Back in the saddle why McLeods Daughters is worth rewatching
Midway through my phone call with McLeodâs Daughters star Bridie Carter, she politely requests a leave of absence to tend to a pressing issue. âSorry, one second, my son is hooning around the farm on his dirt bike,â Carter, 50, says. âWeâve had a busy morning out here fixing fences.â
Bridie Carter and Lisa Chappell on the set of McLeodâs Daughters.
Itâs a line that could easily belong to the character that made her a household name: Tess McLeod. These days Bridie Carter the actor is also Bridie Carter the farmer, running a working property alongside husband Michael Wilson in the Northern NSW town of Myocum, near Byron Bay.
âThe show changed my life professionally but also personally too; I am talking to you from a farm while looking down at my cattle,â Carter says. âIâve accidentally become Tess.â
It was 20 years ago this month that McLeodâs Daughters debuted on Australian screens, introducing audiences to the fictional Droverâs Run cattle station and the two McLeodâs daughters responsible for running it: Tess and half-sister, Claire (Lisa Chappell).
Originally, a 1996 telemovie created by Posie Graeme-Evans and Caroline Stanton, the pair spent five years convincing Channel Nine, the owner of this masthead, to greenlight an entire series.
âPosie is a tenacious woman,â Chappell, 52, on the line from Auckland says. âHer persistence paid off, though.â
On August 8, 2001, the premiere drew an audience of 1.89 million, McLeodâs proving a breath of fresh country air amidst the usual slew of cop and hospital dramas.
âShows set in the bush have always worked well on Australian television,â television historian Andrew Mercado says.
âWhen McLeodâs arrived, we had a few shows set in the bush; Blue Heelers on Seven and Something In the Air on the ABC, but McLeodâs Daughters quickly rose above them all.â
The cast of McLeodâs Daughters.
Timing is everything in television and soon after the McLeodâs began the world was rocked by the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York City.
âAfter that people wanted [to watch] something that was open-hearted, full of the good things in life: family, resilience, survival and love,â Carter says. âAnd McLeodâs was that to a tee.â
Given the series ended in 2009, itâs remarkable how popular the rural drama remains. McLeodâs Daughters has been sold in more than 100 countries, and earlier this year, US broadcaster PBS began airing the series in full.
Chappell and Carter says McLeodâs is just as relevant now as it was when it first aired.
âThere are deep connections between 20 years ago and today,â Carter. âBecause of the pandemic, people are desperate to escape into the safety and comfort of a fully formed world.â
âSolidarity was one of the themes of the show,â Chappell says. âYou had these sisters thrown together, overcoming the odds, and I think that is why it continues to strike a chord.â
And overcome the odds they did. From stolen cattle to evil sheep shearers and a rotating door of property developers keen to buy up Droverâs Run, McLeodâs was never short of drama during its eight-season run.
But where the real world contained real problems, McLeodâs Daughters offered up wholesome distraction. âIt also didnât hurt that you had beautiful women on horseback and a lineup of gorgeous men,â Chappell says. âIt was escapism for an hour each week.â
The cast of McLeodâs Daughters.
Arguably the showâs high point came with the on-screen departure of Chappellâs character, Claire, in season three. The death-by-ute scene remains one of the most talked-about moments in Australian TV history as 1.705 million people tuned in to say goodbye.
âI was keen to move on, so I asked the writers to kill Claire off,â Chappell says. âHad I known what kind of impact it would have, I may have reconsidered [leaving]; I still have fans come up and weep in my face.â
Lisa Chappell on the set of McLeodâs Daughters.
âClaireâs death impacted people,â Carter says. âI get approached all the time by fans who tell me how that storyline helped them get through hard times in their lives.â
For the showâs leading stars life after McLeodâs Daughters has offered mixed results. While Chappell is starring in New Zealand soap Shortland Street and working in theatre, Carter admits that shedding Tess is challenging.
âIn Australia, producers are frightened to cast people who have played an iconic role,â she says. âItâs bizarre to be a household name but unable to book anything.â
But in better news for long-suffering fans, Bridieâs next role could be her most familiar. Rumours of a McLeodâs reboot first surfaced in 2017 but failed to eventuate. Then in 2019, Posie Graeme-Evans confirmed she was working on a feature film, The McLeodâs of Drovers Run.
âIt feels inevitable,â Mercado says.
âReboots are all the rage now, and when you factor in the international appeal [of McLeodâs] and the financial muscle of streaming platforms, it seems a no-brainer.â
âThe script is done,â says Carter cautiously, wary of over-promising and under-delivering.
âBut there are many stages to getting a project made, and Posie will not make a film that doesnât do justice to the legend of McLeodâs Daughters.â
Could we see the cast of hit Australian TV show McLeodâs Daughters reunite for a reboot?
For Chappell, the idea of returning to Claire is trickier. âI could play a ghost? Whether I am in it or not doesnât matter; itâll be beautiful, heartfelt, feel-good telly.â
And just like 20 years ago, we could all use a bit of that.
Thomas Mitchell is a culture reporter at The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.
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