Once a river boy, always a river boy.
Bonnie Sveen and Stephen Peacocke are back on Home and Away after 10 years, and while their characters may have changed, the show’s dramatic plotlines certainly have not. A decade after Sveen’s Ricky and Peacocke’s Brax fled Summer Bay – and the authorities – with baby Casey in tow, the couple are having a homecoming of sorts.
The pair won’t be heading back to the Bay itself, but will be joining forces with the show’s current reformed bad boy, Tane (Ethan Browne) in a special television event.
Sveen and Peacocke caught up with WHO and explained why, on set, there were tears everyday of filming.
What happens in Brax and Ricky’s new storyline?
The plot follows Brax and Ricky 10 years later living in Western Australia, marking the first time the hit Aussie drama has filmed in this location over it’s 38-year history.
Speaking to WHO, Sveen explained that “Ricky, Brax and Casey are living on a cattle station in beautiful and remote Western Australia.”
“It’s a much more isolated life than they had in the Bay and they’re just in a great place in life. Ricky has softened over the years because of motherhood, and there’s a lot less drama in her life.”
However, Peacocke told WHO how quickly it is before this peaceful life is disturbed.
“They get a knock on the door from someone from their old world,” Peacocke said, resulting in Brax having to make a difficult decision about “opening the door to the potential trouble” that helping this old friend will bring to their new and reformed life in Western Australia.
Sveen described what this means for her character.
“She’s let her guard down and then hears that Dean Thompson [Patrick O’Connor] is asking for a favour from Brax to house a fugitive,” Sveen explained. “The stakes couldn’t be higher.”
Sveen was emotional coming back to Home and Away 10 years later
Sveen “was quite emotional going back, because [she] never wanted to leave 10 years ago.”
“Over the course of that decade away, you have no choice but to let things go, so I shut it out of my mind,” she said. “Returning never seemed likely.”
“Then, actually stepping foot in the location of remote WA was next level. I channelled my emotions into the scenes because I was feeling it.”
Sveen also reminisced on how lovely it was to be able to reconnect with old cast and crew.
“I reunited with old crew friends,” she said. “I shared a lot of hugs and a lot of chats. It was amazing working with old friends again, and then there were the new faces.”
“The dynamic was really beautiful between the new crew and the cast. Home and Away really is a beautiful place to work.”
Peacocke had the same experience with filming the new special.
“It didn’t take long to sort of slip back into the way we sort of used to work together,” he said. “There was no lag.”
“We just picked up where we left off and to be doing it in such a remarkable place was a treat.”
Western Australia’s scenery blew Sveen and Peacocke away
Sveen said she had to hold back tears every day she was filming in this “bucket list” location.
“My trouble was not crying everyday because everything was so beautiful,” Sveen said. “Where we shot in Western Australia was bucket list kind of stuff. I would move there in a heartbeat.”
“It’s an amazing part of the world,” Peacocke agreed. “Bullara Station where we shot was extraordinary, and then we had that incredible coastline.”
For Peacocke, filming at Bullara Station was a stand-out memory from this experience.
“It’s kind of pinch yourself,” he said to WHO after gushing about how beautiful filming in the outback was. “It doesn’t feel like work.”
Will we be seeing more of Brax and Ricky in the future?
While the stars couldn’t confirm their return as regular Home and Away cast members after this set of episodes, they did hint at the possibility.
“There’s a possibility of it, but I don’t know if I can give an answer to that one,” Sveen said. “If Home and Away lines up in the future … I felt a really beautiful dynamic working with Steve again because he’s such a good person and a beautiful actor to work against.”
“It would be amazing to revisit.”
When do Brax and Ricky return to Home and Away?
Brax and Ricky return to Home and Away on Monday, March 9, at 7pm on Channel 7 and 7plus, with episodes airing from Mondays to Thursdays.
