australian television information archive

Wild Boys a hit in showcasing the Hawkesbury

WILD Boys has exploded on to screens with more than 1.674 million viewers tuning in to watch the first episode last Sunday night.

As homes across the Hawkesbury and Australia-wide waited for the highly anticipated and high-energy adventure series to start, it was the few lucky locals who managed to score a small role in the Channel 7 drama who were really on the edge of their seats.

Horses, bushrangers and gunfire made for perfect television, launching the show as the most-watched program of the night.

Within the first 10 minutes, viewers were introduced to the historic Australiana Pioneer Village, or in this case ‘Hopetoun’ where moral codes are muddied by circumstances and opportunity.

“Pioneer Village at Wilberforce provided us with about a dozen cottages in the street,” production designer Tim Ferrier said during a Channel 7 exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the set of Wild Boys.

“They were in need of some repairs and painting to suit the period and the show but once we had plotted the layout of our town, we then designed and built the specific buildings required for the show. The pub, the police station, the newspaper office along with some extra shopfronts, stables and stockyards.”

In Hopetoun there are few rules — and even fewer willing to follow them. There’s gold for the taking, cash being splashed and power wielded ruthlessly, with little regard for right and wrong. It’s hard to know the good guys from the bad when guns, blades and fists speak louder than any law.

Set in 1860s NSW where gold has lured the opportunistic away from the still-fledgling main colonies, Wild Boys follows four men on the outside of the law as they come up against authority, the rich and greedy and the foibles of their own hearts.

The ruggedly handsome bush-ranger Jack, played by Daniel McPherson, and his counterparts Dan, Conrad and Captain Gunpowder are the wild boys.

Jack wants enough gold to head west, buy land and settle down with Mary, Hopetoun’s publican, butcher and brothel owner, played by Zoe Ventoura.

Dan wants enough gold to head west and buy women (any women, really).The wild boys make plans for the future, but for now they will have to make do with each other — staging hold-ups and keeping one step ahead of traps and trackers, as well as other outlaws.

The question is: Are they smart enough to stay ahead of Fuller, Fife and Scanlon (each of whom has a very good reason to want the wild boys dead) ?

Wild Boys is a Southern Star Entertainment Production for Channel Seven produced in association with Screen Australia and Screen NSW.

By Kietley Isrin
September 12, 2011
Hawkesbury Gazette