Articles about ABC
Fisk and reward
Stand-up comic Kitty Flanagan tells DQ how her dream to make a TV series came true with the award-winning Fisk, which follows a solicitor as she deals with grieving relatives and warring siblings in a wills and probate office.
Spreading Fires
Australian anthology Fires dramatises stories of courage and survival during the real-life bushfires that devastated parts of the country. Co-creators Tony Ayres and Belinda Chayko joined actors Eliza Scanlen and Hunter Page-Lochard to preview the series.
Taste test
Aftertaste creators Julie De Fina and Matt Bate reveal how the #MeToo movement shaped this story of a bad-tempered celebrity chef looking to rebuild his reputation with the help of his young niece.
Music therapy
Creator Kristen Dunphy and executive producer Jason Burrows discuss overcoming the challenges of making Australian drama Wakefield, which explore the fine line between sanity and madness with a complex story set in a psychiatric hospital.
Testing times
Operation Buffalo writer and director Peter Duncan tells DQ how he mixed authentic detail with satirical humour to dramatise the true story of British nuclear testing in South Australia.
Rules of the Road
Mystery Road producer Greer Simpkin and season two director Warwick Thornton discuss the show’s expansion from the movies that inspired it and how it blends traditional western tropes with the Australian outback.
Uptown girl
Stumptown showrunner Jason Richman takes DQ inside the making of the ABC series, recalling how the original graphic novel was adapted for television and revealing how Marvel star Cobie Smulders was cast as lead character Dex Parios.
United Stateless
Hollywood star Cate Blanchett discusses the six-year journey to bring Australian drama Stateless to the screen and explains why more broadcasters need to open up to this type of ‘elephant in the room’ storytelling.
Making the law
Exec producers Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson and Doug Robinson introduce ABC legal drama For Life, based on the true story of a prisoner who becomes a lawyer for other inmates while fighting to overturn his own life sentence.
Higher ground
British actor Freddie Highmore made his name in feature films and as a young Norman Bates in Psycho prequel series Bates Motel. He explains why his starring role in ABC medical drama The Good Doctor is his biggest challenge yet.
Conversation starter
Ahead of the world premiere of Total Control, star and executive producer Rachel Griffiths takes DQ inside the themes and issues behind the Australian political drama.
Doing more with Les
Australian literary hero Les Norton comes to television in an adaptation of the cult books by Robert G Barrett. DQ hears how the source material has been updated for modern audiences while recreating the style and character of 1980s Sydney.
Scaling new Heights
Warren Clarke, showrunner of Australian ensemble drama The Heights, discusses the making of this series set in a housing tower and the challenges of launching a serial drama.
Mind the Gap
The creators of Screentime miniseries Pine Gap reveal how they recreated the eponymous Australian/US defence base and explain why it makes the perfect backdrop for drama.
Starting over
Castle star Nathan Fillion and showrunner Alexi Hawley reunite in ABC drama The Rookie. They tell DQ about creating a series that aims to break the formula of network cop series.
House call
Lisa Edelstein, the star of Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce, reunites with House showrunner David Shore as she joins the cast of ABC hospital drama The Good Doctor for its second season. She tells DQ about joining the hit series, playing another medic and becoming a writer.
On patrol
Castle star Nathan Fillion returns to US network ABC with The Rookie, the story of the LAPD’s oldest new recruit. He and showrunner Alexi Hawley introduce the series, discuss the ensemble of characters and explain why it will appeal to a wide audience.
ABC’s Whiskey chaser
Whiskey Cavalier creator Bill Lawrence discusses the origins of ABC’s new hour-long action comedy drama, his big-screen inspirations – and what prompted his decision to film the show in Europe.
Double act
Castle exec producers Terri Edda Miller and Andrew W Marlowe return to TV with Take Two, a crime drama that sees an actor pair up with a PI. The duo tell DQ about the international route they took to bring the series to air and why procedural dramas still have a place on screen.
Following procedure
Procedural series were once the bread and butter of US broadcast networks. But international buyers are finding them harder to come by amid the appetite for increasingly serialised storytelling. DQ examines the future of the story-of-the-week format.