I'm having way too much fun to retire

Veteran Aussie actor and flourishing crime writer Bryan Brown on playing a campervan-driving ex-detective, flipping bottles with Tom Cruise... and the secret to a long and happy showbiz marriage

- By Alison James

I'VE got a confession to make - and I suspect I’m not alone. While many a girl swooned over hot priest Richard Chamberlain in 1983 smash-hit miniseries The Thorn Birds, for me it was always the even hotter farm stockman Bryan Brown who got my heart skipping like a baby lamb in pasture. Tall, rugged, gritty and devilishly handsome with that unmistakable Aussie swagger, he had me at the first “G’day”.

And now? Some teenage crushes fade. But mine is stronger than ever. Bryan’s 78 but he’s still got it - and then some. So yes, I’m a bit giddy as he pops up on my Zoom screen from his home in Sydney - still sharp, still charming, still sexy.

Blimey, no wonder his Thorn Birds costar Rachel Ward fell for him on set and went on to marry him — over 42, yes that’s 42, years ago! So was it love at first sight?

“Oh, definitely for her,” comes the reply. He’s straight-faced for a nanosecond but then he starts laughing and I like him even more. A man with a well-developed sense of humour in addition to his other qualities? Heck, what’s not to love?

“Seriously, we had a lot of fun on The Thorn Birds and got on very well right from the start,’ Bryan continues. “Rachel was only in her 20s when we made it while I was —and still am — 10 years older.

“I think she thought I was a bit of an idiot and she laughed at me a lot. But, yeah, well. ..it’s lasted. We're grandparents now — our two daughters have given us three grandkids. We also have a son, by the way.”

A 42-year marriage is quite an achievement for any couple but in showbiz circles it is, as Bryan might say, a bloody miracle. So just what is their secret?

“Always agreeing with your wife is a good idea, I always say! Being the bloke who can say, “Oh what a great idea, darling’ and ‘Sorry, that was definitely my fault’.