Claire van der Boom. (Photo: David Cook).
The ABC’s new medical drama Pulse goes into production in Sydney today.
The series, from Clandestine Beyond, is inspired by a true story of a transplant patient who became a doctor, and is created by Kris Wyld, Michael Miller and Mel Hill.
Set in a western suburbs teaching hospital, Claire van der Boom (Sisters of War) stars as Frankie Bell, a second year practising doctor who, eight years after her own kidney transplant, is set to start on a renal rotation.
Pulse will also star Andrea Demetriades (Janet King), Owen Teale (Game of Thrones), Liam McIntyre (Spartacus: War of the Damned), Susie Porter (Puberty Blues), Arka Das (Top of The Lake), Penny Cook (A Country Practice), Blessing Mokgohloa (Hunters), Pallavi Sharda (Lion) and Renee Lim (Please Like Me).
The series is produced by Wyld and Antony I. Ginnane, with Beyond Entertainment’s David Ogilvy and Ron Saunders and the ABC’s Sally Riley and Kym Goldsworthy on board as executive producers.
The show has been written by Wyld, Miller, Kristen Dunphy and Mandy McCarthy and will be directed by Peter Andrikidis, Jennifer Leacey and Ana Kokkinos.
Producers Wyld and Ginnane said Pulse will provoke and confront as well as tug at the heartstrings. "We have assembled an exciting and diverse world class cast for Clandestine TV's first drama,” they said.
ABC’s head of scripted production Sally Riley said: “With an extraordinary true story as inspiration and starring two of Australia’s finest young female actors, Pulse will rivet audiences with the life and death decisions faced daily by a group of young medical interns still grappling with the meaning of their own lives.”
Pulse has been produced in association with Screen Australia and Screen NSW, with international sales to be handled by ABC Commercial.