Tell us about The Prime Minister’s Daughter
“It’s a comedy-drama about a teenage activist named Cat, whose world is turned upside down when her mother gets the top job. Now she has to go through all the ups and downs of her childhood inside the Lodge where one misstep could make national headlines.
“The primary target audience is 8-12. But it’s also been designed as a co-viewing experience that parents can have fun with too. Anyone familiar with the last decades of politics – and politicians – will recognize a few nods Plus, he plays with things like climate change and social media, all good food for family discussions around the dinner table.
What happened in season 1 and what happened in season 2?
“The first series focused on the environment and climate change. Extreme forces on either side of the debate were aimed at the Prime Minister, and Cat worked to stop her mother’s humiliation. To do this, she had to unmask members of a secret activist group called The Agitators and a mole working within the government itself.
“In the second series, the federal election campaign is underway. This year, we’re focusing on the world of technology, as Cat and her friends are all interning at a company called Aletheia. Cat has decided she wants to be a journalist like her late father, and as she pursues her first story, she realizes that a series of damaging leaks against her mother are part of a larger plot to corrupt the election results. Accidental lodge parties, elaborate disguises, and sword fights ensue.
What were the challenges of Season 2?
“For the second series, we wanted to take a look at things like social media, privacy and everyone’s favorite hot topic of the moment, AI. is about important and current issues that they are automatically adapted for television.We had to work very hard to find fun, dramatic and visual ways to weave all these ideas into ten episodes of children’s television.
“The other big challenge on the script side was the serialized conspiracy itself – they’re always tricky. You want to create these growing hook endings for each episode, but it’s always a process of trial and error to figure out how and where to move the story forward.
Tell us about the cast?
“Cassie [Helmot]Take care of yourself [Yap] and Natalie [English] are brilliant to watch in action. We just piled tons of dialogue on them, which they nailed, while being utterly charming, on and off camera. From time to time, we even threw flour on their heads, or handed them a sword, and told them to keep going, which they did one way or another. Meanwhile, two of them were also finishing their 12th grade exams.
“The show really has an embarrassment of riches in the teenage and adult halves of the cast – the hardest part was wanting to use them all, all the time. Even Richard Roxburgh managed to pull it off.”
Tell us about you?
“I’ve been a screenwriter for almost ten years, but before that, in my old life, I was a journalist and breakfast producer… maybe that’s where Cat’s career aspirations come from.”
Who were the other writers and who directed it?
“Alexandra Cullen doubled as writer and script editor. The rest of our fantastic writing team included Lou Sanz, Hannah Samuel, Craig Irvin, Nikki Tran and Gemma Bird Matheson, who also doubled protecting our PM as Yvette Julie Kalceff and Lisa Matthews were our wonderful directors.
One or more funny memories?
“Every time I’ve had the chance to go on set – and not be a tripping hazard to the incredibly hardworking crew – it’s been amazing to see how they’ve brought everything to life. on the page. In the writer’s room, we would casually plot something like “and then flour falls from the ceiling on his head”, or “one of the challenges should be eating an onion”. Next thing you know, fifteen people in a production meeting are having a very serious discussion about the mechanics of spilling flour and how to make a realistic fake onion.
“It was also a lot of fun being asked by the cast about the cliffhanger ending of episode ten.”
Do you have a favorite episode/moment(s)?
“We had a lot of fun seeding little things and paying for them episodes later – I really wanted to reward regular viewers. I won’t be boring listing them, so for a whole episode, I’ll choose episode six. It’s a huge shift in the series, and it was a tough nut to crack in the room, but the writers were incredibly patient and ended up really nailing it. At the time, we thought we were going into science fiction territory, but then the AI boom hit. And for a while, I would choose Cat and Sadie’s trusted scene in episode eight. It’s a show full of politics and pranks, but that scene of two best friends giving each other the right kind of support is really at the heart of it all.
Season 2 of The Prime Minister’s Daughter can currently be seen on ABC iview