Scales of injustice

When the first series of SBS drama The Circuit hit screens in mid-2007 little did co-creator and writer Kelly Lefever realise it would do so in the midst of a storm over sexual abuse of Indigenous children in the Northern Territory.

Given abuse was also part of the storyline, the report propelled the drama to centrestage, despite the fact it had finished shooting some six months earlier.

“That’s the sort of thing that you can’t anticipate,” Lefever told TV Tonight. “In our minds it was never meant to be an expose. It was us saying ‘This stuff happens and we all know it happens and by the way so did the government for quite a long time.’

“It was a real storm that hit. We were on air I think a week after the Little Children are Sacred report came out. Then there was the build up to the Intervention.

“So we kind of came to air with this clairvoyant foresight, and we were wondering how people were going to take it. But I think we didn’t try to be sensationalist about it. We were just looking at areas we felt needed to be out there.’

The Intervention that followed under the Howard Government was a response to the report in the lead up to the 2007 Federal Election. Its impact has since put pressure on The Circuit writers to incorporate the events into new scripts. But as Lefever explains, the second season was designed to pick up just a week after the end of the first.  Complicating the timeframe more was a December 2009 airdate, at least a year off the 2008 filming.

“So this time everyone said ‘You’ve got to do the Intervention.’ But we knew we had a big break and wouldn’t be on air for a year and I don’t think you can try to predict politically what’s going to become a hot potato. And given we were only two weeks on really (in story time) the Intervention hadn’t happened. In the world of The Circuit, the Intervention doesn’t exist,” she said.

“All we can really do in the end is say there are other things that we want to talk about.”

Filmed outside Broome, the drama series sees a travelling  Magistrate’s Court visit far-flung communities several days a month, as Drew Ellis (Aaron Pedersen) represents community cases to Judge Peter Lockhart (Gary Sweet), whilst seeking to re-connect with his own Aboriginality.’

With the passage of time, the second season has also been produced in a world that is post-Sorry statement from the Rudd Government.

“The Apology hasn’t happened in the world of The Circuit either, which is kind of interesting. But I went to Federation Square to watch the Apology with some of the cast and found it incredibly moving,” Lefever said.

“It’s a great thing but it doesn’t stop the problems that people are facing.”

Instead the series looks at other issues including Deaths in Custody and a Zero Tolerance Policy.

Writers also felt compelled to elevate the personal lives of the central characters, but to maintain the legal cases, both dramatic and light, which emerge in outback communities.

“This time around people wanted to go more deeply into the characters. So it was how to make that work without turning it into melodrama. And we’d sent everybody off into the wilds, really,” she said.

“Everyone was quite separated at the end of the last series, so we had to find a way to bring them back together and not cheat on stories.”

Filming the 6 part series was no mean feat, including punishing shoots in remote locations in temperatures of 48 degrees Celsius. Lefever says cast, crew and locals were committed to the series because of the important nature of the content. Any scepticism that Broome residents held over the first series disappeared when the production came back to town.

“We were very, very gratified to be welcomed back. Because you never know how people are going to take your portrayal. But we involved the community from the get go, with Indigenous writers, Indigenous directors –it was a big all-in.

“We were being stopped in supermarkets with people saying ‘Oh you’re that mob, you’re back!'” she said.

“And someone said ‘But why did you have to put those poofter boys in?’ But what can you say? ‘Kind of for that reason, really….'” she laughs.

So embraced by locals was the production that many residents appeared again as extras or minor parts.

“There’s always some funny stories with the fellas who come in for the first time,” says Lefever.

“You’ll get people ad-libbing and that will become that catch-cry of the entire shoot! But it lends to the reality of the place. Everybody brings with them a truth about the Kimberley and the life they live up there. I think it adds to the show.”

The second season kicks off with a dramatic punch that will ricochet through the following five episodes. Lefever promises “it gets easier” after the season premiere.

As to a third series Lefever says she and co-creator Ross Hutchens already vowed they wouldn’t do another.

“A lot of it depends on what the Government ends up doing and whether we feel that Drew and Co. need to once more step into the fray and have something to say about it.”

The Circuit airs 8:30pm Tuesday on SBS ONE.