There were probably times when she was growing up when Kate Ritchie must have thought she was living in some sort of Australian version of the Truman show, except that she was fully, and at times painfully, aware that the public were watching her grow up. We did not see her as baby, missed her first tooth, did not hear her first words, or watch her go off to school. Those things were reserved for her family. But when Sally Keating, aged eight years old arrived on our screens, her world changed. We saw the little girl with pig tails, the little girl with the imaginary friend, the girl who had John Farnham visit her when she was ill. We saw her get her first bra, the braces on the teeth. We saw her first kiss, the first sexual experience, we saw the teenager struggling with all those things which make every teenage girl want to hide under the duvet and pray for the day when puberty ends, the puppy fat, the zits and competing with the svelte teenage pin- ups of the day. It must have been hell.
Now, today as she leaves Summer Bay, Sally is a grown woman, beautiful, talented and much loved by family and friends and of course by the viewing public. She has been there forever. She is part of the very fabric of the show and it is hard to imagine the show without her.
Sally has become an iconic figure in the show, alongside Pippa, who for many epitomises what Home And Away is all about. Her relationship to and with Pippa is pivotal to that iconic status. Pippa and Tom Fletcher arrived in Summer Bay to be foster parents to a group of disparate, ordinary looking kids with problems (In those days the producers deliberately went for ordinary looking kids as opposed to model look alike as they wanted realism - how times have changed!) Sally came along as the youngest of the clan, cute as a button, as Lyn, one of their other foster kids refused to be parted from her when she left the children's home. The rest as they say is history.
In the early days Sally was given some low key story lines but Milco's demise when the evil Dodge forced her to admit he wasn't realise was pretty gut wrenching and eight year old Kate gave some startling performances which meant that she endeared herself to the public in a way that very few kids of her age have done before and since. We watched as she and Pippa, and her other foster siblings developed into a family and as their relationships changed and evolved over time.
Teenage Kate was not given some of the huge story lines that some of her teenager peers were given. However, the di was cast, and Sally's propensity to attract disaster was well and truly established by the time she hit her mid teens. She was washed away, kept by a mad man before being rescued, seduced by Heath Ledger in a panel van, and any manner of traumatic things.
Sally as a central character began to come into her own when Pippa left. There were several years of teen stories before she grew up and moved centre stage, but the arrival of Flynn, and her deciding to become a teacher were the catalysts to her becoming the central character of the show.
Sally as a character has tragedy after tragedy befall her, and yet she remains strong and does not indulge in self pity. Her marriage to Flynn, the surrogacy, the Flynn/Sally/Jesse/Leah story line was all crucial to moving her into the lime light.
The decision to move her to Summer Bay House was an interesting one as it seems it is one which Kate herself was not that keen on. She did not want to be turned into Pippa, yet that is exactly what they did with her. Alf told her when Ric moved in that she had taken her first steps to being Pippa.
The disaster themes continued. Zoe kidnapped her, and then Flynn died, Diesel had a crush on her, Rocco stabbed her, Zoe came back, Johnny came back and stabbed her, Pippa got run over, and she effectively got sacked from the school. It's enough to make you afraid to get up in the morning. But Milco turned out to be real, so something good did turn up, and Miles is such a sweetie.
A lot of things happen in Summer Bay, (it's the crime capital of Australia and attracts every nut case within a 1000 mile radius), but all the exciting plots in the world wont work if the characters are not right. It could be the best story or plot line of the century but if the character and the actor are wrong it will sink without trace. Sally Fletcher is very much one of those characters whom they got absolutely right. Even when the scripts have been weak, and let's face it there have been a few of those, Sally's character has been strong enough to rise above them and carry the day.
As audiences we know when characters work, and when they are right, we empathise, we become engrossed, their achievements become our achievements, their failures become ours, their trials and tribulations become ours, their lives and loves become entwined almost inextricably with our own. We weep when they weep, we weep for them and with them. We wept with Sally when Flynn died, and rejoiced with her when she found Milco. We believe in Sally, we believe what we see and we are in there rooting for her when things go wrong, which they invariably do. The same can not be said for every other character, and this is what makes Sally so very very special.
Sally has now decided to leave and many will fell they are losing a best friend, not least Kate Ritchie. Sally has been in our lounge rooms for the last 20 years every evening, and judging from the comments on the forum, she has become part of the fabric of their lives, just as she is part of the fabric of Summer Bay. It is fair to say that she has not been my favourite character, but she has always been there, entwined, integral to almost everything which goes on, the glue which binds much of the action together, very much like Pippa before her, a crucial part of the jig saw puzzle that is Home And Away.
Kate has been given some of the most challenging and difficult storylines on the show. Her two gold logies are well deserved, and Sally Fletcher is indeed an iconic character in soap history. We have all been privileged to watch Sally Fletcher grow up.
Thanks to Eduardo Bearo.
For me, Sally was always the very heart of 'Home and Away'. She lit up our screens for 20 years and during that time we saw everything that could go right and wrong in someone's life. She came to the Bay an eight year old foster child with a foster family and an imaginary friend called "Milco", and she left as a strong young woman who cared about everyone and had a family who loved her. But in between all of that, so many things happened to her. Some good, some bad. But she always remained that kind, warm and gentle character that many had grown to know and love. And that's why she was and probably always will be my favourite character.
Back in the olden days, we saw Pippa looking after her family and looking after kids who didn't have anywhere to go, and Sally really became the next generation of that. She would always help someone in their time of need and would often be a listening ear if someone needed to talk about something. A prime example of this in recent years is that of Rocco Cooper. A teenage boy trapped by his brother and wanting to be free of his gang. So who gave him a place to stay? - Sally Fletcher. And even when she got her memory back and remembered that it was him who stabbed her, she still went to his funeral. It's that caring and unselfish attitude that I associate with Sally.
Throughout the two decades that she lived in the Bay, she went through everything from self hate and rebelling to two aborted weddings and her husband dying, just to name a few. And all of that could have changed her for the worst...but it didn't. Unlike other characters, I've never in my entire time of watching the show 'hated' Sally. I sometimes disliked the decisions she made, but that never changed my opinion of her - that she was a thoughtful and loving character who would do anything for her family.
One of my all time favourite storylines to involve Sally was Flynn's battle against cancer. To see Sally, who was often an unbreakable pillar of strength, have to come to terms with her husband's illness was truly amazing.
A particular episode that stands out to me is that of #4571, when Sal finds out she has a twin-brother, who is none other than ''Milco''! Since the very beginning of the show, we believed that ''Milco'' was Sally's imaginary friend. But in the 10th episode of the 2008 season, we learnt that he was in fact Sally's twin brother, Miles Copeland. What an incredible episode that was, and what a way to start finishing her final few months in the Bay!
Her final couple of days in the Bay were a sob fest, with Floss, Steve, Carly and Pippa all returning to mark the occasion, and us viewers coming to the realization that she wasn't going to be on our screens for much longer. And as if that wasn't emotional, we then had to gather the boxes of tissues for Sal's final scene - her on the beach saying goodbye to Alf and the Bay. We then witnessed possibly the most emotional line ever to be spoken on 'Home and Away' - "You'll always be Mr.Stewart to me, Alf".
Sally truly is a legend and so is the talented actress who played her - Kate Ritchie. 'Summer Bay' will seem different without her, but it definitely won't forget her!
Thanks to Bttb-rox!