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Seven’s challenge to bring history to life

Showrunner Chris Thorburn faced a daunting task in making Australia: The Story Of Us broadly-appealing History.

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Question: How do you make History appealing and engaging to a broad middle-Australian audience?

Answer: Re-enactments, CGI, experts, celebrities, tense music, zero in on the Drama, an A-List narrator and some knowledge the viewer hopefully did not know.

That’s the task of Chris Thorburn, showrunner on Seven’s Documentary series, Australia: The Story of Us. Thorburn previously commissioned docos at ABC, but had a vast challenge with the 8 part series.

The format debuted in the US on the History Channel as America: The Story of Us and another has since screened in the UK on SKY Atlantic. But these channels have audiences already weaned on the genre, creating a much bigger challenge for a Free to Air network in Australia.

“The average viewer in the US was a 35 year old plumber who lives in Minnesota (for example). But the Channel Seven audience is very different so it’s safe to say there’s probably not a lot of assumed knowledge other than what we all remember from high school history lessons,” he tells TV Tonight.

Narrated by Richard Roxburgh, the series incorporates CGI and dramatic re-enactments to tell the story of how we came to be the country we are today. A mix of experts provide opinions along the way, including Associate Professor Charlie Teo, Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith VC MG, Professor Tim Flannery, Reverend Tim Costello, Dick Smith, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, David Williamson, Malcolm Turnbull, and a long line of academics.

With scriptwriters and actors, it brings to life 5 chapters in our history each week, with a high sense of drama, FX and edit punctation.

“We’ve worked really closely with Channel Seven to forge a look that is different to what you may see, for example, on the ABC. It is part of the format to have fast-cut sequences, if you like,” he explains.

“Fast-cut punctuation sequences accentuate story points or characters to make the audience sit up and pay attention.”

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Thorburn also approached the series from a different starting position to the series produced in the UK.

“Britain has 2000 years of recorded history, but we only have 200 years of recorded history. So your first thought is ‘How are we going to fill 8 episodes?’” he asks.

“Frequency and range of stories for us was a really big issue compared to the American series. Demographics, trying to get the right balance of male and female (stories), was also a big issue. We have chapters that aren’t necessarily so positive. We have minor chords to our stories: essentially the indigenous and White Australia policy. But we don’t shy away from that.

“We also wanted to be a little bit fresh and unexpected so we were always looking for the ‘B character.’ We’re very mindful we have a finite portfolio of stories from our school days. Some stories we can’t ignore but we tried to come in on an angle or a character that you may not have heard of before.”

“We all have a perspective on the Australian character.”

Modelled on the US format there are also celebrities giving opinions on moments in our History too, including Adam Goodes, Andrew O’Keefe, Ian Thorpe, Molly Meldrum, Layne Beachley, Rebecca Gibney, Guy Sebastian, Dannii Minogue, Chris Bath and even Bindi Irwin.

“Bindi was delightful talking about Caroline Chisholm and the power of women leaders.

“It’s an eclectic mix,” Thorburn acknowledges.

“Sometimes we have historians to give us a little bit more illumination on the facts behind the stories. But often our celebrities have a personal connection to stories. Andrew O’Keefe’s uncle was Johnny O’Keefe, which is a story in Episode 6 with the Brisbane rock and roll riots.

“We all, including celebrities have an opinion or what I sometimes call, an emotional validation. All the stories are prisms to bigger theme or character trait.

“Whether we are experts or notables or whoever, we all have a perspective on the Australian character. So that’s how we use the mix in telling our stories.

“It is part of the architecture of the series.”

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Perhaps the biggest challenge was the production demands required to film the re-enactments. Most of the filming took place in Sydney and the Pilbara, including reconstructing huge sets.

“If you were to do a feature you would have an ensemble of say a dozen principals and a bunch of extras. When I went through looking at the series and how many actors we would need I thought about 400, and at that point my EP said ‘No way.’ We ended up with 1200 cast and extras,” he continues.

“It’s the wardrobe, the buckles, boots, braces, hair, make-up, guns, horses, it goes on.

“Every day was a new day. Most things were shot in a day. It might be the Gold Rush and the next day WWII and the next a riot for the 1890s.”

But the pay-off will come in knowing that the audience has not only been entertained, but has learned something of our past, just as some of the crew did during filming.

“There were big burly gaffers and grips, people who may not normally take an interest in History, all of a sudden getting into the story,” says Thorburn.

“The number of times I heard ‘I never knew that’… it was exactly what we wanted to do.

“I want the audience to be surprised, proud, entertained and awed; to walk away with a view of where we have come from and a to see our story in a new light,” he adds.

“We (Australia) have done really well. Hopefully the audience will walk away with a bit of pride.”

Australia: The Story of Us
premieres 8:30pm Sunday on Seven.

13 Responses

  1. I remember the US version which I think aired on History here and later on ch7 (might be wrong about that). It was very good, interesting and well constructed. I don’t mind they used the same format here… just look at most game and reality shows, are we complaining about Family Feud?

    If you have not seen the US version then don’t complain about something you no nothing about.

  2. So we have to buy an overseas format in order to tell our history and fill it with celebrities just in case the historians who actually know anything are just a little too intelligent. Sad, lame and embarrassing. Pretty much sums up the history of commercial TV in Australia as well.

  3. Cheesy re-enactments, CGI, and the opinions of semi-celebrities instead of actual content? I’m sure Seven’s chickens will lap it up but it’s a “No” from me.

  4. Hope this show appeals to viewers, we do have a great country and how many people truly know the history of it, even if some of it is fabricated at least you should be able to get a basic knowledge of how we became the great nation we are today. Think it will be an excellent show for children to learn about our history.

  5. This sounded interesting until I read the bit where so called celebrities give opinions….detest programs where so called celebrities ‘show off’ and think its all about them….won’t be watching this one !

    1. Yes I’m not so sure about that. Can we just have a pure history series? Oh wait, no we can’t because it’s channel 7 and “middle Australia” needs to be appeased

      1. Yes the overseas format includes celebrities. I asked and checked vision on YouTube. When you buy a format it is expected you will follow its style. The issue for me is that there isn’t much discernment between expert and celebrity. Both are on the same platform, really… confused me.

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