Small Claims

<– Back to Biography

Lisa played the character Louise Page. This episode aired on the 16th April 2006, on channel 10 Australia.

The DVD was released on the 5th October, it is a 3 Disc set, which includes all three telemovies, and it also has bonus material. The bonus material includes interviews with Lisa and about the filming of the show. It is fantastic!

Summary

Small Claims – “The Reunion”
Production Company – RB Films Pty Ltd
Exec Producer – Sue Masters
Producer – Rosemary Blight, Ben Grant
Director – Tony Tilse
Writer – Kaye Bendle, Keith Thompson
Cast – Claudia Karvan, Rebecca Gibney, Lisa Chappell, Peter Phelps, Simon Bourke, Alison Whyte.

Brief Episode Summary

When Chrissy, dressed in her daggy tracksuit, bumps into Louise Page at the supermarket, Chrissy wishes she could bury herself under the mountain of Pontiac potatoes and never come out again.

Chrissy and Louise studied law together at university, but Louise is the one with the stellar career in commercial law and the fashionable, unstained clothes. Worse, Louise seems to have scaled the heights of the legal profession without making too many sacrifices along the way. Louise has two gorgeous boys, a nanny, a successful marriage to husband Ross and the professional esteem of her peers

Louise persuades a reluctant Chrissy to attend their $150-a-head, 15-year law school reunion but, at the last minute, Peter (Chrissy’s husband) has to go away on business. Chrissy asks Jo to step into the breach. Jo willingly agrees, recognising Chrissy’s reunion as a priceless opportunity to market her Lingerie Parties to a group of well-heeled lawyers. Chrissy however, approaches the reunion feeling unsettled, restless and frumpy. As though she’s missed the boat. As though all of her peers have managed the life and career mix a whole lot more successfully than she has.

Chrissy and Jo finish the evening at Louise’s house with Paul, a campaigning solicitor and long-time champion of the criminal classes, who has obviously set his sights on Jo. But the night ends in suspicious circumstances when Louise almost drowns in the family swimming pool. Annie, Louise’s nanny, dives in and rescues her.

A week later, comes the tragic news that Louise’s husband, Ross, has been drowned on the Harbour, apparently in a boating accident. Chrissy turns up at the house to offer her condolences and finds Louise curiously unmoved by her husband’s death. Perhaps, it’s something to do with the fact that, whilst going through her husband’s effects, Louise has found a text message on Ross’ mobile which suggests he was having an affair with Pip, another university friend, who had attended the reunion with her husband, Jon.

In fact, the revelation of her dead husband’s affair has put the normally self-controlled Louise into a tail-spin. Her grief at Ross’ death and her anger at the affair combine to spawn an unstable cocktail of feelings, as Louise suddenly turns her fury on Pip, confronting her in her office and then ramming her car on the driveway of Pip and Jon’s house.

Chrissy, envious to begin with at Louise’s ability to have it all – now finds herself attempting to manage an unpredictable and out-of-control woman who, if she is not very careful, is in danger of losing everything she has ever worked for, including her children.

When the autopsy reveals that Ross was actually poisoned, Louise finds herself being questioned by the police about his murder. Chrissy and Jo, believing Louise to be innocent, set about revealing the true identity of the murderer. Other suspects include Annie, Louise’s young nanny, Pip or Jon (“the other couple”) and Paul, the campaigning solicitor (and Jo’s latest love interest) who appears to have been involved in some shady business dealings with the deceased.