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The Alice: characters

Caitlin McDougall as Helen Gregory

Helen Gregory is very good with figures, very bad with abstract concepts and has never acknowledged her own need for a full-on lusty romance. When she has an irrational feeling she will methodically go about talking herself out of it. To be honest, this never works, but Helen is nothing if not persistent.

Although Helen is perfectly comfortable with her inner dag and offbeat sense of humour, she has learnt that people find her slightly peculiar and that it's best to hold back a little at first.

She also finds it's wise to keep Patrick to herself. He's her best friend and soulmate but she's the only one who can see him. Talking to a dead man rarely seems to go down well.

Helen has an appalling track record when it comes to love; men are a bit of a mystery to her. Her husband Connor was a case in point. The fact that he was interested only in himself escaped her entirely. She seems to have Jack's number though. Maybe that's why Patrick keeps saying he's the one.

In her work as an accountant, Helen derives a great deal of pleasure from creating order out of chaos, but it seems The Alice has other ideas — it keeps throwing her curveballs. Nothing ever seems to go the way Helen thinks it should, but the strange thing is… she's never been happier.

Caitlin McDougall

Caitlin McDougall was born in Melbourne and grew up in rural South Australia, graduating from the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts in 1992.

Since then, she has worked for the Melbourne Theatre Company, the Australian Shakespeare Company in Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney and performed in shows for the Comedy Festival and Sydney's Fringe Theatre.

In television her most recent roles have been as Helen in The Alice telemovie and Sandra Todd in Always Greener. Guest appearances include All Saints, Xena Warrior Princess and Ocean Girl.

McDougall played Ned Kelly's mother in the feature film Ned for Ocean Pictures.

Caitlin McDougall and Erik Thomson have been married since 1999.