Australian TV screenwriter Ray Kolle has died at the age of 85, it has been announced.
Best known for his contributions to soaps Neighbours and Home and Away, Kolle began his career writing stage plays while working as a bookseller.
In 1967, he began writing comedy sketches for the variety series In Melbourne Tonight, and then he joined the writing team of long running show Bellbird, where he worked on more than 1600 episodes between 1967 and 1977.
He also worked on classic Australian series The Sullivans, Sons and Daughters, and Prisoner Cell Block H, as well as the hugely successful miniseries Return to Eden in 1985.
After daytime soap Neighbours was cancelled by its original channel – the Seven Network, in Australia – and picked up by Network Ten, Kolle was invited to take over the script department as story editor.
While the show had been created by Reg Watson, in an interview Ray Kolle explained his and his team's contribution to Neighbours' international success.
"Reg gave us Scott, we gave him Charlene. Reg gave us Madge, we gave her Harold Bishop. Then came Mrs Mangel and Jane, Dorothy Burke, and a host of other lovable characters," he said.
By 1992, Kolle was still writing scripts for Neighbours but stepped away from the story editor role to pursue other projects including Shortland Street and Paradise Beach.
He returned full time to Neighbours in 1996, overseeing landmark storylines such as the return of Harold and Madge Bishop and the departure of fan-favourite character Helen Daniels, as played by Anne Haddy whose ill health meant she had to retire from acting.
View oEmbed on the source website"Writing Helen’s last episode was very messy," Kolle said in an interview on his website in 2003. "I wrote three versions in all and then the version that finally went to air had to have many last-minute adjustments.
"The powers-that-be felt that as Anne Haddy was far from well, we should write her out quietly by sending her off on a cruise from which she simply never returned. I strongly disagreed with this. I believed that to write such an important character out we had to have her die and give her her due with the full funeral and all the resultant sadness and memories.
"They also felt that they couldn’t ask an actress in such ill health to play a death scene (too close to home!) In the face of this argument, I gave way – Helen would go on a never-ending cruise. When Anne Haddy saw the script, however, she hated this idea as much as I had and insisted she must have her death scene. She won the day and I wrote a script with her dying quietly at home surrounded by her loved ones."
Kolle also worked on Home and Away for two years from 1998, and continued to write scripts for Neighbours until 2007.
Tributes have been paid to the legendary writer. Australian entertainment and production company TV City wrote in a statement on Facebook: “Very sad news to hear of the passing of veteran Australian television writer and story editor Ray Kolle. Ray was one of those incredibly talented people working behind the scenes who helped shape some of Australia’s most iconic television dramas.
“Another important part of Australian television history has left us. Thank you, Ray, for the stories and memories you helped create for generations of television viewers.”