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Little Lunch: sneak peek

Check out ABC3's new mockumentary on life in the primary school playground.

Here’s your first peek at ABC3’s new mockumentary Little Lunch from Gristmill, the team behind The Librarians and Upper Middle Bogan.

Based on the books by Danny Katz and illustrated by Mitch Vane, the series takes place during fifteen “highly significant minutes” of a child’s life -snack time in the primary school playground.

Each self-contained episode revolves around, and is told by, six diverse and distinctly identifiable children. Atticus is the sweet, nerdy one that is always hungry. Melanie is stubborn, but shy. Tamara Noodle is not shy and excellent at sport. Rory is the naughty one. Battie is the daydreamer and Debra-Jo is the extremely smart and organised one. The children’s striking personalities elicit an, ‘I want to be that one’ response.

Occasionally, too, the children are joined by Mrs Gonsha, their much-loved teacher, with an enormously generous spirit and a tendency to nod off in class… Little Lunch tackles the big issues in the playground.

Who gets to go on the monkey bars? Who gets to join whose club? Who gets Mrs Gonsha off the top of the slide pole when she gets stuck? Little Lunch tells stories that may seem small to adults, but loom large for kids. It uses observational humour to explore themes, which govern children: fear, anxiety, friendship, loyalty, trust and abandonment. (Actually those themes govern adults too, which explains why parents will also love this series.)

Mockumentary is an expedient means of telling stories in which comedy and character are paramount. Each episode sees slices of action interspersed with the children variously addressing an unseen interviewer, in the readily recognised form of the faux documentary (Modern Family, The Office). The format lends itself brilliantly to Little Lunch as the simplicity and minutiae of each snack time story is given serious weight, and the characters’ truthful retelling of their version of events is what becomes funny.

Although original in concept, the show is effortlessly universal. Little Lunch is an eminently relatable comedy with heart.

Monday July 20 4:25pm ABC3.

3 Responses

  1. This looks brilliant!! Thanks for the info, David! Are the writers/original author from Queensland? When I moved from Victoria to QLD as a child, I was completely bamboozled by the term, “Little Lunch”. I asked my teacher what you eat for “little lunch” and she said, “your little lunch!” Very helpful. I then proceeded to try to eat my entire lunch…lesson learned!!! 🙂

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