By Geoff Shearer
Courier Mail
14 February 2009

AUSTRALIAN television is losing its grip on reality as viewers flock in record-breaking numbers to locally produced TV dramas.

The ratings success of the Underbelly prequel A Tale of Two Cities, which drew an audience of 2.58 million nationally in its first hour on Monday night, has added some enthusiasm and hope to the traditionally cautious TV industry.

And some in the industry have suggested the era of reality-based TV domination is coming to an end.

The gangland drama’s stunning debut for Channel 9 made it the highest rating non-sporting program launch in the history of Australian TV ratings.

It follows the recent impressive performance by Seven’s Packed To The Rafters, which consistently pulled close to two million viewers a week after its debut in August.

“We all believed in it, but it’s just done better than we could ever have imagined,” Rafters lead Rebecca Gibney said last year after the show was announced as highest-rating TV drama for 2008.

Also making an impact have been Seven’s City Homicide, which debuted in 2007 with 1.65 million viewers, Nine’s Sea Patrol and Ten’s gritty police drama Rush, which debuted last year with 1.16 million when pitched against All Saints (1.31 million).

The re-invigoration of drama may be signalling the demise, or at least the decline, of the past decade’s reality-TV trend.

While shows such as So You Think You Can Dance and The Farmer Wants A Wife are still expected to draw healthy viewer numbers this year, the Big Brother franchise – which Ten’s David Mott described as the “undisputed grandaddy of modern commercial reality television” – bit the dust last year after eight seasons.

Does this trend spell a return to the golden era of Australian TV drama?

Media commentator Peter Cox said viewers would recall the mid ’60s to early ’70s as more likely being the golden era, with Homicide and Division 4 as well as the Packed To The Rafters equivalent The Sullivans or, later, A Country Practice.

The present TV drama ratings boom was more a returning cycle, he said.

“What you also have to remember is that there is only so much that they (the viewers) can watch in a week.” The warning being that to bombard viewers with more local dramas simply to satisfy the present trend would be a recipe for disaster.

It is something that veteran actors Ian Stenlake and Lisa McCune, who wrapped up filming of the third series of Sea Patrol on the Gold Coast yesterday, are well aware of.

Both said they felt buoyed by the Underbelly rating results this week, but remained guarded as to whether it spelt the dawning of a golden age.

“It is true, you can feel this whole swell of support for drama shows again. But I think it is cyclical,” McCune said. “When I started in Blue Heelers we were just coming back into drama again then.”

McCune, who described the Underbelly prequel’s debut as “just fantastic, enormous”, cautiously agreed it was a positive time for actors and the industry, but also a “precarious” one. “So far, in terms of programming, these shows haven’t collided – thankfully – but eventually they will,” she said.

“One will go up against another and one will die.”

Stenlake said TV was constantly exposed to trends.

“But when Sea Patrol was commissioned there was a feeling that this could be the start of a renaissance in Australian TV drama. You could sense it. This was about three years back before we’d even shot anything.”

It was important for TV actors, Stenlake said, not to despair in slower times.

“There’s no point moaning about it, you know it is going to come back. When you lose sight of that fact, that’s when you can get desperate,” he said.

“You can get quite down and say, ‘wow, will drama ever have a place again?’ ”

But drama would never disappear, McCune said. “We’ve just got to keep chipping away and find the next way in,” she said.

By David Knox on October 7, 2008
TvTonight.com.au

Channel Nine began filming the third series of Sea Patrol last week, dubbed “Red Gold.”

Series 3 is centred on the fictitious Red Reef, where oil and gas rigs lie adjacent to exotic coral formations.
Lisa McCune and Ian Stenlake are again back for the drama, which will film for six weeks around Mission Beach in Far North Queensland and at the Warner Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast.

The drama has always had to juggle its access to the navy patrol boat, including shooting many scenes out of order across its entire series, rather than episode by episode which is a common convention in television production.

Studio scenes are added later when the boat is no longer a priority. That’s surely enough to keep everyone on their toes, not just actors, but especially continuity.

Sea Patrol 3: Red Gold will air on Nine in 2009.

PFTC Press Release:

Principal photography commences today in Far North Queensland on the Australian television drama Sea Patrol 3 – Red Gold.

Arts Minister Rod Welford welcomed the return of veteran producers Di and Hal McElroy and an all-star cast, led by Lisa McCune and Ian Stenlake, to the state.

“Our Government, through the Pacific Film and Television Commission (PFTC), is thrilled to once again partner with McElroy All Media on this prominent and successful television drama series,” Mr Welford said.

“A regular viewing audience of 1.5 million Australians can’t be wrong, and since the program’s debut in 2007, the rights have been licensed to over 200 channels across Canada and Europe.

“The PFTC is providing development, production and investment funding for Red Gold, just as it did for Sea Patrol 1 and Sea Patrol 2 – The Coup, in order to stimulate our local screen industry and to deliver real economic benefits to the state.

“Over the next six weeks the production will shoot 13 episodes for Series 3 on location at Mission Beach in Far North Queensland and at the Warner Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast.

“Sea Patrol 3 – Red Gold is likely to generate close to $12 million in Queensland production expenditure and create around 350 jobs.

“The series represents a significant component of the state’s total production expenditure for 2008/09, which now stands at $46.3 million.”

The Sea Patrol series is set onboard a fictional Royal Australian Navy Armidale class patrol boat, the HMAS Hammersley. Previous series’ storylines have dealt with contemporary issues faced by the Navy, including illegal fishing, drug and reptile smuggling, asylum seekers and immigration. Series 3 is centred on the fictitious Red Reef, where oil and gas rigs lie adjacent to exotic coral formations.

“Executive producers Di and Hal McElroy, the team behind long-running Australian television drama series’ Blue Heelers and Water Rats, are incredibly experienced and I hope the program has the longevity and success of the McElroy’s previous work,” Mr Welford said.

The third series of Sea Patrol will screen on the Nine Network in 2009.

Principal photography will also commence shortly in Queensland on a third series of Jonathon M.Shiff’s hit children’s television series H2O: Just Add Water.

Laurel-Lee Roderick
Monday, September 29, 2008
The Cairns Post

THE star power of Lisa McCune and the lure of getting up close to a navy ship ensured plenty of budding actors turned up to weekend auditions for Sea Patrol extras.

Producers are looking for about 150 extras from the region and held auditions at Munro Martin Park in Cairns on Saturday.

The extras will work alongside actors including McCune, Ian Stenlake and Jeremy Lindsay Taylor when filming for the third series of the hit television show starts at Mission Beach, Cowley Beach, Innisfail and at the navy base in Cairns.

Cairns dive instructor Russell Singleton was not daunted by the process after already starring in about a dozen television commercials and having plenty of acting experience under his belt.

The 28-year-old was hopeful his underwater skills would give him an edge in the tough selection process.
“I have done quite a bit of it before,” he said.

“I even took a resume along but I think I might have been the only person there who did.”

Extras casting director Ranjini Rusch said about 150 people auditioned and they could expect a callback if a role came up that they suited.

Ms Rusch said she would still be keeping an eye out for extras around Mission Beach and Tully during filming.
“At the most, they are needed for about one or two days’ filming,” she said.

“It is an interesting experience for them and most people seem to enjoy it.”

Filming in the Far North is scheduled to start on Friday and continue for six to eight weeks.