LOOK WHO'S BACK! - Theresa's Shorty revival

HER CHARACTER DIED, BUT THE ACTRESS HAS RETURNED VERY MUCH ALIVE!

- Karyn Henger

It’s been 27 years since Theresa Healey played likeable nurse Carmen Roberts on Shortland Street. Yet it was only last week the Kiwi actress was visiting her father in hospital when she was stopped twice by strangers who called her… Carmen.

“I was only on Shortland Street for a couple of years,” the Head High star laughs. “And I’ve played so many characters since then. But Carmen has stuck. She’s still in a lot of people’s hearts!”

Theresa, 56, is back on New Zealand’s longest-running soap as a new character, Maeve Mullens’ mother Rosalyn, and she’s curious to find out whether viewers will still associate her with the girl-next-door she played in the nineties, who tragically died after she was hit by a truck that drove through the front of the clinic in a classic Christmas cliffhanger.

“But the show has always been bigger than its characters,” Theresa reasons. “And we’re actors! So I think people will be able to get past it – it has been over a quarter of a century!”

Returning to set has been like slipping on an old, comfy jumper, Theresa says. “It’s in a different place, a different studio, but it’s exactly the same and I’m loving it.

“It’s faster, though,” she adds. “Getting used to the pace has been a baptism of fire!”

The role has come at a very good time in Theresa’s life.