what they’ve seen in the Bay. It’s a whole new world to them. When they start to hear that they could and should be going to the local high school, it excites them (even if Geoff is too staunch to admit it).

“Since there’s been this connection to the possibility of going to school, it’s taken their minds off what they’re supposed to be doing at the farm and it’s having a very detrimental impact on Bruce’s life because things aren’t getting done. They’ve got a life that’s built around the farm and the church, so this sudden connection to the school has been incredibly distuputive on life back at the farm.”

It’s a situation that many families have gone and are going through. The parents (or grandparents) wish for a certain kind of future (and present) for their children that, as the kids grow older and become more experienced, lines up less and less with what the children want for themselves.

While many a child has happily carried on the family business or stayed in or near the family home, so have plenty of kids wanted something different to their parents’ ideas for the future.

Is Annie ready for the real world?

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Little Annie Campbell gets the shock of her life when she discovers Belle and Lucas slept together and - gasp - they weren’t planning on getting married! The look on Belle’s face is priceless when the sheltered country girl reveals she assumed Lucas and Belle were obviously planning on tying the knot if they had taken such a big step. “You’re gonna get eaten up at school!” laughs the cheeky Belle Taylor. “The thought of marriage never entered our minds!”.

Lucas lays it down for Annie with a little more tact: it wasn’t as if he had a one-night stand with Belle – quite the opposite. He really cared about her and doesn’t think what they did was wrong or sinful. He points out that while he respects the rights of others to think that, it’s just not how most of his friends think.

Belle gives Annie a magazine to read from, assuring her it will explain everything.

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There’s fresh new faces in the Bay – and already they’re ruffling some feathers!

It goes like this: Jack takes Martha on a picnic (awww!). On private property (hmmm…). On private property belonging to a bible-thumping old guy brandishing a shotgun and some very outdated beliefs about how to raise kids (uh-oh!). His orphaned grandkids, Annie and Geoff. Annie and Geoff meet Home and Away fans. Home and Away fans, meet the newest members of the Summer Bay family…

When Geoff drives Martha home from their barn – where she was forced to spend the night after Jack abandoned her (You’ll see!) – she’s struck by his impeccable manners and sweet honesty. Both Annie and Geoff are country kids through and through. But that means they aren’t at school and when Sally and Brad twig that means Annie isn’t exactly getting home-schooled like her Pop claims, the two find themselves fighting for her right to an education. Throw some friction with Lucas and Tony down the track plus Geoff getting caught with his eyes on another guy’s prize and these two are in for a rocky ride. We caught up with Lincoln Lewis (Geoff) and Charlotte Best (Annie), and found out they’re loving life in the Bay!

“It’s a blast!” enthuses 19-year-old Lincoln. “Home and Away is amazing! It’s great learning experience - I’m surrounded by such great actors and really nice people. Coming from QLD and being used to doing extra work and ads, straight to a new character on Home and Away – it’s a big change.”

Indeed, winning the role after starting out doing extra work on kid’s TV shows before scoring a few feature film roles (Aquamarine, Voodoo Lagoon) is a dream come true for the cute blonde actor, son of famous NRL player Wally Lewis. Who wouldn’t wanna be mates with Paul O’Brien, hitting Sydney’s beautiful Northern Beaches for a surf after an exciting day on set? Sounds pretty good to us!

While his character Geoff shares his love of footy and family- Lincoln confesses homesickness for this family is the only drawback to moving down to Sydney - that’s where the similarities end.

“We have some similarities but we have a lot of differences,” Lincoln explains. “His place is the farm, he’s always grown up on the farm and that’s his lifestyle, whereas I’ve grown up around the beaches and the water. Plus he’s too nice for his own good… He gets bullied at first, and Geoff’s personality is to avoid conflict at any cost but if that was put onto me, I would have handled it like any football-raised QLDer would have thumped him then taken him out for a beer later!”

Growing up like said true-blue Queenslander and with a Dad like Wally Lewis, it’s surprising Geoff didn’t follow his Dad’s footsteps into footy glory! Lincoln explains he loves football, and played to District level. “Dad’s never been one to pressure us into football,” he confirms. “Dad did football because he loved the game. He’s always said, ‘Do whatever you wanna do, as long as you really love it and put everything into it and try your hardest at it,’ he couldn’t be happier.”

Lincoln is clearly a family guy at heart – in fact he got The Call about his new future on Home and Away in a furniture shop with his mum and his aunty. “My mum was over the other side of the shop and all she could hear was this kid screaming!!!” he laughs. “My agent was on the line – I just lost it, had my hands in the air and then she just lost it! I reckon everyone in the store thought someone was getting murdered!”

Another young thespian stoked by her chance to grace the small screen is Charlotte Best. Charlotte got the call whilst at her cool performing arts high school, Brent Street. “My agent is in the same building as school,” explains the bright young girl. “They called me in and said ‘We’ve got some exciting news for you’. They had a really weird look on their face, so I knew it must be big. They told me and I started bawling my eyes out!”

This chipper chick has a background in singing and dancing but it’s her acting abilities that’ll catapault her to the nation’s attention, starring as the naïve country girl, Annie. “She finds everything fascinating because she’s been stranded on this farm for so long - she hasn’t been sent to school since Year Two,” she explains. “She’s sort of a tomboy as well, because she’s been hanging out with boys her whole life. She’s catching on though! I have three brothers, so I can relate to her and standing up for myself.”