Family reunion
Yes! It's true! Rachel McKenna's brother Jonathon McKenna is
coming back to
Shortland Street and
the character will be played by the original actor,
Kieren Hutchison who first gained the role in the early
90's.
Back in the early days of Shorty, there was a whole McKenna family,
Mum Alex McKenna (played by Liddy Holloway - that's Geordie Holibar
(Phoenix Raynor) real life grandmother!), Dad Michael McKenna (Paul
Gittins, his son Callum Gittins went on to play Jake Valentine),
sister Rachel (played by actor/ director Angela Bloomfield and
brother Jonathon (Kieren Hutchison).
Michael ran the clinic, Alex ran a bar and the teenagers, well,
they bickered and fought like siblings normally do.
Kieren's character Jonathon had some pretty controversial
storylines at the time, he was one of
Shortland
Street's first bisexual characters.
He eventually got fired from his job and left town having given up
on med school in 1996.
Now, he's back and the drama is set to continue!
Why is Jonathon back? How will Rachel react? And how long is he
back for?
All these questions will be answered over the next couple of
months.
Kieren has been living in LA for the last few years, where he has
worked on shows such as The Ghost Whisperer and One Tree Hill, but
was very excited about being asked back to New Zealand to catch up
with the
Shortland Street gang.
"In some ways it was like stepping into a time warp," he says. "On
one of my first days back I stood on set and the camera op, the
vision switcher, the director and the two actors that I was working
with were all the same as when I was last on the show! Some things
never change around here. But it was really nice to have some
familiar faces in the building. Being able to work with Angela
(Rachel McKenna) and Michael (Chris Warner) again has been
fantastic."
Watch the sparks fly as Jonathon and Rachel
McKenna get to know each other all over again.
