April 1993 - TV Week Australia

Simon Switches Soaps

Now he's reached the end of E Street, the TV Week Logie Award winner is set for a short stop in Wandin Valley.

Stardom lasted little more than a year for TV Week Logie Award winner Simon Denny before the axe fell on E Street last month.

But the cliché of being only as good as your last role - Simon's only role, as Constable Sam Farrell - proved true for the blond 23-year-old actor.

Hours after E Street's demise, Denny's Sydney agent was inundated with offers, and fans will soon see him in a guest role in A Country Practice.

The Tasmanian-born former model reveals he had agonised for months over whether to leave the Network Ten soap which gave him his first opportunity to act.

"I was facing a dilemma," says this year's winner of the Most Popular New Talent Logie.

"My contract was going to be up in August and I had to make a decision and satisfy my practical needs, a regular income and be comfortable, or satisfy my internal desire.

"I dearly wanted to challenge my artistic side a bit more, take and few risks and go for it.

"My career wasn't going to go anywhere if I stayed at E Street for the rest of my life. If you're not being challenged artistically and you want those challenges but the money keeps coming in, then you're only satisfying your practical desires."

The axing of E Street saved him making the choice but was compounded by learning his girlfriend, actress Rebecca Rigg, was pregnant with their first child.

"The fact that I wasn't working on the show any more didn't break my heart - though, of course, the money side worries you a bit," Simon says.

"I'd have to be an alien if I said it (unemployment) didn't worry me. It's a very instinctive thing to be concerned about the welfare of the family I'm about to have.

"Mind you, we are going to stay very positive about the future, I'm very excited about being a father. I'm over the moon, and Rebecca is absolutely glowing.

"We are both very happy and hoping for a lovely, healthy baby.

"There's a lot of things I can do to make money. I'm not afraid of getting my hands dirty and digging ditches for a while, if that's what I have to do.

"This is exciting, I can go for it now, go to auditions, all the things I couldn't do when I was in E Street."

And he will be getting his hands dirty when he takes on the role of 19-year-old mechanic Stewart Waterman in A Country Practice. Frankie J. Holden plays Stewart's father, a shearer whose son wants to be more than a mate.

"Stewart is at the age when he wants to spend more time with his father," Simons says. "There is conflict between father and son. It's a nice role for me."

Story Di Stanley and Glen Williams