Mcleod's Daughters: articles


Will's new career goes according to the script

IT'S a long way from the gritty streets of Surry Hills, where News Limited has its headquarters, to the lush landscape of South Australia, but one Sydney hack will soon be making the leap. Former Daily Telegraph journo Will Temple has landed a plum job with Nine as a trainee scriptwriter on McLeod's Daughters, a rural drama set in the Light Regional District, an hour's drive north of Adelaide.

McLeod's is, of course, now the most successful local drama on television, and walked away with four awards from the Logies last week. Temple, 32, quit reporting in 2001 when he was accepted into the Australian Film, Television and Radio School's scriptwriting course. After almost 10 years at News, he told Diary he was surprised to be accepted into the highly competitive course, but believes the "realistic crime thriller" film script he submitted was the clincher. The story was largely sourced from his work as a reporter for the Terror, an experience that seems to have given him the edge in securing his latest gig. Temple is the recipient of the inaugural Channel 9/AFTRS Internship, which aims to provide promising graduates with a leg-up by offering an internship on a Nine drama series every year. The head of film, television and digital media at AFTRS, Graham Thorburn, said he had approached Nine's drama chief Posie Graeme-Evans after she had addressed his students on the ins and outs of making network television. Thorburn believes drama graduates can bring fresh ideas and fresh voices to the small screen—and are needed to revitalise an industry suffering the effects of reality TV overload. The ever-enthusiastic Graeme-Evans agreed it was a good idea and the scheme was born. Temple's journalism background, Thorburn said yesterday, brings two advantages. "He can write to deadline and he has experienced many things outside." Life on the road for the Tele certainly gives you that.

April 29, 2004
The Australian