australian television information archive

TV bosses bank local

AUSTRALIA'S television executives are banking on a return to locally produced drama to deliver them ratings gold in coming months.

Channel Nine is touting its $15 million Sea Patrol, which stars Lisa McCune, as its next big hope.

Co-producer and creator Hal McElroy said the drama, which began filming off the coast off Mission Beach in far north Queensland late last week, centres around a Royal Australian Naval patrol ship protecting the nation's borders.

"Each episode has a self-contained plot that may involve illegal fishing, people smuggling, rescues, bizarre happens etc, and there's also a mystery that unfolds over the 13 episodes," he said.

McElroy, who also created Water Rats, said the show capitalised on the same national preoccupation with security that saw the rise of Border Security.

Over at Foxtel all hopes rest with the upcoming drama Dangerous ­ described by spokeswoman Kim Vecera as "a slick, fast paced, action-packed Romeo and Juliet story set in Sydney's western suburbs".

"It's a cracker of a story essentially about the world we haven't really seen before ­ the world of ram raiding and the gangs of Sydney," Vecera said.

She said there were a number of new actors in the series who were tremendous, "and we've blended that with quite a few experienced actors like Brooke Satchwell and Joel Edgerton".

Ten is meanwhile banking on Tripping Over ­ an Australian/British co-production starring a who's who of Australian and English television including Rebecca Gibney, Lisa McCune, Daniel MacPherson, Abe Forsyth, Nicholas Bell, Brooke Satchwell and Paul McGann.

The six-part mini-series debuts later this month.

By Alex Murdoch
October 09, 2006
The Courier-Mail