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

Dr. Geoff and sr. Kate feel like they're really married!

Source: Privé, Dutch gossip magazine, 199?

The happy doctors couple from The Flying Doctors
The flying doctors are back on Dutch television and new, exciting adventures are coming. The series are a great success and even have their own fan club. Privé visited the flying doctors in Australia and talked to Robert Grubb and Lenore Smith, or doctor Geoff and his wife Kate. Read how they got married by radio, about their feelings for each other and why doctor Geoff had to operate on himself...

The day Privé visits the location where some scenes of Flying Doctors are filmed, is a bright and warm one. In the middle of a deserted landscape, one hour driving from Melbourne, a scene is filmed about a plane crashed in the desert. After the shootings Robert Grubb (dr. Geoff) and Lenore Smith (his wife Kate) tell about the series, which is filmed entirely on location and is broadcast all over the world. A high point for Robert and Lenore was their romantic wedding day, when they said 'I do' in the series. Robert: 'Australia must be one of the few countries in the world where you can marry by radio.' Lenore: 'Geoff had an emergency, and because of that our marriage had to be postponed. But I didn't feel like it. And so someone launched the idea of a wedding by radio. And we did. After that I drove to the airport where we had a very romantic meeting. I was wearing my beautiful wedding dress and Geoff was wearing his dirty doctors outfit, because he just helped delivering a baby. But I didn't care how he looked, as long as he was with me. Afterwards we had a party in Minyip where everyone came to congratulate us.'

Lots of arguments
Lenore talks with so much enthusiasm about the on-screen wedding day, that it seems like she's talking about her own wedding. She laughs: 'I'm of course totally different then Kate and after so many years it's sometimes hard to keep acting like your character in the series and not get back to your own personality.' She says: 'Our marriage stays romantic, even long after our wedding day. We needed some time to get use to each other after the honeymoon. But now we are strongly connected. It is a strong and pure marriage. Kate and Geoff get along very well. Better than before the wedding, when they argued a lot because of Geoff being so introvert. Geoff wasn't aware of his feelings and because of that I got frustrated and there where lots of misunderstandings.' Robert: 'Since our wedding the series care less about our relationships. The pressure is now on our work and the difficulties we have to deal with, like a kidnapping or a plane crash.'

The Flying Doctors also exist in real life. Do they have to cope with these things too? Robert: 'Not in the same degree, of course. But they do work under hard conditions, often deep in the desert with a minimum on communication possibilities.' Lenore tells that she was shocked when Robert had to play a scene in which he had to operate on himself. Robert: 'My first thought was: o my god, they really want the limit! In this scene we were far away from the hospital and I had to remove my appendix by myself. Fortunately I never had to face such a thing in real life, because I never could have done it.'

Lenore, now 31, was 17 years old when she first appeared on stage. She says: 'I studied economics, but my teacher sarcastically told me there was not enough work in this sector. She said I was better off working in the acting business on television or on stage. After my graduation I thought about these words and so I decided to take some acting lessons and not long afterwards I was asked for a television series.'

Fan mail from the Netherlands
'That went well and I had a lot of fun. It isn't easy working without any training, but just doing it teaches you a great deal. Later on I starred in The Restless Years, about the life of teenagers. Then I got the offer to play in The Flying Doctors. A long-term contract is great, you don't have to keep looking for new offers all the time. On the other hand it gets harder to stay enthusiastic about a series which is on for so many years.' Robert used to work as an electrician, but because his passion was performing, he decided to follow a course in acting. He played many parts before he got a part in The Flying Doctors. Robert: 'We get a lot of fan mail, also from the Netherlands. People write that they love the series so much because it is so real and natural, not-American. That is, I think, because Australians are themselves and have no pretentions. In American shows and films everything is so smooth and unrealistic, although they make some good productions as well. The specialty of Flying Doctors is that everything is filmed in the open air. This outback of Australia must be very fascinating for Europeans and Dutch people.' Lenore: 'When the series first started we went with the whole cast to Northern Territory for a week. It was just like a school trip. We got to know each other very well and because of that we got a really strong bond.' Robert and Lenore are getting along so well with each other that it seems like they are husband and wife in real life too, but the truth is they both have other partners. Robert is a father of two children and Lenore, married to an actor/writer, doesn't have any children yet.

Marriages change by children
Robert: 'Marriages chance when children are born. There are much more demands. When I get home after a long working day, I really feel like getting my legs on the table and relax. But I sense I have to do something with my children first and I often find it exhausting.' Lenore says: 'My husband and I do lots of things together. But my relationship with my husband is totally different then with dr. Geoff. The script prescribes a certain way how to respond to Geoff. To my own husband I respond differently, much more intensive and complicated. From the moment I put on Kate's clothes, I become her and respond like her to Geoff. But after five years of filming and working close together you get used to it. It happens now and then automatically that I loose contact with the character. I have to think very consciously about what I'm doing then. The director leaves a lot up to us during the shooting, probably because we act together for so long. Because we are married, our playing must show some private features and we're working on that now. We use the games married people play, the way they look and the movements to make something clear. We really feel like we're married. That we are both married in real life, helps a lot. We even use the same pet names in the series as we use at home. We can do so, because our families are really close and we visit each other a lot.' Robert: 'Many marriages end in separation, but my wife and I really work on it to make it work. Now that I am a father, I see how important a family is. It's important to grow up in a close family. When you'll leave the house, you'll have a great dose of self-confidence. You're stronger than most other young people, who hadn't had the experience of growing up in a close family. I think that children should learn at school how they build good marriages and keep it that was, who knows this may cause some more stronger relationships.'

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Robert and Lenore