Bennie Keegan

Bennie Keegan is played by Tai Berdinner-Blades

If there is a wallet to be lost or a house to be locked out of it will happen to the hapless yet happy-go-lucky Bennie.

Tired of being at the mercy of unscrupulous employers, earning minimum wage, Bennie's quest is simple: she wants to be her own boss.

If this was a fairy-tale (and in a way it is), Ted and Bennie would be Hansel and Gretel - except Gretel was much more on to it than Bennie is. Bennie is not a flake, she's actually quite grounded, but life does have a way of dumping on her, and she has to keep getting back up and dusting herself off.

Bennie is generous and kind so her friends and her brother usually accept the disasters along with all the positives. Ted is protective of Bennie but the flip side to this is that his support sometimes prevents her from having to stand on her own two feet. Having been abandoned in their early teens, they tend to be a bit co-dependant.

Bennie may be accident-prone and absent-minded but often it comes from trying to do the right thing; it's just you can't please all the people all of the time and Bennie has trouble prioritising. She knows she can be a bit useless, but she doesn't mean to be but sometimes it just seems like the world is determined to pull the rug. But she doesn't let it get her down, being upbeat and generous of spirit.

It's not as if she hasn't tried. Bennie has accumulated a fortune in student loan debts, trying to chase an elusive career. After a year at uni she realised that a BA in Art History wasn't going to lead anywhere, so she went to do Health Sciences. She then did a diploma in tourism, which resulted in a piece of paper, but still no job.

Bennie has dated a few boys, had one relationship that lasted over a year, but there's no one special in her life. This is partly bad luck but there is also another reason for this - the gorgeous, unattainable Mitchell. Bennie has been pining for him for the longest time but he's always been too successful, too handsome, too out of her league...

When we meet Bennie she has been out of work for several months and is becoming desperate. Sick of the situation, Bennie's wants to be in charge of her own destiny and be her own boss.

Ted introduces us to his sister, Bennie:

The Keegan's backstory

The first thing to understand about the Keegans ('Irish twins') is that their parents were once great Elton John fans.

It was his music that helped bind them and give them their children's names. (Ted's real name is Elton, Bennie as in, Bennie and the Jets.)

But Ted and Bennie's parents no longer love Elton John. They also no longer love each other.

Ted (24) and Bennie (23) were 16 and 15 when their parents split up. It wasn't amicable. The problem was that dad, Lindsay, was screwing Sandy, the younger neighbour. An even bigger problem was that young Candy McMann saw them doing it and spread it around the school.

Word got back to Ted and Bennie's mother who promptly decided to head off to India to 'find herself'. Lindsay also thought that a fresh start was in order, so he and Sandy headed off to Perth.

At the time of the split, Ted and Bennie were in their senior years at school so the former Mr and Mrs Keegan decided it would be better to leave them on the Shore, boarding with a friend from school, Levi, and his parents, Miriam and Ken.

Now Bennie, Ted and Levi flat together, which some people find a little weird but it kind of works.

The truth is that Bennie is a bit hopeless at practical things, like paying the bills or putting food in the fridge and so she relies on the much more grounded Ted and Levi to shoulder a lot of the responsibilities.