Everything you always wanted to know about The Flying Doctors. Dedicated to Lenore Smith and Christopher Stollery.
 

'Me a heartthrob? Then my mother was right after all'

Source: VARA TV Magazine, Dutch TV guide, 1990

Doctor Geoff is what the English call a "heartthrob". A man of understanding and sympathy, charming and unthreatening, aware of his shortcomings, unaware of his qualities, both serious and funny. To put it shortly: the ideal man! Confronted with this description, Robert says: 'Bearing in mind that the part of Geoff isn't far from who I really am, I should take this as a great compliment. My mother was right after all!' Grinningly adding that Geoff is a bit more of a wimp than Grubb really is.

With his hooked nose in the wind Robert Grubb is standing on the forward deck of a water taxi, that carries him through the canals of Amsterdam, and is enjoying the historical atmosphere wholeheartedly. 'In Australia you won't find this anywhere. I have read all the library books about the middle-ages, but now I see them for the first time myself. A great sight isn't it?'

This isn't work for him. If this stands against 32 hours of flying and a bit of promotion then they can ask him more often. Again it appears how little presumptuous the Australians are. Here he is also recognised but like in his country it is not troublesome. 'Yesterday I was walking somewhat lost through a museum and slowly a group of people was forming who recognised me. An attendant saw that and she elegantly intervened. She said: "You must be looking for the way out", and she led me to the door.'

Later in the studio he is talking to some youthful fans for half an hour and he is visibly touched when they offer him a bath towel with his initials. Kisses are being exchanged to the absolute joy of the girls. It is like Robert Grubb only became famous yesterday, but he already takes part for four and a half years. He replaced Andrew McFarlane, who left shortly after the series began. It was a chance out of millions for the reasonably successful theatre-actor Grubb, who reached out for it with both hands and a little fright. 'I thought that they needed a third doctor, only after a while I realised that I had to replace Andrew. I was reluctant to replace someone who did so well.'

'Before The Flying Doctors I did some film work, but I wasn't really happy with that. I only started to feel good by the time we had shooted half the film. I had a lot of trouble shaking down from the celluloid, The Flying Doctors is also shooted on film and not on video. In the first place you get a crystal-clear picture with great colours, but there is also a difference for the actors. With video-shooting they usually shoot chronological, but with film they shoot the scenes mixed, like in a movie.'

'Like I expected the first few weeks were a disaster, but after that it got better. I learned some tricks and got a lot of support from the others. Unfortunately I have to say that everything I tried in the beginning out of own initiative ended on the floor of the editing room.' This triggers a laughter from Lenore, who is eavesdropping in the make-up room. After the remark Robert made, she brings in mind a few bloopers which vary from using swearwords during takes, and a kissing scene that wasn't stopped with the usual "cut" and left them gasping for air. A joke from the director!
The two "Flying Doctors" often tease each other, but anyone can see that they are really good friends, if you didn't know any better you would think they are a happily married couple. 'The fact that Lenore is my direct counterpart has helped me a lot,' Robert admits. 'She is a great actress, and sends out great tranquillity.' It is very quiet across the room all of a sudden. 'In the beginning she got me over my insecurity, because we often rehearse together, we are the two actors that the director worries least about.'

'We always interfere with the scripts, this is being accepted and appreciated. In fact Lenore and I are the spiritual mother and father of our relationship on the screen. The writers weren't planning at all to let us get together - something that is apparent but still doesn't happen, was a nice dramatic theme for them - but we felt that the tension, that was there for months had to get a way out. It wasn't entirely free of self-interest because it was important for our character development.'

That rises the question whether it is boring always having to play "Mr Nice Guy". 'In that case you have missed a few episodes,' he firmly says. 'Geoff can be a nasty man if you ask me, but you are right if you mean that it is harder to play someone nice than a thief or a crook. And I don't see Geoff doing anything underhand, he is too straight for that.'

'But so what, we are talking about the success of the series. Coopers Crossing is a closed community with very normal people and a few with a special profession. It is situated in the sunny part of Australia, and I want to say something about that later. The dramas you encounter are human, it's very easy to identify yourself with them, and there aren't really bad people in it. This concept appeals to the imagination of many people, apparently all across the world.'

Would you be able to do this for another ten years? Robert: 'I suppose so, of course I have other ambitions, but with a bit of luck I can make use of this series. I'm counting on it that I can direct of few scenes soon and maybe a whole episode. My goal is to direct a whole film. Because of the tight filming schedule there isn't much time left to to anything besides the series. The last thing I did was a play by Tsjechov, I was playing a seedy-looking doctor, which caused a lot of amusement.'

What did you want to say about sunny Australia? 'Ah this, it may seem nice and warm there, even hot, but the area has a strong climate-change. Most of the time we were freezing on the set, while we had to look like we were challenging the heath. The drops of sweat came out of a plant spray most of the time. Certainly one of the darker sides of The Flying Doctors.'

Robert has to go on for the rehearsals of a song he is singing tonight. 'When I was about 20 years old I was a crazy singer of a really weird band from Tasmania,' he says to me while he is leaving. 'Can you imagine that?!'

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Robert and Lenore