The new jewel in Seven’s crown
Bevan Lee, creator of Seven’s period drama A Place To Call Home, says the series is like nothing we’ve seen before. Lee Zachariah looks at how it came together with additional reporting by Georgina Pearson.
It all began with the image of a woman standing on a ship.
Bevan Lee, creator of Packed to the Rafters and Winners and Losers, decided he was at a stage in his career where he had two choices: “I could either retire, or I could do something different, because what is the point in being a tired old fart trawling out the same stuff all the time?”
Keen to move away from his self-described “trilogy of domestic and suburban happiness” (which, in addition to Packed to the Rafters and Winners and Losers, includes Home and Away for which he wrote the first episode of the series as a favour to long-time producing partner John Holmes), Lee wanted something darker, with a stronger narrative.
There is no doubt whatsoever about the excellence of the settings, costumes and period flavour. The gloss is impressive. So too, is the acting and star-glow of most of the principals. The exception is Noni Hazelhurst, whose overripe performance is at odds with the elegance of the atmosphere. The production is further hampered by trite storylines, familiar characters, melodramatic situations, pedestrian direction, and clumsy dialogue. There’s simply no finesse, and it’s a shame. Australian television needs shows of this standard, and this one will certainly find an audience. But as a showcase for our gifted actors and technicians it shapes up as a brave effort that can’t quite go the extra mile. It deserved to be a blockbuster. What it is, is ‘A Country Practice’ with beautiful people and classy trappings.
Not a bad show, but, it is no Downton Abbey!!
I do have to agree with JimP about the over zealous representation of Ms Hazelhurst – she is really overdoing the matriachal role just a tad.
Hopefully the depth of the story heightens interest in the coming series.
JimP nails it: this is “A Country Practice” trying to be “Downton Abbey”, and failing. While A Place To Call Home is technically excellent, it suffers from the same let-downs as so many other Aussie TV shows – lazy clumsy dialog that’s simply bashed out rather than being worked out and refined; all-too–obvious characterisations; and storylines that are just TOO soapy, even allowing for the soap-opera essence underlying Downton Abbey.
I’m sorry but despite the great locations and production design the problems with this show are in the workman like script, pedestrian direction and some real miscasting. Noni Hazlehurst is hopelessly miscast and Marta Dusseldorp is completely lacking in charisma. It is just not in the same ballpark as a Downton Abbey and given the huge investment in it it is likely to become just another soap. But good on Bevan Lee for having the clout at Seven to get them to commit to such a huge budget series financed by Seven with the addition of the 20% Producer tax rebate. No independent producer in Australia could ever have successfully pitched this show to Seven. Being on the inside has its advantages.
Amen.
This drama is so full of possibilities, but it suffers from too much attention to form and not nearly enough attention to the process and delivery.
The comments about Ms Hazelhurst’s work are not, I think,entirely founded in accuracy.
The character writing is uneven, and the direction (if up to scratch) should be smoothing out the undulations; when these undulations are ignored, they sometimes result in uneven performances, where the actor, being the final deliverer of the work and the vision on the screen before you, is sometimes unfairly blamed.
I do not know Ms Hazelhurst personally, but I know she is a player of considerable experience.
It’s so bloody frustrating! A show comes along with such commercial potential, such good production values and such good actors, to be ruined by a script full of cliches. You pick it in the first minute. You can not get emotional involvement out of cliches. It doesn’t happen. Everybody stop trying. And TV Channels and funding bodies should stop encouraging them.
(By cliches I mean character types that appear frequently in other shows and movies. Advertising has an excuse when there’s a story to be told in 30 seconds. There’s no excuse for TV drama and film.)
It’s a great show; if only Channel 7 could start it on time, instead of 15 minutes later than advertised.
My parents met and married abroad in the war. I can’t imagine another scenario where
an aristocrat officer and a working class lass would get together to nurture a family. In 1953 at our house, the War of Correct Manners was indeed laughably played out everyday. Post war Britain was probably entirely different to Australia but it is hard for today’s audience to imagine how important those things were to growing kids.