Pom out of water

Writer Mike Bullen is best known for his excellent dramas that dissect human relations and are full of character nuance.

Stories like Cold Feet, Life Begins and Tripping Over have all attracted critical acclaim. In Make or Break, which has its world premiere on UK TV this week, he is blessed by the casting of actor Robson Green (Wire in the Blood) and a cast including Susie Porter, Helen Thompson and Jack Finsterer.

But despite now residing in northern Sydney, Bullen told TV Tonight there’s very little in the plot about a Brit moving to Australia that was personal experience.

‘It’s about a middle aged man trying to get laid on the northern beaches. It’s definitely not autobiographical!” he laughed.

Green plays the husband of a woman who has had an affair in the UK, and so, in moving to Australia to try to salvage the marriage, she gives him open approval to balance the slate. She allows him a no-strings one night stand with a woman of his choice. It’s the only way, she decides, he can forgive her and move on.

Bullen places Green as somewhere between sensitive new age guy and lovable loser. In the Aussie environment he is also a bit of a “Pom out of water.” It allowed him a chance to bring to life some of the qualities he sees as uniquely Australian.

“It’s that laid back nature, the fact that people will judge you for what you are rather than how you dress or how you speak or whatever,” he said.

“When (Australian) people call you a Pom it’s not offensive or derogatory. It’s a slight gee-up to see how you react. And they will then take you on the way you react. If you get uptight about it they’ll think you’re a Pom with a stick up your arse. But if you’re prepared to serve it back to them, they like that and they respect it.

“I wanted to get that in flavour in where the Englishman is slightly fish out of water. I didn’t want to go for too many of the stereotypical clichés, but I did want to have a character who basically wasn’t quite up to speed on the country he’s going to. But he comes to be accepted by them.”

Bullen includes a scene where Green’s character visits a local lawn bowls club. It contrasts with the British experience of bowls as an activity for seniors. “Young people just kick off their shoes and have a beer and a bowl. They’re very comfortable, they take the piss out of him. By the end he’s one of the boys. But in the beginning he goes to the bowling club he’s wearing the long, linen trousers and they’re in shorts and thongs.”

Make or Break is a one hour pilot, yet to be approved for a full series. So far there isn’t even a British sale, surprising given the UK love affair with Aussie dramas.

“Yes there are the soaps, but they are seen as a very different beast” said Bullen. “They’re played in a slot a bit like The Bold and Beautiful here. For serious drama, that escapist thing is seen as counting against as much as for.

“In a way you’re not showing people in Britain their own lives. People like to see themselves reproduced on screen. And what you’re actually showing them is a world that, to my mind, is much preferable. It’s sunny, there’s beaches, everything they don’t have.”

The pilot was also Bullen’s first chance to don the director’s hat –and he loved it. It was only the technical aspects that daunted him.

“I’ve heard that some writers freeze when they have hundreds of people saying ‘do you want a blue tie or a yellow tie?’ That didn’t faze me. The stuff I was worried about I was able to lean on other people’s expertise. And that’s the joy of being a director that you have got other people.”

In fact he so enjoyed the new role he is determined to return to directing again.

“I don’t know whether my direction is too workmanlike. But I don’t think I made a fool of myself.

“If I can get away with it why not do it in the future?”

Make or Break has its world premiere 7:30pm Wednesday on UK TV.