Nicole Kidman might be one of Hollywood’s biggest stars today, but her television career started somewhere very different.
Long before international fame came calling, Kidman landed a role on one of Australia’s most-loved soap operas. Even more interestingly, the show could now be heading for a major comeback decades after it ended.
Nicole Kidman Started Her TV Career On ‘A Country Practice’
Kidman was born in Hawaii but spent much of her early life in Sydney, Australia. She began picking up small roles in movies and music videos in 1983 before securing her first television job the following year. That role came in ‘A Country Practice‘, the hugely popular Australian daytime soap that aired from 1981 until 1993.
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The soap took viewers to Wandin Valley, a fictional rural town in New South Wales, and mainly revolved around the local nursing hospital and the people living nearby. Kidman appeared in the two-part Season 4 episode “Repairing the Damage,” playing rebellious student Simone Jenkins.
Simone certainly wasn’t an easy first TV role. The character became involved in a storyline about solvent abuse and proved to be a bad influence on those around her. Even after a boy died, Simone and her friends continued inhaling solvents at a local park, eventually leading to even more tragedy.
‘A Country Practice’ Became A Massive Australian Hit
Kidman’s brief appearance might not rank among her most famous television performances today, but ‘A Country Practice‘ was a huge deal. At one stage, the soap reportedly pulled in 10 million viewers every week, which amounted to more than half of Australia’s population at the time.
Its popularity also brought plenty of awards. ‘A Country Practice‘ collected numerous Logie Awards, Australia’s major television awards, often compared to the Emmys. Its place in Australian TV history became even bigger when the soap entered the Logie Hall of Fame in 2026.
Now, Wandin Valley might be preparing to welcome viewers back. Reports from Australia suggest that a new version of “A Country Practice” is in the works. An Australian TV insider claimed the potential revival would follow Chloe Jones, the daughter of Brendan Jones and the late Molly Jones. Molly’s heartbreaking death from leukemia remains one of the soap’s most memorable moments for longtime viewers.
“It would be a continuation rather than simply remaking the original,” the insider told Woman’s Day in September 2026. “Chloe provides the perfect bridge between the ‘A Country Practice’ that millions of Australians remember and a completely new generation of characters.”
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Could Familiar Faces Return For The Revival?
Talk of a possible comeback comes roughly a year after former ‘A Country Practice‘ star John Tarrant discussed whether he would consider returning. Tarrant played vet Matt Tyler on the soap and later took on several acting and entertainment-related jobs. These days, however, he works in the medical field as a paramedic.
Tarrant told Woman’s Day in 2025 that he wouldn’t completely rule out stepping back into the world of Wandin Valley if the revival had the right ingredients. He said, “If it had the right script, the right people and all that, I wouldn’t turn it down.”
A Nicole Kidman return appears far less likely considering how far her career has traveled since her small role as Simone Jenkins. Still, seeing the show that gave Kidman her first television job return more than three decades after its original ending would make the revival a pretty full-circle moment. Whether Simone ever steps foot in Wandin Valley again or not, ‘A Country Practice‘ remains an interesting piece of Kidman’s story from long before Hollywood knew her name.
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