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Neighbourhood > Guest Character Profiles > Ted Gibbons Max Meldrum

Brother to Clive Gibbons’ father, Charles, Ted Gibbons had been living in the USA for 30 years, forging a successful medical career and raising a couple of equally successful children, when their father died. Although Ted couldn’t make it back to Australia, he spoke to his brother, who took the opportunity to brag about how successful Clive had become. The truth, however, was very different – Clive had given up his career as a doctor and was scraping a living from various scams and sharing a rented house with single mother, Susan Cole. Charles, who had always tried to out-do his brother, lied to Ted that Clive was a very successful doctor, married to Susan, and that her baby, Sam, was his son. After returning from the funeral, armed with this information, Clive explained to Susan that Ted was en route to Australia after a medical conference in Hawaii, and would be paying them a short visit. Susan reluctantly agreed when Charles phoned and agreed to lend them the money to buy their house if they went along with the plan. And so, after arranging to have the Home James limousine parked in his garage for the day, and filling in all of the neighbours on the plan, Clive was ready for his uncle’s visit.

The following day, Ted arrived, early, and told his nephew and a stunned Susan that he’d be staying for at least two weeks. As Ted turned his nose up at the suburban home, Clive claimed that it was simply their city home and, when Ted asked about Clive’s car, Bertha, Clive claimed that it was just an old banger that he was helping the kids to restore. After making up stories about how their eyes met over a crowded room, but they had no wedding photos due to the photographer not showing up, Clive and Susan breathed a sigh of relief as they survived their first evening as a sham couple. But, the next morning, there were more hurdles to cross when Ted mentioned that he’d seen them coming out of separate bedrooms. Clive quickly explained that Susan understood that he needed a good night’s sleep before a day in the surgery and, with Sam waking up through the night, it made sense to sleep in separate rooms. Although Ted accepted this, he was still unhappy to learn that Susan still went out to work, as she left for her job as Paul Robinson’s secretary at the Daniels Corporation.

Later that day, Clive took Ted to show him around the Lassiter’s hotel and its grounds where Ted met Paul. Having heard about Clive’s scheme, Paul was unimpressed as he had fallen in love with Susan and was struggling with his feelings. When Ted came in to see Susan at work, Paul snapped and was about to tell him the truth about Clive, until Susan butted in and started telling the story of how Clive saved Paul’s kid sister Lucy with an emergency tracheotomy. Later, Clive met Ted for a coffee and introduced him to Ruth Wilson, a widow from England who had been staying with the Robinson family in Ramsay Street. The pair quickly hit it off and Ruth took Ted back to introduce him to Jim Robinson, who almost ruined the whole plan by mentioning one of Clive’s old scams. When Ted mentioned that he might be heading to Europe on business, Ruth told him that they should meet up, as she’d be able to give him an excellent tour of London. Ruth and Ted continued to bond as he told her about his two failed marriages, and how both of his wives had felt neglected due to his obsession with his career. But, as they chatted, Ted was shocked when he spotted Paul and Susan in an embrace – the pair had finally given in to their feelings for each other, unaware that they’d been spotted.

Back at the Gibbons house, Ted broke the news to Clive about his cheating wife, stating that maybe the Gibbons men simply weren’t that lucky with women. When Susan then arrived home, Ted angrily confronted her when she mentioned that she’d be going out later to a mothers’ meeting. Clive realised that the charade had gone on for long enough and he sat his uncle down to tell him the truth. Although surprised, Ted admitted that he was impressed with the lengths Clive had gone to, just to spin out one of his father’s lies. He admitted that his own kids, although successful, rarely even remembered his birthday. Ted then decided that he should leave and, after saying his goodbyes to Ruth and promising to meet her if he was ever in London, he set off to visit Charles and try to finally sort out their brotherly rivalry.

Biography by Steve

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