Hospital pass SARA GOES INTO ISOLATION!

It was a bittersweet pill to swallow when the Kiwi actress returned to our locked down shores

- Rebekah Hebenton

It has been 10 years since Sara Wiseman ended her run as Dr Jennifer Mason on Shortland Street. So, when she made her grand return to our longest-running soap, she was expecting a warm welcome from her old friends.

But coming back to Ferndale, this time as head of surgery Francesca Telford, during Auckland’s level 3 lockdown, Sara was greeted by a very different reality.

“When I first arrived, we all had to be socially distanced both on-screen and off. I had to sit in my own individual dressing room and wait to be called to set. It was very isolating,” Sara recalls. “But as strange as it was, it felt safe, which is the best possible outcome.”

So, like all Aucklanders, the 49-year-old is very happy with the arrival of loosened restrictions as she now finally gets to bond with her new castmates.

“Thanks to Kiwis doing their bit to protect each other and getting vaccinated, we’ve been able to be more familiar both in terms of the characters and with each other off-set. We still wear our masks, but we can hang out with our mates again, which is such a gift.”

Since arriving in Ferndale to take on the job as surgery boss at Shortland Street Hospital, Sara’s character Francesca has had no problem challenging the maledominated world of medicine.