Comedy directors embracing veteran stars

Veteran Australian performers are getting renewed turns in the spotlight thanks to new comedy roles by young TV directors.

Barry Crocker (The Adventures of Barry McKenzie) has a leading role in ABC2’s new comedy The Strange Calls and Rowena Wallace is a regular in ELEVEN’s Micro Nation.

Former Prisoner stars Val Lehman and Carol Burns also have roles in upcoming episodes of The Strange Calls.

Andrew Garrick, Director and Head Writer of Micro Nation, has cast Rowena Wallace as Tottie Patonga, the oldest and most crotchety resident of the fictional Pullamawang.

The comedy follows the forgotten island town which declares war on Australia. The multiplatform series from Freehand Productions airs as 5 minute interstitials on ELEVEN from 6:25pm Monday.

Andrew Garrick has previously directed Some Say Love for UKTV, Little Ted’s Big Adventures for ABC, The Nurses for TEN and is currently developing new concepts for Network TEN.

Meanwhile Daley Pearson, Writer / Director / Series Creator of The Strange Calls, features Barry Crocker as a night security man in Coolum where weird things keep happening. Crocker also appeared in the original short film which gave rise to the ABC series.

Pearson has previously made the independent comedy feature film, $quid, based on a Tropfest short of the same name.

The Hoodlum-produced series, which will see a US adaptation, also features Prisoner‘s Val Lehman in Episode 4 while former castmate Carol Burns (Frankie Doyle) appears in an episode.

It begins 9:30pm Tuesday on ABC2.