In ABC’s new drama, The Newsreader, an ambitious reporter joins forces with a notoriously ‘difficult’ newsreader to take on a 1986 newsroom.
Working together over three months, Dale Jennings and Helen Norville cover a series of major news events – from the Challenger explosion, to Halley’s Comet, to the devastation of the AIDS crisis.
Mediaweek spoke to creator, Michael Lucas, about how the show came together and what it was that drew him to the world of 80s newsrooms.
Robert Taylor, Marg Downey, and Michael Lucas behind the scenes
“With The Newsreader, I actually just started writing about the two central characters, Dale and Helen – played by Sam Reid and Anna Torv – and their relationship in the 80s,” said Lucas.
“It was a few drafts in when I decided to set it in a newsroom. Once I did that, I started researching the newsrooms of the 80s and it completely took over my life, I became obsessed. I spoke to dozens of people and found the culture so interesting. So it was quite a long process, but the start of it was just that Dale and Helen relationship, and then it blossomed into a whole workplace drama.”
While researching the newsrooms, Lucas says there was one element in particular that caught his attention.
“It was just such an era of change. I was particularly obsessed with female newsreaders because they were a new development in the 80s, prior to that people just liked hearing the news read by very masculine voices of God. There was so much pressure on them. They had to find a way to define how a woman should look in a workplace, and they had such a strong, striking look.”
“There’s a lot of projects that have been made about news in the 80s that have generally been broad comedies like Anchorman. I love those comedies, but beyond that, there’s some really interesting, complicated things at play that say a lot about where the western world was at the time in terms of feminism, acceptance of gay rights, and all these sorts of things.”
Anna Torv and Sam Reid
Lucas says that one of the joys of the show has been seeing the two lead actors play parts outside of their wheelhouse.
“I can’t tell you how lucky we feel to have Anna and Sam, they’re such world class actors. I think what I love about them in the show is that even though they’ve done amazing work previously, I think in both cases it’s a bit of a departure for them. When I think of Anna Torv in Mindhunter or in Secret City, she often plays very composed, very shrewd, quiet professionals. But in The Newsreader, Helen is really volatile and I love seeing Anna embrace that.
“In contrast, Sam often plays these stately gentlemen almost like Mr. Darcy, whereas Dale is so nervous. He normally plays high status characters, if you look at him in Lambs of God or Belle, but Dale is really nervous and low status, and I was so fascinated to see how he would interpret that. He just did it so beautifully.”
Anna Torv and Robert Taylor
Mixing Fact With Fiction
Having also worked across a number of shows like Offspring, Wentworth, Party Tricks, and Rosehaven, Lucas says the addition of following real events is what makes The Newsreader special.
“For me it’s the combination of the real life stories with the fictional characters. It was just so exciting to research those old news stories from Lindy Chamberlain to Challenger to Chernobyl, there were so many aspects of them I didn’t know about. It was a really fun puzzle to take those real life events and keep to the real dates, the real timeline, and at the same time weave fictional characters around them. I’ve never done that before, I’ve only ever written pure fiction.
“There’s a lot to enjoy in the show because you get your workplace drama, but at the same time, if you remember those events or even if you don’t, hopefully the show gives you a really interesting window into what those events were like and how newsrooms navigated them.”
Shooting Around Covid
With The Newsreader being shot across the Summer of 2020 and 2021, Lucas says that the crew did come up against some issues due to the pandemic.
“We had a whole lot of Sydney cast and then the Northern Beaches situation happened. So we sent the cast home for Christmas, people like Michelle Lim Davidson, and Stephen Peacocke, they were going to enjoy a family Christmas, and then they got a call from us one day saying ‘we need you to get in a car right now and drive’.
“Then of course we had plans to shoot in other parts of the country, other states. We had a Lindy Chamberlain episode that was in Darwin, but we weren’t able to leave Victoria in the end. So there were quite a few curveballs that were thrown at us.”
On top of the practical element of shooting around restrictions, Lucas says that the experience itself felt incredibly odd at times.
“It was really surreal to be in such a strange present reality – 2020 into 2021 was such a unique period of time – to be in that existence but at the same time to be 100% focussed on what 1986 was like was just a really surreal juxtaposition.”
Sam Reid
Australians On Screen
Lucas says that Australian dramas are so important because of what they can tell people about the world around them.
“It’s really important for any culture to be able to tell its own stories in its own voice, and grapple with the question who are we as a nation? Where have we been? Where are we going?
“I always feel a huge connection to Australian stories on screen, I love it when Australian characters become iconic and beloved. I just hope to always be telling Australian stories and if you can make one that really resonates and speaks to people, then it’s a really electrifying feeling.”
The Newsreader, premieres on Sunday 15 August at 8.30pm on ABC TV and ABC iview.