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Character Profiles > Tad Reeves Jonathon Dutton

Wayne (né Paul) 'Tad' 'Tadpole' Terrance Reeves 1998-2002, 2022
Lived: 24, 30 Ramsay Street
Born: 1983
Parents: Greg [surname unknown] and Rachel Bailey (biological); Coral and Barry R. Reeves (adoptive)
Siblings: Tim and Jasmine; Gemma [Gemfish] (adoptive)
Family Tree: Reeves
Occupation: Student, Carpenter's Mechanics Employee, The Coffee Shop Assistant, Grease Monkeys Assistant, Labourer, Disc Jockey

Born on June 23rd 1983 and brought up in Tindara, Wayne Reeves was given the nickname of Tadpole as part of a long tradition of aquatic names in the family. As he entered his teenage years, he started to become quite a handful and develop a bad reputation in his home town, culminating in being arrested for stealing a car, so his mother, Coral, realised the only course of action was to send him away. His cousin, Toadfish, seemed the obvious choice as he had recently started a law degree and was one of the few respectable members of the family.

As soon as Tad arrived in Ramsay Street, he was causing trouble. Suddenly having a teenager in the house caused no end of problems for the residents of number 30, particularly Sarah, on whom Tad developed a huge crush. When Tad, along with his new partner in crime, Paul McClain, found a website with a fake nude picture of Sarah, they immediately spread the word. However, Sarah was horrified when she found out and got her own back by taking a photo of Tad in the shower.

When Tad’s day in court arrived, Coral came to Erinsborough to be by her son’s side. Afterwards, she explained to Toadie that she wasn’t sure she could cope with having Tad around, particularly as she and Barry were having a few marital problems. She asked Toadie to look after Tad for a further six months, something which Tad overheard. He was convinced that his mum simply didn’t want him around anymore. When Tad finally calmed down, he found that Erinsborough wasn’t such a bad place to call home. However, it soon became obvious that Toadie couldn’t cope with his cousin full-time and Tad was almost sent back to Tindara, until Madge and Harold agreed to step in and become his guardians.

Tad’s love-life was never as great as he hoped it would be. After losing out on Jade Cleary to Paul, Tad found himself constantly sitting in his best mate’s shadow. After Hannah returned from France and she and Paul were reunited, Tad found himself becoming the third wheel in their relationship. When Tad developed a huge crush on Becky Niedermeyer from year 12, he went out of his way to impress her, even organising a concert. This ended in disaster when the equipment all turned out to be faulty and Becky ended up leaving with an older boy.

When Tad and Paul became obsessed with BMX biking, they soon turned Harold’s allotment into a BMX track. However, their new interest brought some bad company with it as Hannah started showing an interest in Teabag Teasdale, who had also started using the track. When Teabag started hassling the Bishops, a way of getting back at Paul who was jealous of his relationship with Hannah. Tad and Paul were determined to show what Teabag was really like and planned to get him into a fight with them. After throwing a brick through Teabag’s window, they were shocked to realise that he’d called the police.

However, Tad’s problems soon changed when it was revealed that he had a crush on his neighbour and school principal, Susan Kennedy. Determined to regain his cool status at school, Tad tried to cause problems for new teacher Teresa Bell, but she was too smart for him, prepared with a comeback for all his comments. While Tad had been working for Madge and Harold at their new fast food restaurant, Grease Monkeys, it soon went wrong as he was spending more time working and less time studying. After having previously been diagnosed with learning difficulties, Tad was determined to prove himself as he headed into year 11.

After school finished, Tad was thrilled when his father came to Erinsborough for a visit, but it was a visit that would change Tad’s life completely. Barry wasted no time in breaking the news that he and Coral planned to divorce, but before Tad could digest this news, there was more. Tad was told that he had been adopted. He was shocked and too embarrassed to tell anyone about it. As his behaviour got more and more erratic, things came to a head when Tad got drunk on some alcohol he found in Lou’s garage and Harold found him passed out in the lounge room. While everyone was worried, Tad chose Susan to confide in about the reasons for his unhappiness. Since her husband was himself adopted, she explained the pros and cons of searching for his real parents. After deliberating for a while, Tad contacted Barry and Coral to ask for their permission to trace his real parents. He then registered with the Adoption Information Service, in order to trace them.

Soon after, they came back to him with some news. His parents names were Greg and Rachel. While Rachel was still alive and living in the Melbourne area, Greg had been killed many years ago in a motorbike accident. Tad and Paul were also amused to learn that Tad himself had been given the name Paul at birth. Tad realised it could be a long time before Rachel was tracked down. Meanwhile, Tad and Paul had both got close to their new neighbours, Flick, who had moved into number 26 with her family. While Paul had developed a huge crush on Flick, Tad became her friend. When Paul was dumped by Simone King, Tad started spending time with her, but was worried about having to kiss her, so Flick agreed to teach him how to kiss. It worked, and when Paul returned from a trip to see his dad in Port Lincoln, he was shocked to find that Tad was dating Simone and he had also kissed Flick. However, things went wrong when it became obvious that Simone was actually interested in Paul and Tad was horrified to learn the truth after finding them together. Although this began a serious feud between the two boys, they eventually made up when Harold was mistakenly arrested for armed robbery.

Meanwhile, after one false start with a woman named Rachel Jones, Tad was happy when the AIS informed him that they had traced his real mother, Rachel Bailey. Their first meeting went well, until Tad spotted a picture of Rachel and her family, in her wallet. He confronted her and she admitted that her husband and children didn’t know about him. Tad was angry and decided to go to her home and reveal the truth himself. The following day, he went there, but when his young half-brother, Tim, answered the door, Tad chickened out and asked for someone else. Soon after, on Tad’s birthday, he managed to make his peace with Rachel when she arrived with a birthday cake for him and explained that she’s made one each year on his birthday.

Tad found a new interest soon after when he found a talent as a DJ and scored his first gig at the club, Hemisfear, with help from the manager, Doula Tsobanopoulos. Tad mistook her help for her fancying him and found further reason to spend more and more time at the club, despite Harold’s displeasure. When Tad continued to spend his nights out and miss his curfews, it caused a great deal of problems between Tad and his guardians, until it was revealed that Doula had been taking advantage of Tad by underpaying him and he threatened to report her.

Shortly after, Tad got a terrible shock when Stephen Bailey, husband of Rachel, turned up at number 24 and told Tad that Rachel had recently drowned during a family picnic. He went on to explain that his and Rachel’s son, Tim, had been diagnosed with a serious bone disease and required a bone marrow transplant.As all other family members had been screened, Tad was their last hope. While Tad was distraught about having all this news broken at once, he decided he would help Tim. After discovering that he was a compatible donor, Tad was surprised as he realised that Tim had no idea that he was his half-brother, but they ended up becoming great friends after the truth came out, sharing an interest in BMX. A few weeks later, Tad was called up to begin the donor process, which was completed successfully. However, when Tim’s condition started to deteriorate a few weeks afterwards and Tad became worried that he’d given Tim a virus which could be affecting him. Luckily, Tim made a full recovery and Tad was happy to have helped his new-found brother.

Meanwhile, Tad had decided to quit school and was thrilled when Joe offered him some labouring work on the building site. However, Tad quickly realised that he wasn’t cut out for a working life as his back began to hurt. At first, he was determined to prove to Madge and Harold that he could cut it, but eventually he gave in and went back. Tad was delighted when the year 12 class included new girl Jess Fielding, who Tad quickly fell for. They got very close very quickly, but Jess’ attitude proved to be a problem as she was extremely rude to Susan. When a bomb exploded in a bin at Erinsborough High, Jess was the prime suspect and Tad found it increasingly difficult to stand by her, especially when she accused Susan of assault.

However, the news that Madge was suffering from inoperable pancreatic cancer soon put things into perspective. Tad was heartbroken when Madge died soon after her diagnosis and turned to Jess for support. Amidst all this, she admitted that her claims against Susan were made up and she got her off the hook. With Paul and Harold away in Paris, Tad went to stay at number 30 for a few weeks and was shocked when Jess turned up on the doorstep, begging to stay. While Tad managed to get her to sort out her problems with her family, he soon realised that she was very troubled and that the relationship was more trouble than it was worth.

When Paul returned from France, it seemed that he had met a girl there, named Larissa Calwell. When she started emailing Paul, Tad decided to reply, pretending to be his best friend. He made Paul seem much cooler, with an interest in music, so when Paul found out, he decided to go along with it, realising how interested Larissa had become. When Larissa returned to Australia, she called in on Paul, who was forced to get information fed from Tad on what to talk about. As time went on, Tad realised that he quite liked Larissa too and the boys were forced to admit their scam. Larissa, rather surprisingly, decided to date both of them until she had decided who she preferred. On her first date with Paul, Tad caught them kissing on the doorstep, making him determined to win her. After a date with Tad, things came to a head, with Paul telling her to choose, but she refused. The boys both decided to end the whole thing, but then secretly began seeing Larissa behind each other’s back. After becoming suspicious, Paul followed Tad to Hemisfear one night and caught Tad and Larissa kissing. In all the confusion, Tad and Paul ended up fighting in the middle of the dancefloor. While Larissa wanted to stay with Tad, he decided he didn’t want to see her again, nor Paul, and he moved out of number 24. However, when Paul was injured on his BMX, Tad decided to return home and put the past behind him.

When year 12 headed off to school camp, Tad was determined to impress the new girl in his sights, Monique Disney. Smuggling a bottle of whiskey in, Tad became progressively worse for wear as the evening commenced, despite warnings from Matt Hancock, who was chaperoning the trip. After falling off the log they were sitting off, Tad ended up being bitten by a scorpion. However, as his condition deteriorated, everyone put it down to the alcohol. Susan was alerted as Tad became seriously ill, and before lapsing into unconsciousness, Tad revealed to Flick that he had always fancied her. Tad was airlifted to hospital where he made a full recovery. However, he found more than one problem awaiting him. He, along with Paul and Flick, got suspended from school in his final months at Erinsborough High. He also had to deal with his admission to Flick, who seemed to be taking it rather well.

As Tad and Flick began a relationship, much to the surprise of everyone, Paul and Michelle placed bets on how short the union would be. While they were officially a couple, they found it very difficult to make the adjustment from friends to lovers. While Tad arranged for them to spend the night together in a hotel, it seemed that neither of them was convinced that the romance was actually going anywhere and they decided to end things. Meanwhile, big changes were happening in Tad’s life. He was taking his final VCE exams and leaving school, while his best friend, Paul, was leaving to play footie in Adelaide.

With only Tad and Harold in the house, and Tad beginning a new life studying music engineering at university, things were becoming very strained indeed. Harold strongly disapproved of Tad’s new ‘friend’ Cherry and of Tad coming home at all hours and often not coming home at all. After Harold accused Cherry of being little more than a prostitute, Tad decided he’d had enough and was moving out. However, after learning that it was Madge and Harold’s wedding anniversary, Tad realised how lonely his guardian had become with Madge and Paul going and eventually agreed to stay on.

When Tad was offered the chance to go on a 3 month DJing tour with Extreme Sports, he jumped at the opportunity to do what he loved, while also touring the country. When he returned, he announced that he had been given the chance to continue the tour in America and had returned to pack his things and say his goodbyes. However, when he found that his passport was not where he left it, Tad immediately jumped to the conclusion that shifty new neighbour Connor O'Neill had taken it. After confronting him, Tad was surprised to learn that Connor was illiterate and therefore couldn’t have left the note which Tad had found where the passport should have been. More mysterious happenings occurred when Tad started receiving demands for debt that he knew he hadn’t run up. With Connor’s help, he attempted to trace the person who had stolen his identity. When Tad bumped into his old adversary, Doula, she seemed surprised to find that he was in town and later broke into number 24 to return his passport. When Tad found them, Toadie worked out what had been going on and Tad headed to Hemisfear to confront Doula. After spotting Richard Knott, the man who’d been impersonating him with Doula’s help, Tad confronted them and Richard ran off. Tad gave chase and they headed out into the street, where they were involved in a serious accident on the busy road...

Later that day, Harold was called to the hospital and asked to identify a body which had had the identification for Tad on it. Harold was devastated, but when he saw the body, he realised there had been a mix-up, Richard, with his fake ID with Tad’s name, had been killed in the accident and Tad emerged from an examination room unaware of all the trouble he’d caused. With his passport back, Tad arranged to fly out and join the Extreme Sports tour, leaving Harold very proud of the decent young man he’d become. Tad made sure to leave his favourite record with Harold, as a promise that he would one day be back...

Though Tad never did return to Ramsay Street, he kept in touch with his family and friends in Erinsborough, and in July 2022, a visiting Harold mentioned that Tad was now running his own disco. A few weeks later, Tad was amongst several former Ramsay Street residents who sent messages on the day of Toadie's wedding to Melanie Pearson. Toadie and Melanie had put their house on the market, planning to leave the street and all its memories after the wedding, but Karl had decided to arrange for some of their old friends to leave video messages persuading them to stay. In his message, Tad joked that he couldn't believe the street was throwing a party without him as DJ, and said that Ramsay Street without Toadie would be like a beer that you couldn't open. The plan worked, and Toadie announced that they'd be staying.

Trivia Notes
• Earlier in 1998, Jonathon played scout Kenny Hyland for two episodes, before returning later that year in the permanent role of Tad Reeves
• Jonathon later worked as a director with Neighbours
• Click here to read our interview with Jonathon Dutton

Tenure
3211-4027, 8903