![]() “I phoned Seven on the Monday … the rest is history.I was in Sydney doing The Deep Blue Sea as news of the pandemic started to build and straight after that I flew to Melbourne to shoot Wentworth for two solid weeks. “I’d never seen the show so I went out that weekend and bought the box set, and watched the whole first season in a few days. That phone call was the trigger that started the conversation. I had to explain that it wasn’t actually my show, but I promised I’d talk to my colleagues at Seven. “She phoned me one night from her home in Coffs Harbour to complain about the show being cancelled. Since launching, it has attracted a consolidated cumulative audience of nearly 500,000 each week and is officially the third most-watched drama ever on Foxtel, behind Game of Thrones and Wentworth.Īll of those happy viewers, as well as the subscription TV giant’s shareholders, can thank Walsh’s sister Jeanette. It was a big gamble and I was nervous, no question, but the gamble has paid off.” “It’s also probably the most expensive hour of Australian television to make. “It’s quite a groundbreaking partnership,” Walsh says. A network making new episodes of its dumped show for a rival, with a purchase commitment of two seasons to boot, is unheard of. In industry terms, this comeback story is a unique one. Marta Dusseldorp on the development of the story in A Place To Call Home. ![]() It will go down as one of the great Australian TV success stories. “It’s more than exceeded our expectations. “We’ve significantly lifted out subscribers … in the drama tier, and that’s being driven by A Place To Call Home,” Walsh says. The free-to-air network is said to have swung the axe after deciding that the almost one million weekly viewers were too old and not a prime advertising demographic.įans revolted, launching a social media campaign pleading with someone to save their show.įoxtel figured at least a few devotees would follow it to its new home. “There was a long-term view in developing the story.”īrian Walsh, Foxtel’s director of television, is the man responsible for saving the show from Channel Seven’s programming scrap heap last year. “The (writers and producers) always had in mind that there was another season, given Foxtel committed to making two, and that’s different to what we’ve ever done because we had certainty. The winds of change once again blow through Ash Park and there are more than a few lives on the line. In that vein, the cliffhanger season finale, which airs tonight, doesn’t disappoint. “The robustness of season three gave us the opportunity to go further, to go much deeper with the characters, and that was thoroughly rewarding,” Dusseldorp says. the cast of A Place To Call Home on set.īut killing off René was good for the show and its continuing story - however difficult it might be for her character and loyal fans of the couple. They didn’t realise that the scripted couple was played by an actual one, Dusseldorp explains. There were extras around me on set who were quite confused and a bit concerned.” “I just really grieved, overly so, personally, I guess. “I did one take where I thought it crossed over (into reality) and I went too far,” she recalls. It was while making that powerful episode that the line between fact and fiction became temporarily blurred for Dusseldorp. MARTA DUSSELDORP ‘HAUNTED’ BY HER CHARACTER SARAHįans of the hit Foxtel period drama were left reeling earlier this month when René suddenly died while recovering from brain surgery. Such is the heavy weight of the plot line and her deep investment in her character, Sarah.Īdding to the mental juggling act is the fact that her real-life husband, Ben Winspear, plays her on-screen one, René, on A Place To Call Home. Merely talking about that moment is enough to bring the star to tears, even now several months later. ![]() ![]() FOR just a brief moment, in the midst of filming an emotionally charged scene of A Place To Call Home, actor Marta Dusseldorp admits she lost her grip on reality and “took things too far”. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |