DR TANNER BOWS OUT
AND A FAMILIAR FACE RETURNS

Judy McIntosh exits ABC's G.P. in a dramatic two-part episode this week. Her character Dr Nicola Tanner has been pushed to the edge, her career in crisis and her brother a victim of schizophrenia.

In a role that will shock some viewers, Brett Climo returns to G.P. for the last two shows for 1991 as Danny Tanner. The happy-go-lucky Danny, however, is no more. He is an intense and disturbed man with all the symptoms of paranoid schizophrenic.

Nicola's worst fears are confirmed when her mother reveals a family secret - her husband suicided as a result of paranoid schizophrenia.

For Brett Climo, the episodes where the biggest challenge of his career. "It's the sort of thing you only rest from when you sleep." he says of the illness. "You can be incredibly happy and then, 30 seconds later, be talking about suicide."

"The way I see it, your head becomes the heaviest weight in the world. There is so much pressure, you question every reaction, everything everyone else does. With the paranoia come huge insecurities and, consequently, maintaining relationships becomes impossible."

To ensure the performance wasn't over the top, Brett, Judy and researcher Carol Long talked to schizophrenics. "One man in particular was so honest and he made me realise the normality of the illness." Brett says. "He made me see the fine line between insanity and what we consider to be reality."

Brett was also wary of offending anyone. "We wanted to get rid of a lot of the misconceptions," he says. "We wanted to present the illness in a positive way. As it says in the show, schizophrenia is not the Black Plague. It is treatable and controllable. It is a disease that can be controlled by medication just as epilepsy is."

For Nicola Tanner, the turmoil of her brother's illness, combined with her own career crises, forces hasty readjustments. She comes to the conclusion she wants more - to be a surgeon.

She leaves the Ross Street surgery her words ringing with irony: "I'm going go miss this madhouse."