Coming up next month in ABC’s weekly interview series Talking Heads, host Peter Thompson talks to one of Australia’s most well known actresses, Kerry Armstrong.
Armstrong was still a schoolgirl when she got her first break in TV in an ABC series, Marion, in 1974, followed by a stint as a weather presenter for GTV9, Melbourne. Her acting career then took off in 1979 with the key role of wrongfully-jailed inmate Lynn Warner (pictured) in the popular series Prisoner.
Her early acting career also included roles in The Sullivans and Skyways followed by another stint as a TV presenter, co-hosting a magazine program, Together Tonight, with Greg Evans for Melbourne’s ATV10 in 1981. Armstrong then went to the US, where she made a guest appearance in Murder She Wrote and landed a role in the mega-soap Dynasty.
Returning to Australia in the late 1980s after the death of her grandmother, Armstrong featured in the telemovie A Long Way From Home and ABC dramas Police Rescue and Come In Spinner, and joined the cast of comedy series All Together Now.
For three years she played the role of Heather Jelly in ABC’s top-rating Seachange and is currently working on a third series of Bed Of Roses.
After thirty years in a career that has also included movie roles and winning AFI and TV Week Logie awards, Armstrong concedes that she is re-thinking her future as an actor. “It feels like I’m almost all done,” she says.
Talking Heads with guest Kerry Armstrong. Monday 15 November, 6.30pm. ABC1