For auld lang syne, Sarah & George

Beware of A Place to Call Home final season spoilers in this post!

One of my favourite TV series, A Place to Call Home, ended in October after 6 seasons. I have loved this show and will miss it! I wouldn’t have minded a few more seasons…

Things worked out for the much troubled Sarah (Marta Dusseldorp) and George (Brett Climo)…

… and for the rest of the characters on the show. A special mention for season 6 goes out to Carolyn (Sara Wiseman), Jack (Craig Hall), Elizabeth (Noni Hazlehurst) and Roy (Frankie J. Holden) who really tugged at my heartstrings this final season..

The show ends with the message that there are always challenges ahead (some are briefly shown), but all challenges are faced together and can therefore be borne. Beautiful.

Right after the final episode aired in October, I started making a Sarah & George centric farewell fan video but then I got stuck fairly early into making it. It was a challenge trying to keep it short and even now there are more clips I wish I could have included, but then the video would have been endless. Also, real life events interfered and so I never got around to finishing it… until now! Be aware that if you watch the video it will contain spoilers for the show.  YouTube has alas blocked the video in Australia and New Zealand, so here are links to the video on Vimeo…

… as well as on YouTube…

The video ends with “For Auld Lang Syne” – it feels fitting for the end of the show but also for this time of year, at the end of the year. It feels like the video was meant to be finished now and not earlier.

Thank you cast and crew of A Place to Call Home for 6 great seasons of a wonderful show! I’m already missing you…

Giddy!

Marta Dusseldorp, lead actress from A Place To Call Home who plays Sarah, actually saw the fan video I made recently for George and Sarah in season 5!

How do I know that she has seen it? She tweeted a reaction!

This is very sweet. Thank you
Hope you're enjoying Season 6 @Foxtel @AcornTV https://t.co/QYwaRTltGX

— Marta Dusseldorp (@martaduss) September 12, 2018

Last year she retweeted something I wrote and this time she actually commented and again I am stoked! I had to reply to her, of course…

Oh my goodness, thank you for watching!!! 😍 Yes, I'm loving season 6 so far, I want it to all never end… Thank you and #BrettClimo and ALL the cast (I seriously love every one) for the wonderful job you've done! https://t.co/4djzAjYUf6

— Book of Esther Blog (@BookEstherBlog) September 12, 2018

I never fangirl to garner attention from the object of my affection, I never tweet to the objects of my affection (I only hashtag them) and I never ever expect a reaction. In fact, I am more than fine not being noticed, I’d be embarrassed… I just fangirl because I need to let my enthusiasm out. So, when one of your fangirl objects personally acknowledges you for something you have done because you admire the work they do, I admit, it makes me feel giddy! Thank you Marta for making my day! 🙂

The Look of Love

Season 5 of A Place to Call Home just finished airing on Dutch TV. Not that I needed to really watch it, I’ve already seen it and blogged about it here, but I did dip in on occasion when I happened across it. I still love this show! And it reminded me that I had been meaning to make a season 5 fan video for Sarah and George, which I have now finally done. During this season, George (Brett Climo) and Sarah (Marta Dusseldorp) are finally together.

Though not yet able to marry and officially living apart, it really is common knowledge that they are together and that Sarah’s son, David, is also George’s son. For them it’s all about the love they share this seaon, so “The Look of Love” felt very appropriate here (I love Nina Simone’s voice!)…

Season 6 has already started airing in Oz and I’m there for the ride. Sadly, season 6 is the final season but what a ride it’s been so far. 🙂

APTCH – yes and nooooo!

So the “YES!” part is that A Place To Call Home has been renewed for a season 6! I am stoked for this as I have been enjoying season 5 so much. Filming starts in a few months and at the end of next year there will be even more APTCH to watch. Yay!

But now comes the “NOOOO” part, and let me warn you about spoilers ahead for season 5, after this following picture of George (Brett Climo) and Sarah (Marta Dusseldorp)! So, read on at your own peril!

I just watched the 10th episode of season 5 last night. I was very glad Sir Richard got an arse-whooping but not before that prick completely humiliated our lovely doctor, Jack Duncan (Craig Hall), much to the worry of his wife Carolyn (Sara Wiseman), and us viewers, who saw Jack go off the deep end… Will Jack recover from this?

Besides that, what was at least as unsettling was the final shot of Regina in that episode (which is not this picture)!

Up until the end of season 4 she was one of the best villains I have ever known. The actress Jenni Baird portrays mad and evil Regina so very brilliantly! Regina was finally stopped and sent to an asylum at the end of season 4 and then this season she came back different… reformed… And believe it or not, for such an anti-semitic murderer, I came to feel sympathy for her! Of course, throughout season 5 I was doubting whether she really had reformed, whether she still was evil-plotting. You never can be quite sure with Regina, and Sarah shows us this doubt, but the doubts left with the last disconcerting conversation between these two women in this past episode:

Regina:  Do you know why I so hate Richard? He’s a mirror. I see in him what I was to you. I see what can’t be forgiven, why I can’t hope for a future with the family.
Sarah: Which you can’t.
Regina: Without it, what do I have?
Sarah: You must have some idea of what’s ahead.
Regina: A void.
Sarah: Then you need to fill it.
Regina: With? I spent 3 years regaining my sanity, a year establishing it, months earning your trust – all to make reparation and once that’s done…. there’s nothing but guilt for my crimes… Millie Davis… Brian Taylor, yes, I did shoot him… I’m sure you never doubted…. That’s what will fill the void: guilt for their death.
Sarah: Which means?
Regina: Punishment. Whichever one I deem fit.

And now, at the end of that epsiode, the final shot is of Regina… lying dead (drowned?) on a beach! Noooo! What will A Place To Call Home be without the evil, scheming and possibly/probably reformed Regina? I was truly shocked and wasn’t ready to let her go but apparently it was time. I will miss Regina on this show and believe me, that surprises me too! More spoilers: here’s an interview with actress Jenni Baird about it.

Now we need to find out how she died! Suicide seemed suggested in that conversation she had with Sarah but in the end, I think it was Sir Richard who did this to her…  So much drama! And two more episodes to go…

My latest brush with fame!

I’ve had a few brushes of contact with famous people in my life. Not many, but some!

My first brush with fame was when I was a 4 year old girl living in Jerusalem and the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time, Max van der Stoel, came to visit. They wanted a small Dutch kid to present him with flowers and my parents were approached for this, I think through the mayor’s office. My dad and the mayor knew each other through the work my dad did. I actually remember this occasion! I was very excited beforehand, I remember wearing a light blue dress, but when the time came, I got too shy and my dad had to help me hand over the flowers. That’s Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek grinning in the far left of the picture, Van der Stoel with the flowers and dark-rimmed glasses, shy me with hands in my mouth and on the right my dad, grinning wildly after he helped me hand over the flowers.

When I was 15, I briefly met German president Richard von Weizsäcker once when he visited my dad’s office in Germany in support of the work my dad did in Jewish-Christian dialogue (you can see the back of my dad on the left in this picture)…

Another famous man my dad worked with a lot and whom we saw on occasion was the former Archbishop of Canterbury from 1974-1980, Lord Donald Coggan. Donald Cogggan was a very special and warm man, modest, smart and funny. He used to call my younger brother and sister and me his ‘scallywags’ and there is one picture of us that I treasure…

Another brief moment of contact with a famous person is with Gregory Peck, although I never met him personally. I had once written him a fan letter (the one and only one I have ever written) and requested an autograph from him. I never heard back, gave up on it, until two or so years later I finally received a response! I got an autographed picture, along with a note of apology. Apparently a bag of fan mail had been misplaced, which is why it had taken so long for me to get a response! That autographed picture has gotten lost in this house somewhere and I am still determined to find it, along with the note and the envelope it came in. The picture that was signed looked like this one (found this image on Ebay):When I was 22, I went to a book signing in a bookstore here in The Netherlands and briefly met Peter Ustinov! He signed his book for me, which I was getting for my birthday on that day. Esje is my family’s nickname for me and I can’t remeber why I would have told Mr Ustinov that. I do remember him being very personable, maybe he asked if I had a nickname? It’s too long ago, I can’t remember…

I have of course met Richard Armitage briefly at the stage door in London in 2014 and have autographed items and a picture to help me remember that…

I have caught a glimpse of Pierce Brosnan up close and personal and he signed a picture my friend, a huge Brosnan fan, had…

I have spent an evening in the company of Michael Palin, listening to him talk about Ernest Hemingway and, a few months later, received a personally autographed book from him that my husband had gotten for me for my birthday!

And this past summer, I even briefly met and chatted with Lord Charles Spencer, Princess Diana’s brother. He also signed a book for us (but it’s also made out to my husband, so I won’t post a picture of that here, Mr Esther’s real name is not for this blog).

My greatest brush with someone famous on the internet was when actress Sara Wiseman, who plays Carolyn on A Place To Call Home, liked my retweet of her tweet on Valentine’s Day 2016 and I was stoked about that…

And now today, two and a half hours ago, I discovered my latest brush with fame: Marta Dusseldorp, lead actress playing Sarah on A Place to Call Home, actually RETWEETED my tweet of yesterday in which I gush about APTCH season 5! Holy crap, I swear my heart stopped for a moment when I saw that! I never aim to have likes, replies or god forbid, retweets of any kind, but this one certainly has me stoked! Here, a screenshot from my phone when I discovered it!

So, thank you Marta Dusseldorp for making my day! And may we enjoy your talents for a long, long time to come!