Filming starts on ABC’s Upper Middle Bogan
Casting is announced on the latest ABC comedy project from Robyn Butler and Wayne Hope.
- Published by David Knox
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Filming is now underway on a new ABC comedy series, Upper Middle Bogan.
The eight part series about two families living at opposite ends of the freeway comes from Gristmill’s Robyn Butler and Wayne Hope. Unlike their previous series The Librarians and Very Small Business), this time neither will star.
The cast features Glenn Robbins (Kath & Kim, Russell Coight), Robyn Nevin (The Castle, The Matrix), Annie Maynard (Paper Giants), Robyn Malcolm (Outrageous Fortune), Patrick Brammall (Lowdown, This Christmas), Michala Banas (Beaconsfield, Winners and Losers) and Lara Robinson (Cloudstreet).
According to a press release, “When Bess Denyar, a doctor with a posh mother, an architect husband and twin 13-year-olds at a private school, finds out that she is adopted, she is stunned, but even more so when she meets her birth parents – Wayne and Julie Wheeler. If that’s not enough to digest, Bess also discovers that she has siblings – Amber, Kayne and Brianna. The Wheelers head up a drag racing team in the outer suburbs, and are thrilled to discover the daughter they thought they had lost.”
Wayne Hope says “Although I think Top Fuel drag racing is a brilliant setting for a comedy series, the races do only last for 4.8 seconds, so I still need another 27 odd minutes to fill an episode. Hopefully Robyn has an idea for that bit.”
Robyn Butler added,“Wayne mentioned drag racing and I immediately thought: Robyn Nevin! I’m pretty sure now the rest of the show will write itself.”
ABC TV Executive Producer Debbie Lee said, “Robyn and Wayne have once again created original, entertaining and extremely funny characters that inhabit two very different worlds. We are thrilled to be able to share their turbo charged lives with our audience next year.”
Directed by Wayne Hope and Tony Martin, Upper Middle Bogan is filmed on location between Brighton and the Calder Raceway in Melbourne over the next seven weeks.
It will screen on ABC1 in 2013.
8 Responses
Librarians was a disaster? o.O
Yes, you can never go wrong with a comedy based on the tried and true recipe of class differences.
Great cast, but…
The Librarians was a disaster and very unfunny. Very Small Business was worse. No great wit, social observation, anything. No real audience either.
That Debbie Lee has commissioned Hope and Butler again for a series is beyond bizarre.
I really hope that I am proved wrong. We do need a good half hour comedy. I hope the cast can deliver.
Actually Librarians did quite well in both ratings and in TV Tonight Awards as voted by readers.
@Qubec is dead right & I agree with @SusanP (You’ve left some well-thought-out comments around this website, Susan!)
There’s something a little unsettling about the way Aussie comedies deal with the ‘bogan’ issue.
For example, I laughed during Working Dog’s ‘The Castle’ but afterwards wondered if it was actually just a clique of Melbourne yuppies mocking simpler folk. Kath & Kim left me cold in much the same way.
I’m not at all a fan of Butler & Hope but hopefully Tony Martin can weave some of his magic. (Tho’ after his debacle on FTA last year I’ve lost a bit of faith.) Fingers crossed, anyway.
The shire is a great comedy. Best laugh on tv at the moment.
Sounds intriguing…however…it plays on arch stereotypes and that can be a danger..or a win..depending on articulation. I hope it goes somewhere in terms of depth other than just thumping the fist repeatedly on those stereotypes.
If it weren’t for the ABC or these two we would never have half hour comedies on Australian screens. It’s baffling that the commercial networks haven’t done a half hour comedy since what, Hey Dad? Just goes to show how limited the Australian TV industry is…