Svetlanka Ristic

Svetlanka Ristic was a fictional character in the Australian soap opera Neighbours, played by Deirdre Rubenstein. She first appeared in 2004 having two major storylines, both of which revolved around her daughter Liljana Bishop.

Of Serbian descent, Svetlanka lived in Perth, Western Australia, where she ran a successful vineyard with her husband Miroslav (deceased), her daughter Liljana, and her son Zoran (who never appeared on screen).

She had two main spells in the show; the first of these starting shortly after Christmas 2003. It quickly became apparent that she was very fond and fiercely protective of her daughter and granddaughter Serena Bishop, but had little respect for her son-in-law, David. Most of her storylines revolved around Svetlanka's misguided abit of using emotional blackmail and lies to split up Liljana and David, and to persuade Liljana to remain close to her. With Svetlanka's methods becoming increasing cruel and evil, Liljana consistently rejected these attempts.

Svetlanka's first major storyline was when Svetlanka realised that David'sbusiness had failed. She attempted to emotionally blackmail Liljana into leaving him and returning to Perth, first by faking heart problems, and then by revealing to David that Liljana had been pregnant when she met David, had given birth to a stillborn son (who Svetlanka had taken away on birth) and had kept that secret from him throughout their marriage. This resulted in Liljana cutting off her mother completely, with only Serena keeping (secretly) in contact.

In Svetlanka's second stint, in the show, when she returned to try to patch things up with her family, she was involved in two major storylines. The first of these involved her growing romantic attachment to Liljana's widowed father-in-law Harold Bishop; and the other centred around Liljana's liver failure.

In the liver failure storyline, Liljana ended up close to death in hospital, and needed a liver transplant from a close relation. No family member matched, so Svetlanka was finally forced to reveal that that Liljana's son was not stillborn all those years ago, but was in fact alive and well and was Liljana's godson, Luka Dokic, who had been a character in the show for the previous months. The buildup to this storyline lasted for a number of weeks, in which Svetlanka desparately tried to persuade Luka to leave, so that the secret would not be uncovered.

Before leaving for the final time, Svetlanka asked Harold to join her and he agreed to accompany her for a couple of weeks. But when Harold announced these plans to his family, they were disgusted, and Lil visited her mother to ask her to think again about ruining Harold’s life as well as her own. Having lost everyone she loved, Svetlanka told Harold that, although she loved him, his place was in Erinsborough with his family, before leaving in a taxi for the airport.

Since she last appeared on screen, her screen family have been axed in the Neighbours Plane Crash. However her love interest, Harold Bishop, remains in the show, and Svetlanka is still discussed from time to time.

Trivia

 * When her screen family died, Svetlanka did not attend their memorial service. This was explained in the script by saying that she was too upset to go to the memorial service and was apparently ill in bed and on medication.
 * A few months later, Harold and Susan discussed Svetlanka briefly, and considered whether to get back in touch.

Family Tree

 * Miroslav Ristic (husband)
 * Liljana Ristic (daughter) (deceased), married to David Bishop (deceased)
 * Serena Bishop (grand-daughter) (deceased)
 * Luka Dokic (grandson)
 * Zoran Ristic (son) (did not appear on screen)