It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reloaded podcast last week.
Am I how would I just go on a television set, oh Man action from a headline grabbing point of view, the hack producer me says one hundred percent put him in.
Thanks your welcome back guys to TV Reload. My name's Benjamin Norris and on this podcast, I go behind the scenes with the biggest players in television.
Yeah, great questions.
The show's about the game. There's a lot of great television out there in Australia.
But I've also got to go behind the scenes with writers. The truth is, when I started writing it, it wasn't had nothing to do with the news and casting agents.
They know from a casting point of view what they need, and.
Editors because that's what we do as editors where storytellers. Not to forget some incredible executive producers who are making some of the best TV in Australia.
I have been on the program since the beginning and it's kind of in my DNA.
So thanks for joining me each week and I hope the podcast continues to give you real insight into the magic of television.
Today.
On the Podcascast, I have one of Australia's most prized TV content makers, Kaleida Corrigan, who has just launched my favorite new program Books That Made Us, an insightful look into Australian authors who have made an impact on the world with their best selling novels that reflect Australian culture. As an executive producer for ABC Arts, Kalida oversees a
vibrant slate of series and feature documentaries. Her passion about making the arts accessible to a broader audiences has seen her work on Tiny Oz, Inside the Opera House and the Actor Award winning feature documentary Firestarter The Story of Bangerer. Previously, Khalida was a director and series producer in the independent sector and had made a broad range of programs for
the UK, USA and Australian TV markets. Now working at ABC Factual and Cultural, Kalita consistently produces high quality, award winning factual and arts programs that feature Australian voices, places and stories which connect with a broader audience right across the ABC platform. Today will unpack the new ABC series with Claudia Carvin. Books That Made Us and I simply can't wait to talk about how this show got made and why it's so important for Australian audiences.
The show did.
Launch last Tuesday night, but you can catch up on episode one on ABC I View and episode two. We'll launch on Tuesday night at eight thirty on ABC. However, let's get started with today's episode. I'd like to welcome Kaleida Corrigan to this week's TV reload.
Objectivity when you're telling stories is really important.
As Australians, we love a great story.
We are reaching a new audience with this show.
There's nothing like getting completely lost in a book where you see the sun go down.
You can't assume the audience is going to care.
I want to delve into Australian books, the ones I've read and the ones I have.
I think books that made us is the books that have created an impact.
So come with me as I explore books that made us.
Claudia Carbon does that. She's someone that a lot of our audience would wish was at their book club.
How are you?
You're good?
You know.
I want to thank you so much for coming onto the podcast. I'm not going to bog you down into the details of why, but I'd been on a break from this podcast and you know, I was struggling to get back the energy to come back and get into this, and it was your show that got me out of bed and started me thinking about getting back to work and doing what I love. I watched a preview of the last Tuesday's episode about two weeks ago, and I loved it so much.
It actually sort of turned my life around in a weird way.
I went out and bought a book by an Australian author and I set up this chat with you. Is it strange to know that a show like this can make such a big impact on one person.
Yes, it's very strange to hear, but it's such a welcome thing to hear. I'm so happy to hear that. And I know that you're here to talk to me, but I want to ask you about what was it about the show that you loved? Is that okay to ask you that.
I think it's so important for us as Australians to hear our own voices. And I was brought up by a teacher and she encouraged me to read as so so much of my early learning and my creativity came from reading whatever my mum would get me to read. You know, she started off by reading Paul Jennings and roll dhe books to me as a kid, and as my life has gone on, I've loved literature. I love being able to escape into that. But on top of this,
I love Australia. I love our Australian culture and how could you be more Australian than to get Claudia Carvin to unpack these authors who we're so proud of. It inspires us to feel hurt, it inspires I think the show will inspire anyone because it reflects who we are here in Australia.
That'd a good enough answer.
It's beautiful And this isn't about the show, but I'm a mother of three boys. So my children are eight, eleven, and thirteen, and I am so proud of the fact. And I probably shouldn't even say it because it'll probably change because kids change all the time. But they're all bookworms and I think that books just offer you something. It's a phrase I heard when we were talking about this show was slow release nutrition. It's like books give you something and it's wholesome and it's very different to
something that you can get from a screen. And I think it's just a really different relationship with story, and I think it really broadens us and it enriches our lives. So I'm very proud of having three kids who read. But I'm also just a passionate reader myself, and I really want to admit that. Just recently, quite strangely, I'm having a bit of a patch of no reading and
I feel it's not good. But I think for years and years in my adult life, I just I read a lot of books and was sort of like the remember at book club who always read the book and was very keen to discuss it. But yeah, lately I'm actually a bit of a bad egg on that front. But I hope that with summer coming, I'll get back
into it. I think choosing a book can be quite scary, you know, that kind of feeling when you start a book you just want it to be a good relationship from the first page, and I think sometimes there's that trepidation of like, if I knew it was going to be a book that I would dive into, I would just but it's just that sort of that choosing what's it going to be? And I think that's actually why book clubs are quite good, because they kind of take
away that choice a little bit. It's sort of like, you know, you get you get the unexpected book, and there's always surprises, which I really like.
I love that you say that we're coming into summer because how Australian is it to be with your family at the beach reading a book.
Yes, that's my childhood.
Yeah, awesome. And I think that's why we scheduled it to go out in at the end of November, because it is. I think people are thinking about what they're going to read over the summer, and I think there was heaps of comments on Twitter last night, people saying, oh, someone actually said you fucked up my reading list, which I thought was quite funny. They were like, oh my god,
I've just totally influenced me. So yeah, I think people are I think I think we're influencing people's reading lists, and I just think that's awesome.
There are thousands of novels to choose, from classics to best sellers, and so I'll be seeking out some of those books that have really touched a nerve and revealed something about who we are.
Can you tell me in your words, what the idea of books that made us? What is it about I think books.
That made us is the books that have created an impact. I think that the reason why, there's a really good reason for that. Like at the ABC, we celebrate the arts and we promote the arts, and we endorse the arts and we champion the arts. I think that we have this incredible team at Radio National that week in
week out they are supporting books. But we lost our book show, our permanent bookshel a couple of years ago, and it's we've always been trying to find this opportunity to bring books back, but it has to fit into our commissioning strategy, which is to create programs. We're trying to take arts into a primetime space, and that's how this kind of was formulated. It was basically, we knew that we wanted to put it out at Tuesday eight thirty,
which is a primetime spot. So it's like, how do you take books, this really specialist subject area that has tons of integrity that you just can't mess with, but present it to an audience that may or may not identify as a complete book nerd whilst including the people that do so. Finding a little formula that kind of worked for both audiences is really what a lot of my job is about, which is really taking arts to a broad audience to justify getting that spot on the
in the primetime main channel. And so to do that, you've got to balance the kind of specialist integrity of the genre, which in this case is literature, and to include our authors, who in my mind, are all national treasures. And how do you find a way into that? Well that and that's how Claudia became attached Claudia Carbon.
When the sound of the slap slammed through his body, it had been electric, fiery, exciting, It had nearly made him hard. It was the slap he wished he had delivered. He was glad that the boy had been punished. Glad he was crying, shocked and terrified.
We want to find ways to make specialist subject areas and in this case, literature accessible. So Claudia Carbon does that. She's someone that a lot of our audience would wish was at their book club. So she makes this world that can be really deeply specialist accessible, and I think she is the reason why a broad audience has come to this subject. We also, we will never lose our book loving audience. They're really rusted on, committed deeply committed audience.
There is such a big culture of book lovers in Australia, but I think this show was also positioned to attract a broader audience. You might have other reasons for coming to the show, which might be the geography that we cover, the fact that Claudia is on this journey, so there's other reasons to come to it. And then there's kind of we surprise them with the brilliant sequences where Claudia gets to meet the authors and explore the books.
How unbelievable, like, you know, the talent that you managed to ascertain. You know, I was shocked at how much of these books I'd read. I'd read so many of them, and I couldn't believe. You know, when you see Christos Cholcos turn up and you see the list of people like even Leanne Moriarty who's coming up in a later episode, you know, just like the kram Crame of Australian authors
are all there. And then not only do you get to have a splice of them talking to Claudia, but she's also being really authentic with the way in which she interacts with them. And immediately, you know, the first episode, you see her with Christos Chalkers. She says that she didn't finish the slap, and you think, AREM I nervous that she didn't finish the slap? Is that the wrong thing to say? But then that unearthed and unpacked the information that we as an audience want to know.
I have a confession to make. I do have to declare myself that before we start talking too much to me about my response to the slab. There was a certain time in the book where I literally just threw it across the room and I didn't pick it up again, and I was just like, I couldn't find enough faith and hope and love in that book to keep me parenting every day.
I remember when I first saw that in one of the rough cuts, I just was covered in goosebumps because obviously it's a very strong way to start the series. But to hear Christophe Chocos respond to that and to tell us and I think that's the thing I forgot to mention before. It's like the books that are selected are they're not Claudia's favorites, they're not the production's favorites.
These books were very carefully selected because they have impacted Australia in some way, shape or form, and every book that we present has do we set it up with a historical context. And in the case of The Slap, the author was able to respond to Claudia by saying, how this was written at a time when the Tampa was happening, and it was a part of Australia that was really ugly, and yet we were in you know, we're such an affluent society and that this was going on.
He said, that is an ugly part of Australia and I'm going to, you know, use that to inspire this book. And I just thought, yeah, I thought that was a great opportunity to bring in the motivation for writing that book, and just hearing it again and reflecting on our history, I think it really I found it quite powerful.
Well, how important do you think it is in hearing our own voices in mainstream media, in books, in music? I guess in the arts.
I think it's just so important that you are reflected, because you can't be what you can't see. And I think Australia is growing in confidence as a nation and as an identity. I think it's a very broad identity.
Australia we have a hunger for Australian stories.
We don't quite know who we are yet, and we want to. I worked in the UK in the TV industry for ten years and I noticed over there and I guess the same for America. There seems to be so much confidence in people's identity and I feel like that's something that Australia is growing and growing. I think seeing yourself reflected in our myriad ways, there's so many you know, Ben Law has that brilliant quote about who's Australia.
You know, who's Australia are we actually talking about? We're such a diverse mix, but I think seeing ourselves reflected is just crucial. It is absolutely crucial because it's like
you feel seen and you feel heard. In this there was such an you know, it's obviously a huge focus of all ABC commissioning is to reflect contemporary Australia, like genuinely reflect contemporary Australia, and I think so diversity is a huge part of that, and so whenever we're kind of like commissioning programs, that's something that we think about, and so do all the amazing program makers that we engage with do. I mean, it's just I think it's just the way that we think in this day and age.
You know, we really need to get back and talk about Claudia Carvan just for a little bit, because I'm obsessed with her, and I'm assuming that you're obsessed with her as well.
As is the rest of Australia.
Why do you think it is with Claudia that she resonates so warmly with Australian audiences.
Because it's all about her. She's really for someone who's as successful as she is, she's incredibly down to earth. She's incredibly real. She's has a really sharp intelligence, but she's also witty, and she just did her homework. I mean, she read a lot of books. She took the role very seriously. She found some of the interviews quite intimidating. You know, you're walking into someone's life who has dedicated their life to writing something and they've put in so
much effort. You know, she wanted to do that role. You know, that was a privileged role and she wanted to do it justice. So but she's just real and I think it's kind of fun that she did this show because she's always playing roles, you know, in dramas, but this was an opportunity to just be herself, and I think she just went with it, and I think that's just super brave. Actually, she just really went with it. And you know, the way we make documentaries is really
really different to the way dramas are made. So I think it was it was an eye opening experience.
Yeah, I kind of out of her comfort zone, you know, Like, I think that was interesting about it. But it was so palpable because she was really honest. Like I love that bit where she walked into one of the author's house and she said, lower your expectations because he was like, yeah, I know, I can't believe that, Clauda Cup, you know, this is exactly amazing to be interviewed by you. I
wasn't prepared for this. And then she put him at ease, and she put the audience at ease as well, Like I think that sort of made it feel comfortable.
Well, I didn't know why I was going to have an interviewer of your distinction.
I'm a humble reader.
The expectations really low.
How did she get attached to the show, because obviously you wanted her to do it, but she's so busy with her acting and producing these days? How did you manage to get this gorgeous amount of time with her?
Yeah, she was attached before I was on board as the executive producer, but I know that she's she obviously had time in her schedule, which is really lucky because I know she's absolutely hit dick now on Bump two and three, so she had time. There's no way she would have done it if she wasn't completely passionately up for the ride. So I think it was actually just really clever casting on behalf of Blackfellow Films, who produced this.
They you know, there was there's always a short list when you're coming up with shows like this, and they approached Claudia and it just happened to be the right time and the right project and she signed up. So I think it was a lot of luck but also really good, good instincts from Blackfellow.
Can we get a series two already? Because I know that I'm already two episodes in, so I've seen Tuesday's episode that's coming up, but I.
Don't want it to end.
And I know that there's probably so many other authors out there that it'd be watching the show thinking oh, why didn't I get asked to come and talk to Claudia Carvin about this. You know, do you think we will look at seeing a second series or do you think it's just a standalone.
Oh god, I'd love to and I think we should rally Blackfellow Films to picture some new series basically, and if anyone's got any ideas on what books they'd love to see covered, because there is a thesis to the structure of the show, and it is people, place and power.
So you've really got to be thinking about how these books a have impacted Australia, how we can build that context visually because it is it is television, it's not a podcast, so it's really you've got to be able to set that book up somehow visually, and that's super challenging. And I think Jacob Hickey, the series producer, and Sally Aikin the director, and the cinematographer Aaron Smith did a sterling job on that front. Like creatively, they've really created something.
I'd tell you what, it's really hard to do, and they've made it look really easy with the finished product. So I think the books, if we did it again, they would all have to kind of like you know, feed the thesis. That'd have to be a coherent narrative, and they would have to be sort of you know, be able to be translated onto screen. But I mean, god, I would love to do another series.
I could tell which authors were coming up just by the cinematography, so the change would happen, and you know, Clauda would walk away from one of the authors. But how amazing, Yes, that the that it all came together like that.
You know I should mention the beautiful editor because again like that, editing is crucial to get right and that takes a lot of a lot of work. So the main editor was Jane Usher, and she just did an amazing job as well. So there are so it is such a team sport making shows like this, and I think the team is just, you know, just did a sterling job.
How much did you workshop those chats with each author? Like how much did you know what Claudia was going to say?
So we get scripts that come through before the production starts that we approve, but all of that has been written by Jacob Hickey, the series producer, so he really has mapped out the series and I think that we broadly know what might be the highlight points for each sequence, each encounter with each all. But that's just the starting point because obviously then real life comes into it, and Claudia is in there as the perth like she's not
obviously not scripted. That's her knowing what the possibilities are, but really driving that conversation. And I'm fairly sure I don't think I'm getting this wrong. I'm fairly sure that in Brisbane when she meets David Maloof, I think that wasn't necessarily planned because she actually had this favorite section that she reads out, which is just so funny. It was in the end T's of EP one. You might have seen a snippet of it where he shits Brisbane out of his ass.
At the end of every seven years, you completely knew, did you know that new fingernail's, new hair, new cells. There'll be nothing left of me in bloody Australia. I'll be transmuted. I'll say to myself every morning as I squat on the dunny, there goes another bit of Australia. That was Wilson's promontory that was too long, wash down the pluck hole. At the end of seven years, I'll have squoilzed the whole fucking continent out through my asshole.
I don't know that that was planned. And again I have to say, I'm sitting at the broadcasters, so there's this brilliant team on the ground navigating those shoots so that Sally It can directing that on the day. But I think, yeah, I think it's broadly written up so that the show has a thesis, but then you know, at the end of the day it is a documentary and those conversations, you know, flow on the day and Claudia is driving those.
What an excellent choice though, to have her reading the words back to the authors. And there's a really good bit with Tim Winton where he says, I forgot I forgot I wrote that. You know, he wrote that book thirty years ago. So what an experience for us as an audience to see those words being read back to the authors and then hearing what they think of it now. It's out of box experience.
I agree. I really like that bit because I think you kind of do a bit of why this why now? Like why are we talking about this? And I think for that author to hear someone's relationship with this work that they've kind of you know, they've forgotten pages that they've written. In fact, he's not the only author that says that. That comes up quite a bit. Helen garnasays that, and Charlotte Wood. I think it's kind of interesting how they forget what they've written. But I guess it's not
surprising given how many words they're responsible for. But yeah, I could see Tim Winton seem genuinely moved. He's just like, I loved you reading that. So I quite like that because it's sort of Yeah. If I think when you put out work and you see it being adored and you see someone having their own genuine relationship with it, I think it must be quite satisfying.
Yeah.
Well, I've studied cloud Street and Literature in Year twelve in nineteen ninety seven, so over twenty years ago, and it was just that book, particularly not that I ever reread, it stayed in my mind and I love its connection to Australian culture. And then just to hear the interactions twenty years later for me was really powerful but also really authentic, you know, like I think he was saying some really amazing things about it.
Yeah, And I think what worried me sitting at the broadcast. So I thought, I'm always thinking with my audience hat on, So I'm thinking, we don't want this show to be just repeating things that you know, some of our really
dedicated audiences already already know. And I was talking to the book consultant about that, Julianne Shultz and Griffith Uni, and I was like, you know, just wanted to make sure I always like to know that the different circles that could that are kind of looking at this series, the kind of you know, enjoying it, endorsing it. Like I just I'm always across that kind like its reception
when you're putting it out there into the world. And she said that, she said that for the people that do know intimately the stories that we covered one of the triggers, well, one of the reactions that came from that was just that they then wanted to read the book again because as we know, like you might have read a book a long time ago, but if you were to reread it again, it could possibly have you know, you'd have a different relationship with it, and you could
have a different response to it. I've gone completely in the past. Yeah, and you know, you just different because we grow when we're different people. So I think it has had that impact on some of the people that were super familiar with the text.
I find that reading books is like time travel, and interestingly, for me, I can go back and read books that I read as a teenager. I can smell, you know, the nineties, you know, when I was growing up as a teenager. Or it'll unearth things for me that I've completely forgotten about. And that's just just one of the very small things that's important about reading to me.
I guess, Yeah, it's.
Just so evocati. Even there's a timelessness when you know, when it's something's written really well, there's a timelessness, but it can be as in like it still really resonates even all these years later. But I mean it sounds real like it's very evocative as well.
One hundred percent, you know. And I couldn't believe the lineup of authors. How did you get these authors? I mean, I don't believe that you'd been sitting there calling them yourself. But was it harder? Do you know whether or not they were just jumping on board.
I think it was challenging, and Jacob Hickey did a sterling job of that the series producer, Jacob so he worked extremely hard to get the authors on board. And I think it's just fair to say that authors aren't you put on this earth to be on a screen and do interviews on television. They write books, and they write often in very solitary environments. So the fact that they all came on board and were so generous with
what we wanted to do was just amazing. Because like last night when it went to air, I had my three sons watching it, but my thirteen year old stayed through the whole thing. So they are actually, in that specific example, speaking to the next generation. So the fact that they actually came on board to be generous with their time communicate with our audience, we are so so grateful for that, and I think it's an amazing contribution to our cultural heritage because I really think we are
reaching a new audience with this show. So yeah, I don't think it was easy to cast all of them, but I think we, you know, were thrilled with everybody that came on board.
Well, what do you think was the most surprising fact for you that you picked up along the way. You know, obviously you were watching the Russias and now you know what goes to what's the final product that's gone to air. What's something of a surprising fact that one of the authors said.
That's a lovely question. But I think one of the one of the ones that stands out is I have read The Secret River like many people, but I didn't. I shamefully didn't know that Benevolence by Julie Janssen existed. To see the way that Secret River was paired up with benevolence to say that Secret River came out and Kate did such an amazing job, but Julie Jensen, an indigenous author, created a response to that work, and I
just loved that. What ansa So Claudia meets Leam Mariarty at the beginning of A three and I love the way that that interview ends, and I just think, you just I can't wait till you see it. We also have Charlotte Wood the way I mean that she just inspires me so much. And then there's also Kathy Lett. We talk about puberty Blues, and Claudia meets Pam Burridge and they have a serve together and they have a
conversation about that book, which again just so great. So yeah, I'm really excited about at three.
How good was Puberty Blues the TV series? I watched all two seasons together. I just loved it, And there was the music was really quite haunting in that series, so like every time I hear it playing in the background, I'm immediately transported back to the seven And it just was so carefully told and so normally we don't get a movie or a TV show that does the book justice. Where that long form of being able to delve into that Puberty Blues world so amazing.
I loved it. I thought it was great.
I'm obsessed with that series too, and I think Gloria was amazing and her character had the most incredible trajectory and arc. I just I absolutely loved it as well.
The Kram Doller crame of Australian actors was in that series, which is quite amazing. There's a real ease and a real flow with the show. From my perspective as a viewer, What did you as an executive producer?
What did you bring to the production.
Well, I think my role is just thinking always about our audience and because obviously ABC IVY is a huge part of what we commission for now, but we also need to be really careful of the premiere on the main channel, and so it has a particular which is Tuesday eight thirty, and we kind of know how that slot works, so we can bring a lot of I guess learnings from the years that we've been watching that slot and watching how shows do and looking at the
way the pre title teas works and knowing that you've only got so long to hook an audience, and just I think a lot of what the EP does on different productions is you really look at the way you're positioning the show and how you are speaking to those audiences in those first In that first minute, you can't assume the audience is going to care about your show, So you've got to find a way that connects with the people that instantly will care, but also connects with
the people who might be on the fence. So how are you going to position this, Like, how are you going to have a very sharp premise that hooks those people in? And I think that's really a big part
of I guess what the EP does. And then all the way through through you're another objective person on the team, so you're kind of like looking at the scripts and making sure that it flows and that objectivity is enormously valuable because obviously I've approved the script before production starts, but then I've been at arm's length, and objectivity when you're telling stories is really important. So just working with the brilliant team. I mean, you're so blessed to have
a team as experienced as this one. So it's really just collaborating to make sure that our audience is going to receive this. They know what they want to make, but I need to make sure it's going to land with the audience that we know will come to it. And I think, you know, it takes it takes time, Like it takes many weeks in the edit to be able to do that, and rough cuts and fine cuts and it's you know, it's just it's a real process. So it's that's sort of my you know, a big
part of my role. I also have another like I have a whole team at the ABC, so we have like a promo's team who created the most beautiful promo. We have radio nationals, So relationships I have with that amazing team who are just doing the heavy lifting covering books week in week out. So I make sure that They're all part of what we're doing and they're in
step and can support this amazing show. I work closely with ABC Impact in Factional Culture, So we did a writing competition for youth and then the Impact teams that up a partnership with the Wheelers Center, So some a handful of winning entries are going to get mentored to produce their writing further, and then it will get published in a journal, Voice Works Journal. So it's really connecting as well internally with the massive beast that is the ABC.
There are so many people that work on your shows, and so it's about keeping like publicity. Amazing publicity support we had, so it's really, yeah, part of it. A lot of it is advocating internally, and then a lot of it is also just making sure the show's going to work for our audience.
Just to share a little bit of my own story with the first viewing of the show, I basically was in bed and I didn't really want to get up, and I felt like a piece of grass that was basically dead that someone sort are salvaged, and I felt like the show every minute of the first fifteen minutes in I kind of came back alive. It just breathed
some life into me. So it's so interesting that you talk about it being vital to capture an audience and inspire them and hook them, you know, and that's and not only did you do that for me, you did it in a life changing kind of way.
So it was amazing, amazing.
So happy to hear that that's the best. That is just I think we've just our audience is intelligent and they want to be entertained, but they also want to be inspired and they want to think, and I think that's really important. So it's like it's an intelligent series that isn't too confronting or too challenging, but it feels like there's a great sense of purpose, and you know, it just feels like a really nutritious thing to watch.
I think you learn, you think, and you're inspired. And I think so often you might watch the media or you might open a newspaper, and there's so much If you're not having a good day, there's a lot that could actually make you have a worse day. And I think a lot of the authors that are on this show, they are genuinely national treasures what they have contributed, the truth that they speak in through their fiction, the words
that they choose, the sentences that they craft. These actually are people that we should celebrate a little bit more. And we don't sort of go on about that in the show, but I just think making space for these people who have given Australian culture so much, I just
think that is what we should be doing. These people really deserve to be these authors really deserve to be celebrated, and I'm so happy that you've found a way to do that in a primetime space, because I think there is a challenge with taking specialist content into a primetime space. You know, the risk is that you could dilute the caliber of the art form that you're wanting to represent, and that's the challenge is how to find a way
in without diluting the integrity of that art form. So I'm really glad to hear that it resonated with you and that it sort of, you know, got you inspired.
Putting those authors together, I was thinking could be a daunting concept because you know, one author could be more exciting the other anything, but they all equally were just as powerful, like they were all equally protected with an
integrity that made them all just as amazing. And it made it cohesive, you know, and it just flowed, which I think would be really hard because there's a few authors that might be a little bit more recognizable or might be better spoken, but every single person that's on that show is getting a mo and it kind of lifts, it kind of fills you up. We could talk about this all day, and some points you probably feel like we almost have, but I just wanted to say, you're
attached to some amazing, amazing projects with the ABC. Can we talk a little bit about what you're working on? Coming up for twenty twenty two, We've.
Got tiny Oz, a three by one hour documentary series that celebrates history and craft in equal measure. And it's hosted by Jimmy Rees and also tiny artist Joanne Busana Selk And so basically, each episode looks at a different goes to a different location and looks at a different historical moment, and a team, like a team of crafts
people recreate that moment in tiny Craft. So we've got one episode set up in Broom and we talk about the purling industry, and we've got one episode set in Adelaide looking at hot air ballooning like this incredible little story about a hot air ballooning incident that happened, and also amazing ones and in Sydney, which is called How to Move a Zoo, which is set around the story of when they had to move the zoo from center of Sydney to Taronga before the bridge was built, So
it was basically walking this whole menagerie of animals through the city center and then getting them on a barge.
So if you like, yeah, exactly.
So it's a really I think in a post COVID environment, tiny os is just this, It's just tonally where we all want to be. We want to be, we want to think like. It has all this beautiful history in rich detail. We've got the rich like the artisan ship in with all these crafts, people who literally have just dedicated their lives to these tiny like making tiny items.
It's so inspiring. And we've got the kind of the beautiful fun hosts Jimmy Reese and also Joanne And we're really hoping that this series inspires our audience to also parts to pay because I think craft is a really great way to do it. And I think that after COVID, it's just we just we want to kind of I think we just want to celebrate the good that's happening in the world, and it's just whimsical and so much fun.
Why do you think that? I mean, it's a good question to ask you about why you love working for the ABC. But you know, as a broadcaster, they seem to be pumping out some of the best scripted content as well, you know, total control the newsreader fires. I mean, honestly, I could the list could go on. But maybe it's an indicative of me and my place in my life or I'm not sure, but I'm just loving the ABC right now. I'm loving the content that's coming out of it.
So what is it for you as to why you love working with the network so much?
I just think it's an immense privilege to work in a national broadcaster because the content that we do, we're bound by a charter. I mean, it's a really strict charter, and we can our content has to have purpose and it has to have value for the public because we are publicly funded. So from a filmmaker's point of view, you're making programs or you're commissioning programs that have that are just full of integrity. We can't really do anything
unless it does. And I think as a program maker you also have to we all have to kind of earn a living, but to be able to earn a living working on shows that you genuinely would stand behind is just an absolute joy and I think it's a really creative time. And I think that particularly being an executive producer whose main focus is taking arts to a broad audience. I just think that's a really exciting position to be in because I was in the independent production
sector for twenty years. So I've worked in the UK for ten years and then I've worked back in Australia, you know, working my way up from being a runner, researcher, assistant producer, director, series producer. So then to come over into the broadcaster and really look at like put all that those decades of work experience and feed it back into this different role, because being an EP is quite a different role. It's just really satisfying. So I feel
really fortunate to do that. But I think the ABC is just a very inspiring place to work and it's a really you know, it's just a really important part of Australian cultural life and it's just a joy to be a part of that.
Well, I think it's amazing for you personally to have gone on that journey and continued to grow and then have the ability. Now every step of that is a journey, and here you are being able to pump out some amazing content. You know, must feel quite fulfilling. My one question, though, I always ask my guests before they go, is what's an amazing story from behind the scenes that we as an audience might appreciate.
We were extraordinarily lucky to get this show in the can because it was filmed in between in between lockdowns. Now it's all such a blur, but yet they like, oh my god, the scheduling and the rescheduling and then the rescheduling of these shoots that were done by Blackfellow Films was absolutely just incredible. I think every production in Australia was affected like that. But just the fact that
we got Claudia into Western Australia is amazing. The fact that we got her into Tasmania is amazing, and even Queensland. So we were very, very lucky to and you know, the team were so skilled at doing that. But it was just so tricky to be filming in a pandemic.
But you know, because it's Claudia Carvin and she's basically got the keys to the country.
Exactly. I'm not sure that happened, but who knows.
Look, I just want to say thank you so much for the content that you've been making.
Thank you so much for being able to join.
Us and talk about I think it's my favorite show for twenty twenty two.
So what an honor.
Oh my god, I feel so hon and I'm so thrilled to talk to you, Benjamin and to hear your beautiful feedback. And I'll pass it on to the team and thank you so much for this opportunity and keep watching