Shortland Street is a popular long-running soap opera in New Zealand, set in an Auckland emergency medical clinic.
Dean appeared for nearly a year as Harry Martin, a nurse at the Shortland Street Clinic. Harry was a twenty year old, newly registered nurse when he came to work at the Shortland Street Clinic. He came from an upper middle class background and had cruised through school and nurse's training, using his charm, good looks, and native intelligence. He's cheeky, with a quirky sense of humor, but has a genuine concern for patient welfare. People like him. This allows him, more often than not, to get away with scams he pulls to lighten his workload. Women like him especially and Harry likes them. He gets involved in several romantic entanglements during his tenure at the clinic.
Harry lives at the home of Kirsty and Lionel, who run a coffee shop near the clinic. Lionel rented the room while Kirsty was out of the country, and she is not too happy about it. Harry soon develops a serious crush on Kirsty.
Harry finds a litter of kittens and Kirsty takes them to the coffee shop only to meet the health inspector! When it seems their clean-up efforts will not pass re-inspection, Harry reveals that his mother is in the health department. Kirsty thanks him for his help with a hug and a kiss, but when he declares his love, she tells him she is married to the man she loves - Lionel.
Harry becomes jealous of Lionel, but Kirsty tells him to forget it ever happened. Harry begins flirting shamelessly with nurses at the hospital, looking for another conquest. Chris, Ellen, and Kirsty all warn Harry that he should deal with his disappointment and focus on his work. Lionel finally reads Harry the riot act and he remorsefully apologizes to the nurses he offended.
Harry tries to help clinic employee Manny with a legal problem by introducing him to his father, a judge. But Manny's case is not helped when Judge Martin is arrested on corruption charges!
Lionel, Kirsty, and Harry are quarentined together after a patient enters the clinic with symptoms of ebola virus. When Lionel confronts Kirsty with his suspicions that she had an affair while she was in the US, she counters that he should be more worried about Harry. Everyone fears the worst when Kirsty suddenly collapses, but her illness turns out to be food poisoning.
The patient who caused the ebola scare is Suzannah Beauchamp, an upper class, older English woman whose marriage has become a formality. She likes the company of attractive young men, and chooses Harry to be her nurse. Eventually, he returns to England with her.
After several weeks, Harry returns to New Zealand and moves back in with Kirsty and a reluctant Lionel. Still entranced with Kirsty, Harry claims he is broke and starts washing car windows and pursuing other schemes to raise money. When Kirsty learns the truth, she kicks him out.
The next day, Kirsty is in a car crash and awakes with amnesia! She doesn't remember Harry or even that she is married to Lionel! Both Harry and old flame Greg see an opportunity to woo Kirsty. To get his rival out of the way, Harry sets Greg up to rob a house, then calls the police, but when Greg finds out, he beats up Harry.
Because of his injuries, Harry can't work as a nurse, so he goes back to selling Wonder Windows UV screening, reluctantly taking Nick on as his partner. When they save a woman caught in a shredder, fame and perhaps fortune seem headed their way until Wonder Windows is proven to be a fake.
Harry tells Minnie it was a good idea that she gave up plans to leave New Zealand with her newly rediscovered biological father Ryan. The impressionable girl quickly develops a crush despite her mother Ellen's warnings about their age difference (she's 15, Harry is 20). When they overhear Carla threaten Ryan that she will tell everyone that he had raped Ellen, Harry tries to comfort the shocked Minnie. Later, when Ellen finds an exhausted Harry sleeping on her couch, she orders him out of the house.
Rebellious Minnie cuts school and goes to Harry's, telling him he's the only adult she trusts. They kiss just as her brother Nick walks in. He and Harry fight and Ellen forbids Minnie to see Harry again. Harry finally explains to Ellen why Minnie is so distraught: she knows the truth about Ryan.
Embarrassed by questions about his ethics in dating a minor, Harry tries to avoid Minnie. Minnie reconciles with Ryan, and tries to use Harry to test her theory that "no means no" can really work with a man. Minnie's teen tantrums embarrass Harry who determines to quit the relationship and date grown women.
When Kirsty intervenes to protect Minnie from going too far too fast with Harry, the old flame between her and Harry is reignited only to be quenched again when Harry admits that he cares for Minnie and Kirsty says that she still loves Lionel. Lionel is distraught when Kirsty confesses her indiscretion, although she does not name Harry as her partner. Kirsty feels betrayed by Harry when she tells him of her guilty feelings and he still tries to kiss her. Harry urges Lionel to tell Kirsty that he loves her.
An earthquake hits Auckland, and Harry and Minnie's car is knocked off a cliff! Harry helps the injured Minnie until the ambulance arrives.
Harry moves into his own flat when his old friend Cameron Scott arrives in Auckland. Minnie is happy that she now has an open field to visit him. Cameron is about to sail to Tahiti, and invites Harry to come along. Meanwhile, he teases his friend about his underage girlfriend. Minnie is upset that Harry is spending more time partying with Cameron than with her. She goes to the flat to seduce Harry and finds him in bed with another girl. When Kirsty tries to comfort Minnie, she assumes that Kirsty has also slept with Harry.
Harry tries to apologize to Minnie for hurting her feelings and to say goodbye, but she still wants him. She is determined to spend the night with him, if only to talk and cuddle. Sam threatens Harry if he harms Minnie. Desperate, Harry tells Minnie he is leaving the country with Cameron. Minnie finally accepts his decision, but changes her mind when she learns that while on a hunting trip with Cameron and Lionel Harry tried to save a duck he had shot.
With the guys scheduled to leave the next day, Minnie seizes her last chance to spend the night with Harry but is hurt when he rejects her advances. After Ellen talks some sense into her, she decides to see Harry off in style. While she is helping them pack the yacht, she drops Cameron's guncase; the gun fires, wounding Harry! Under a burden of guilt, Minnie apologizes to Harry at the clinic, and later, feeling that the relationship is cursed, tells him that she is dumping him!
Minnie cooly informs her mother that she still plans to sleep with Harry before he goes. However, when she arrives at the yacht, she finds Ellen there ahead of her, threatening to press charges if Harry seduces her underage daughter. Minnie resolves to wait for Harry, who finally sails off with Cameron for Tahiti, never to be seen in Shortland Street again.
Plot summary thanks to Shortland Street Talk.
RELEVANT CAST
Dean O'Gorman : Harry Martin
Angela Dotchin : Kirsty Knight
John Leigh : Lionel Skeggins
Tim Balme : Greg Feeney
Katrina Devine : Minnie Crozier
Karl Burnett : Nick Harrison
Robyn Malcolm : Ellen Crozier
Robert Harte : Ryan Birch
Glen Drake : Cameron Scott
Compiled from Shortland Street.com and Street Talk.co.nz. Shortland Street is the property of New Zealand TV2.
