After some UK collaboration with Return to Paradise and Austin this year, the ABC is taking a homegrown approach to local scripted content in 2025, announcing a series adaptation of Australian author Sally Hepworth’s The Family Next Door and a new season of Mystery Road: Origin at this afternoon’s upfronts.
Teresa Palmer will lead Beyond Entertainment and Muse Entertainment’s screen version of the 2018 novel, currently filming in Victoria, which centres on an enigmatic woman whose obsessive drive to solve a mystery casts suspicion on four families in the small seaside cul-de-sac where she has taken up residence. The cast also includes Bella Heathcote, Philippa Northeast, Bob Morley, Catherine McClements, Ming Zhu Hii, Jane Harber, Daniel Henshall, Tane Williams Accra, Dominic Ona Ariki, and Maria Angelico.
Sarah Scheller is penning the adaptation alongside Pip Karmel, Julia Moriarty and Andrew Anastasios, with Emma Freeman directing. Dean O’Toole is series producer, while Melinda Wearne is producing. David Ogilvy, Jenny O’Shea, Joel Rice and Meghan Mathes Jacobs are executive producing, alongside the ABC’s Rachel Okine and Rebecca Anderson.
The broadcaster will also welcome back an enigmatic lead character in Detective Jay Swan, played by Mark Coles Smith, with Bunya Productions’ Mystery Road: Origin returning for new episodes, three years after its AACTA-winning debut season.
Currently filming in WA, the second season picks up six months from when we last saw young Jay and his partner Mary, as the pair attempt to forge a new life together on her mother’s Country, in the fading town of Loch Iris.
As Jay begins to investigate an unfolding case, Loch Iris closes ranks around him. And the more he pieces together the crime, the more he realises the entire town has been hiding a shadowy past. It’s a past that is still rippling through to the present. And with it, a secret, that threatens to tear Jay and Mary apart.
The ensemble cast includes Robyn Malcolm, Geoff Morrell, Nicholas Bell, Luke Carroll, Helen Morse, Aswan Reid, Steve Le Marquand, Pippa Grandison, Rarriwuy Hick, Shantae Barnes-Cowan, Tammy Lee Rock, Marley Sharp, Alex Malone, Greg Tait and Eloise Hart.
Jub Clerc is directing the series alongside Wayne Blair with Steven McGregor, Jada Alberts, Erica Glynn, Samuel Paynter, and Gary Hamaguchi penning the scripts, and Deb Cox serving as script producer. Greer Simpkin and David Jowsey are producing, while Okine and Brett Sleigh EP for the ABC.
Other ABC scripted titles to return for second seasons next year include Bay of Fires, Austin Mother and Son, and Return to Paradise, currently in development.
Completing the slate is the third and potentially final season of Werner Film Productions’ The Newsreader, set to premiere Sunday, February 2, and previously-announced comedy Optics from Easy Tiger and Chaser Digital.
Pilots of comedy dramas Going Under, Urvi Went to an All Girls School, and Westerners will also screen as part of the ABC and Screen Australia’s Fresh Blood initiative.
ABC chief content officer Chris Oliver Taylor told IF the scripted line-up was “a celebration of previous success to a degree”.
“We’ve got The Newsreader back, along with Mystery Road: Origin, Mother and Son, Austin, and Bay of Fires, which have all worked for various reasons, be it bringing big, broad audiences, or showcasing new talent,” he said.
“It goes to the long-form success of ABC drama and comedy.”
He remained coy on the future of The Newsreader beyond season three, only describing it as “the end of an era”.
“The Newsreader is one of those landmark shows we all should be very proud of,” he said.
“I don’t whether there will be a season four but I wouldn’t say it’s the complete end. . . I think there could be something there, but there is nothing in development.”
As with fellow public broadcaster SBS, the ABC will enlist a slew of familiar faces to front new documentary and factual titles next year.
After stepping down from his sports presenter role on ABC’s News Breakfast program last month, Tony Armstrong will explore a radical culinary solution to the invasive plants and animals attacking Australia’s biodiversity in Eat The Invaders, produced by Closer Productions, set to premiere Tuesday January 7. He’s also set to embark on a mission to find global solutions to the rising tide of racism in Australian sport and inspire lasting change in End Game.
Elsewhere, Amanda Keller and an ensemble of comedians explore parenting dilemmas alongside sketches featuring Kate Ritchie and Nazeem Hussain in The Role of a Lifetime; Dr Ann Jones gets up close and personal with reclusive creatures in Dr Ann Secret Lives; Miriam Margolyes embarks on a New Zealand adventure in Miriam Margolyes: Made in NZ; Orea: Australia’s Megapod and The Kimberley will offer deep dives into Western Australia’s natural history; and Indigenous format Hear Me Out will tackle the often contentious discussion surrounding Australia Day from a First Nations point of view.
Further, Annabel Crabb and the team that brought you Kitchen Cabinet and Ms Represented are in development on a new series investigating the barely-believable true story of how Australia’s globally unique voting system came to be.
Of the returning formats, the third season of Muster Dogs will premiere in February, while there will also be new episodes of I Was Actually There, The Assembly, Grand Designs Australia, Restoration Australia, Back Roads, Landline, Compass, Spicks & Specks, Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont Spelling Bee, Hard Quiz, Gruen, and The Weekly with Charlie Pickering, Gardening Australia, Offsiders, and Shaun Micallef’s Eve of Destruction.
In the arts space, Eureka Productions is adapting UK format The Piano, in which everyday pianists are invited to showcase their skills on a public piano for the opportunity to take their talent to the next level. The Australian version will feature Harry Connick Jr and Andrea Lam as the expert musicians.
Three weeks after being announced as the host of Blackfella Films’ The Idea of Australia for SBS, Rachel Griffiths will add to her public broadcasting presenting duties When the War is Over, a deep dive into how art has helped shape our attitude to wars.
There is also Portrait Artist Of The Year, in which artists from across Australia will compete in a battle of creative skill, as they complete portraits of famous sitters, along with new seasons of Creative Types with Virginia Trioli, The Art Of with Namila Benson, Take 5 with Zan Rowe and Rage.
Oliver-Taylor said he was proud to put music “right at the heart” of ABC’s 2025 schedule.
As previously reported, the ABC unveiled four new children’s programs at the Australian Children’s Content Summit in August, with Werner Films’ Knee High Spies and DO NOT WATCH THIS SHOW, an adaptation of Andy Lee’s DO NOT OPEN THIS BOOK, to screen next year. They are joined by a recording of the Bluey live show, Bluey’s Big Play, as well as returning children’s titles Kangaroo Beach (Boxing Day), Gardening Australia Junior, Space Nova, Fizzy & Suds, Good Game Spawn Point and Good Game Spawn Squad, Hard Quiz Kids and Play School. A new season of Teenage Boss: Next Level is also in development to return, and animation Piki Lullaby with Christine Anu will be available from January 13 on ABC Family and ABC iview.
Screening on the ABC as acquisitions are the final chapters of UK detective series Vera, Walking with Dinosaurs, Bergerac, Douglas is Cancelled, Until I Kill You, The One That Got Away, and Darby and Joan.
Speaking about the coming year, Oliver-Taylor stressed the importance of recognising audience trends and making sure there was content on linear TV and ABC iview to suit their needs.
“What we’ve found is scripted shows, particularly comedy and drama, are absolutely driving the growth of streaming,” he said.
“Apart from Muster Dogs and Nemesis, I think the next 18 are all scripted in our top 20. Shows like Fisk, Vera, and Return to Paradise absolutely drive viewers to on-demand. Where we see more linear watching is entertainment, which is interesting. So as our audiences do change and there is a drive into on-demand and demand from our audiences for that, we’ve got to get the balance right of what they want to watch on ABC iview versus what we are going to offer on linear TV.”