Falling for it

Shortland Street villains Kieran Mitchell (Adam Rickitts) and Rachel McKenna (Angela Bloomfield).

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INSTEAD OF serial killers, body thieves or brain aneurisms, this year's climax was a sudden car accident on a dark country road, which took the life of beloved core cast member, nurse Morgan Braithwaite, played by Bonnie Soper.

Morgan's wide-eyed, empty stare was the last thing viewers saw on screen before we switched off for the year on Friday.

But the two actors involved in the fateful hit-and-run, Angela Bloomfield (who plays Rachel McKenna) and Adam Rickitts (Kieran Mitchell), are promising a plethora of explosive storylines when New Zealand's longest-running local soap returns on January 18.

Rachel, whose big comeback to Shortland Street Hospital after an absence of seven years has been a road paved with disappointment, will be framed for the accident and she will lose her job and revert back to alcoholism.

Dodgy bar owner Kieran, the man who accidentally ran down and killed Morgan as he hurried back to save the IV from being torched by his evil younger brother, Sid, now has a big secret to hide from his barely legal young fiancee, Sophie. Then there's all the juicy romantic gossip from the work Christmas party that everyone was attending before the accident – the positively geriatric Yvonne hooking up with her daughter's ex, Ben, Sarah getting over her failed marriage to TK by kissing Maxwell, Hunter feeling attracted to Tracey – that will all come to a head next year.

Bloomfield says the accident is the beginning rather than the end of the story for Shorty's favourite fiery alcoholic redhead, and that she's signed on to play Rachel till at least August next year. Dressed casually and without a scrap of makeup on, Bloomfield looked more like a tired little girl than the resident bitch on set in Auckland a couple of weeks ago.

In real life, Bloomfield is nothing like Rachel, and says her friends and family have trouble watching her on TV.

"For my character, it's an honest journey beyond that moment, because [Morgan's death] does affect Rachel and Kieran, but also Gerald, Hunter, Morgan's sister Nicole and, of course, anything that happens to Kieran also affects Sophie. And Sid, who was trying to get a fire started to burn down the bar. I've looked back at all the other cliffhangers and this one's been so cleverly crafted and involves so many people in the same incident, that it will affect everyone."

Going back to acting hasn't been easy for Bloomfield, who was one of the original cast members on the show but switched to directing in 2002 so she could take more time to be a mum.

But she thinks fans will learn to empathise with Rachel next year as her life starts to unravel.

"It was Kieran that came out all bad, just that choice to run away from the situation and leave it looking like someone else did it. We travel down that road and it gets pretty messy. There's a lot of guilt and pain. I had a day on location, just my character, dealing with the fallout in an apartment in the city ...and I was basically in a puddle of my own tears. [Rachel] wants to rely on [ex-boyfriend] Chris, but he's not quite as there for her as she would like, so she's left stranded. He doesn't suddenly go, oh my god, you need my help. He goes, yeah, you brought that shit on yourself," laughs Bloomfield.

Rickitts says the hardest part of filming the accident scene, which took place late at night and went on till the wee hours of the morning at a vineyard in West Auckland, was knowing Soper would not be returning to the show.

"However sweet and innocent Morgan is on the show, Bonnie is 20 times more so. To be the bastard that killed her... the one thing I hope people will remember is that it was entirely an accident. It's not like he set out to kill somebody. His reaction afterwards is bloody appalling but he regrets that as soon as he gets back to the IV. You'll then see a lot of him wanting to own up, but other influences stopping him from owning up."

In defence of his character, Rickitts says there's more to Kieran than "a hoo-ha-henry dodgy character", and in the new year, we'll see more of his backstory and what makes him tick emotionally.

"The whole thing about Kieran is that everyone always paints him as this bad boy. He is in some respects, but he's also like Robin Hood in that he'll never take advantage of somebody innocent. For the first time in the show, he's hurt a defenceless person who, apart from that, is also a friend and to him, it's heartbreaking. He regrets what he did but, in that moment of panic, his fate was sealed."

Shortland Street returns to TV2 on January 18.

- © Fairfax NZ News