Bringing the Offspring family back to the table has been a “complicated process”, says the drama’s co-creator Imogen Banks, who confirms to Guardian Australia that all the show’s key cast has been signed for a season return.
When the show’s fifth season finale aired in August 2014, it felt like a series wrap-up. Storylines were neatly tied up and protagonist Nina Proudman (played by Asher Keddie) delivered a curtain-dropping line to her one-year-old daughter: “Yes, Zoe, this is your family. And it’s always going to be like this.”
But even as Endemol’s head of drama, John Edwards, the co-creator of Offspring, was confirming to media that the much-loved series would not be coming back, Channel Ten had a flame lit praying for a series return, and Banks says the channel made it clear “they wanted to do more”.
With Edwards and Banks willing to open that door a crack, questions remained: would Keddie be interested and available to return? Was there enough “creative will” from the team for another season? Would they even find the money to do so? Under local content funding rules, once a show has surpassed 65 episodes it no longer qualifies for a Screen Australia rebate. That 20% of the show’s budget has now been covered by other sources, Banks says.
It’s why answering the will-it-or-won’t-it question of Offspring’s return has been so difficult, she says: “A bunch of conditions needed to be fulfilled for it to happen.”
Other than the Proudman sisters, played by Keddie and Kat Stewart, Banks won’t confirm the names of the key cast who have re-signed. In a separate interview, Patrick Brammall, who played midwife and love interest Leo, told Guardian Australia he was still in talks about a return. “I can’t confirm or deny. I can only confirm how much I loved the show,” he says.
There is one core member of the production team who will not be returning: show writer Debra Oswald. In September, Oswald posted on Twitter: “I’m happy with where we took the story by the end of #offspring 5, so I’ve chosen not to be part of S6. I hope fans enjoy the new series.” Of the original writers, Jonathan Gavin, Leon Ford and Christine Bartlett will be returning for the new season.
Offspring has been one of Australia’s most successful television comedy-dramas, winning millions of fans with its fresh and funny take on the lives of modern women. Banks says that in re-entering the Offspring writing room for its sixth season, the same questions face the show creators as previous seasons – how to remain true to the tropes of romantic comedy without getting tired? How to balance the weight of Nina’s lovelife with other emotional stakes, like family and friendship?
“Her love life has always been a part of her life but it’s not the be-all and end-all. It’s not the answer to all her problems,” Banks says.
In the 14 months that Offspring has been missing from Australian televisions, Banks and Edwards have been busy working on other projects. The Beautiful Lie, premiering on Sunday, is another female-centred show albeit very different in tone; a modern adaptation of the Leo Tolstoy novel Anna Karenina rolled out as a six-part television drama for the ABC. Nineteenth-century Russian high-society has been transformed to the well-heeled circles of two former tennis champions living in Melbourne.
Banks first read Anna Karenina in her youth and found it “the most beautiful book” but saw at its heart a terrible tragedy. Driven by a woman who cheats on her husband, with rippling effects on family and friends, the book is a mediation on split public and private lives, male and female domains. “I was compelled by the idea of looking at that woman’s journey in a contemporary context,” Banks says. Despite the many social upheavals since the book’s first publication in 1877, Banks said much of it remained “surprisingly relevant”.
In contrast with the Don Drapers of the television world – male protagonists that cheat and lie, with little compromise to their onscreen charisma – there is still something shocking, subversively so, about watching a woman conduct an extra-marital affair. Banks agrees that in general women who cheat are judged more harshly than men, particularly when there are children involved, and there were concerns among the show’s creators that audiences might find Anna unlikeable. “But we were determined to not worry about that,” she says.
They were aided by a brilliant bit of casting, with Sarah Snook (Predestination, The Dressmaker, Oddball) bringing an emotional intelligence to the role of Anna, offsetting any prejudice the audience might bring. In one piercing look or half-smile, she reveals volumes about the complex feelings and thoughts motivating her character to walk down a tragedy-strewn path.
“You’re on that journey with her,” Banks says. “I think there will be people who don’t like her and judge her very harshly, but hopefully are also entranced by her and have an understanding of what she’s going though.”
• The Beautiful Lie premieres on the ABC on 18 October
