Stuff Digital Edition

The Rafters go rural

Australia’s favourite television family gets a reboot in a new series, writes Debi Enker.

IT started in 2008 with a bubble bath and an empty-nest premise. The bath was shortlived and so was the child-free home of Julie (Rebecca Gibney) and Dave Rafter (Erik Thomson). But over six warm-hearted, toprating seasons, the Rafters would become a family as prominently and inextricably bound to Australian TV history as the eponymous family in

The Sullivans.

Packed to the Rafters opened with siblings Ben (Hugh Sheridan), Rachel (Jessica Marais) and Nathan (Angus McLaren) vacating the family home. However, each soon returned to the welcoming Californian bungalow, with its exterior in Concord and its kitchen perpetually primed to offer a comforting cuppa.

Over 122 episodes, the family dealt with births, deaths and weddings – the hatches, matches and dispatches that are the meat and potatoes of domestic drama. And they did it with a range of friends, relatives and partners that included Julie’s dad, Ted (Michael Caton), and none-toobright neighbour Carbo (George Houvardas).

When we waved them goodbye in 2013, Dave, Julie and toddler Ruby were heading off on a trip around the country, having sold their house to pay Ted’s gambling debts.

Now they’re returning, in Amazon Prime’s first original scripted Australian drama series, which finds them in a new home. The six-part Back to the Rafters, again shaped by creator Bevan Lee, reintroduces the couple on the eve of their

35th wedding anniversary as Julie describes the intervening years.

A fortuitous flat tyre brought them to the NSW fictional country town of Buradeena (filmed in Berry). They fell in love with the place, bought a house and settled down.

Dave resumed work as an electrician, employing apprentice Paddo (Aaron L McGrath), who’s become his dirt-biking buddy. Julie made a friend in neighbour Tessa (Libby Tanner), her boss at the local cafe.

But it’s not all roses in this regional paradise, as Julie’s selfhelp reading material suggests. Ruby is ‘‘9 going on 19’’, and vocal about climate change and sexism. Events quickly conspire to throw the Rafters into a fresh set of challenges that the producers hope will again engage viewers.

Thomson says it was an easy reunion. ‘‘We’d spent five-anda-half years working together and we built close relationships and shorthand; we can read each other well,’’ he said. Most of the original cast has returned,

although for health reasons, Marais couldn’t join them. Rachel is now played by Georgina Haig and Ruby by Willow Speers.

Gibney (Halifax, Wanted) and Thomson (800 Words, Aftertaste) have both built successful careers as producers, yet Gibney says that the original series ‘‘was and still is one of my all-time favourite jobs’’.

‘‘From the minute we did our first table read, there was magic in the room,’’ she says. ‘‘The cast went out bowling, to bond as a family, and we bonded within 24 hours. It felt so real and natural. I haven’t laughed as much or had as much fun on any show before that, or since.

‘‘We really are a family, and I’ve missed it. I’ve missed doing a show about a normal

Australian family and their trials and tribulations. And it felt like the timing was right.’’

Thomson says that reunions had previously been discussed. ‘‘But it never lined up; it always felt a bit rushed. Then the planets aligned. There was an element of nostalgia, but there was also a desire to go back and enjoy that lovely warmth that the show has in spades.’’

In the Rafters’ world, some things have changed, yet the foundations remain the same.

‘‘Television has changed so much,’’ says Thomson of revisiting the characters.

‘‘The expectations of the audience and the scope of the world that they’re exposed to have changed. This show has the same beautiful heart, but our world has expanded a little. Personally, the idea of going back and standing in the front yard of that little house in Concord wouldn’t be as appealing.’’

One of the key plotlines in the new series involves Julie’s increasing dissatisfaction with the life she and Dave have chosen. ‘‘For Julie, and for a lot of women of a similar age, it’s getting to that point where your children have grown up, and you don’t feel needed any more,’’ Gibney says. ‘‘You’ve spent 30 years raising a family, not really focusing on yourself. What do you do with your life? Your husband wants something, and you don’t know if you want the same thing.’’

Thomson adds, ‘‘It’s an uncomfortable question, but it’s full of drama. We’re meeting these people at a crisis point, asking big questions, and there’s a truth to it that hopefully will resonate with our audience.’’

He also notes that Julie’s discontent comes as a surprise to her husband: ‘‘He thinks everything’s fine. It’s not like they’re not getting along on a day-to-day basis, but an existential question upsets the status quo.’’

For Gibney, the shift has been a challenge. ‘‘It’s tricky because Erik and I are so used to being the awesome twosome, the soulmates,’’ she says. ‘‘So to do a lot of stuff that’s involved not getting along has been quite dramatic, there’s not a lot of light in that storyline. I’m a bit concerned that everyone is going to watch it and think ‘what is wrong with Julie Rafter that she doesn’t want to live in this incredible environment?’ But it’s not all doom and gloom.’’

Thomson says, ‘‘I liked the fact that we weren’t in that freeto-air commercial television environment. This, let’s face it, is the future of television drama, streaming services and watching TV on demand, and the potential audience is quite exciting. To me, we were joining the 21st century. And in terms of the way that the episodes were written, obviously there weren’t ad breaks: there wasn’t that need to have those little cliff-hangers every seven or 12 minutes.’’

As with many productions, Rafters had to deal with a pandemic-related interruption to production last year, and an eventual resumption under strict restrictions. ‘‘We never would’ve predicted Covid,’’ says Gibney. ‘‘But particularly now, when the world is in such a sad state, to return to a family that was so loved feels right.’’

As it brings the Rafters to a changed world, Amazon Prime Video will be hoping that too.

Back to the Rafters is now streaming on on Amazon Prime Video.

ETC COMMUNITY

en-nz

2021-09-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/282054805168171

Stuff Limited