The ABC will rely on a slew of returning favourites and some British flavour to take it forward in 2024 as it adjusts to a new programming structure.
In drama, new seasons of The Newsreader, Total Control, and Troppo will be joined by the previously announced series adaptation of the feature film Ladies In Black, which will star Debi Mazar, Miranda Otto, and Jessica De Gouw, along with Kate Box, Azizi Donnelly, Julian Maroun, Carlos Sanson Jr, Tom Wilson, Sacha Horler, Huw Higginson, Russell Dykstra, Thom Green, Hamish Michael, Krew Boylan, Ngali Shaw, Hazem Shammas, Peter O’Brien, Gemma Ward, and Todd McKenney
The ABC has also announced a spin-off of popular British–French crime comedy-drama Death in Paradise, titled Return to Paradise.
From BBC Studios Productions Australia with Red Planet Pictures, Return to Paradise follows Australian expat Mackenzie Clarke, seemingly the golden girl of the London Metropolitan police force, who is suddenly forced to move back to her childhood home of Dolphin Cove.
Having escaped her hometown at the earliest opportunity six years ago, Mackenzie vowed she’d never come back, leaving a lot of unfinished business and unanswered questions. But when a murder takes place in the coastal destination, Mack can’t help but put her inspired detective brilliance to good use and determines, despite her reservations, that she needs to make the best of it.
Created and executive produced by Peter Mattessi, James Hall and Robert Thorogood, the series features an Australian writing team led by Mattessi alongside Elizabeth Coleman, Alexandra Collier and Kodie Bedford.
There is also a Death in Paradise connection to the new comedy Austin, with one of the stars of the original, English actor Ben Miller, to lead the comedy alongside fellow Brit Sally Phillips.
Miller will play a children’s author who inadvertently causes a social media storm, impacting his career and that of his illustrator wife Ingrid (Phillips). That is until his neurodivergent son Austin, played by Love on the Spectrum’s Michael Theo, turns up out of the blue, leaving him to ponder whether embracing this modern nuclear family is his route back from cancellation.
Produced by Northern Pictures, Austin written and created by Miller alongside Darren Ashton, Lloyd Woolf, Joe Tucker, Adam Zwar and Kala Ellis, with Joe Weatherstone producing. Miller, Ashton, Woolf, and Tucker will also executive produce with Phillips, Catherine Nebauer, and Peter Anderson. Filming is underway in Canberra.
Just over a week after being announced as part of SBS’s comedy line-up for next year, Shaun Micallef has also been confirmed to return to the ABC for an as yet unnamed project to be produced by ITV Studios Australia and Giant Baby.
“I can’t tell you too much about what we’ll be doing” Micallef said of his new project.
“Suffice to say, it will not feature cooking, home renovations, marriage, singing, sport, RBT units, dogs, wilderness survival, quiz questions, news clips, stock footage, wearing masks, border security, amazing races, Lego, sitting on a panel or being marooned on an island in your underwear.”
Ra Chapman’s previously announced White Fever is the broadcaster’s other new comedy title for next year, joining fresh episodes of Fisk, musical quiz program Spicks and Specks, Hard Quiz, The Weekly, and Gruen.
Sitting alongside the all-conquering Bluey, which will get a 28-minute in 2024, is new animation Tales from Outer Suburbia, based on Shaun Tan’s illustrated book. First announced more than a year ago, the Highly Spirited and Flying Bark Productions project tells the story of clever “almost 13-year-old” Klara and her younger brother Pim, who begin experiencing weird and miraculous phenomena as they go about their everyday life in Australian suburbia.
There is also Tilt Media’s Cool Stuff with Fizzy & Suds, a new season of Ginger and the Vegesaurs, and Moody Street Kids and Princess Pictures’ Planet Lulin, formerly F.A.N.G (From A Nearby Galaxy), as well as Ninganah Lullaby, an original song from Troy Cassar-Daley with animation from Studio Gilay that is about camping as a kid with family and being asked to settle down and go to sleep.
The ABC’s new factual offerings for next year include Docker Pictures’ I Was Actually There, featuring interviews with Australians who were present at historically defining moments; Miriam Margolyes’ Impossibly Australian, produced by Southern Pictures, in association the BBC and Screen NSW, in which the actor will take off on a journey of discovery following her heart procedure; and Fremantle Australia and Truce Films’ This Is Going To Be Big, which follows group of teenagers, living with disabilities and neurodiversity, as they prepare for their first high school musical about the life of John Farnham. The latter won both the Audience Award and the Schools Youth Jury Award at the Melbourne International Film Festival this year.
ABC News will also present a three-part docuseries captures the pivotal moments in the leadership of Prime Ministers Abbott, Turnbull, and Morrison.
Returning for the broadcaster are Tony Armstrong’s Extra-Ordinary Things, Stuff the British Stole, Better Date Than Never, and Muster Dogs, with the previously announced Maggie Beer’s Big Mission to also premiere.
The ABC’s arts programming has been a hot-button topic in recent months, following its decision to dissolve its standalone arts unit earlier this year. Attempting to pick up the slack in 2024 will be Creative Types with Virginia Trioli, in which the former News Breakfast host explores the essence of creativity with some of Australia’s best creative minds; arts and culture program The Art of…, hosted by Namila Benson; and the returning Take 5 with Zan Rowe.
Headlining the lifestyle titles Grand Designs Australia, formerly of Foxtel, to be hosted by Anthony Burke, who also returns with Restoration Australia and will present new series Grand Designs Transformations with Yasmine Ghoniem.
Today’s upfront announcement comes amid a year of significant change for the ABC, which announced its biggest restructure since 2017 and established programming pillars for content and news, while also transitioning to a digital-first approach towards commissioning, producing, and distributing content.
Chris Oliver-Taylor joined as the broadcaster’s first-ever chief content officer in March, while fellow Netflix alumnus Susie Jones and Stan senior commissioning editor Rachel Okine were appointed head of factual and head of scripted, respectively, in July.
Oliver-Taylor said the 2024 line-up had “the most diverse slate of landmark Australian commissioned drama series, high-impact factual programs, and the largest slate of comedy commissions in Australia”, as well as “world-leading and world-class” children’s content.
“The ABC commissioned the biggest kids show in the world, and we are thrilled to say Bluey is back in 2024. We’ll have the big events that bring the country together for moments of national celebration like the New Year’s Eve Fireworks, NAIDOC and Mardi Gras, our entertainment heavy hitters will all be returning, and we have an expanded arts coverage with two new shows.”
Head of screen content Jennifer Collins said she was “proud of the depth and breadth of content that only ABC can offer”.
“In 2024 we have a sensational lineup of new shows along with our returning audience favourites,” she said.
“From our specialist content, world-class dramas, and our popular comedies, to our award-winning documentaries and children’s programs, no other network caters to all Australians in the way ABC does.”