Australian Story: May 22

Australian Story tomorrow features Part 2 of “Candy Man Part 2”, the extraordinary life of Lion screenwriter Luke Davies and his recovery from heroin addiction to Hollywood glory.

“I knew that he’d been through detox and he was a lot more humble. So he was a lot more likeable” – Karen Brien, former wife

“I just assumed that I’d lost all my powers of writing and that was something that I was completely willing to accept as my destiny.” – Luke Davies

“I’m the real Candy. It was really when the film came out that we re-established our friendship. And I think a lot of people thought that I shouldn’t have been friends with Luke in that it was exploitative but I don’t think that.” – Megan Bannister, former wife

Part 1 of Candy Man explored Luke Davies’ early years, from his idyllic childhood on Sydney’s North Shore, through his decline into a decade of heroin addiction and the toll that this took on him and those around him.

This concluding episode begins as he finally enters a detox unit on January 2, 1990, turning his back on heroin once and for all.

“That was the beginning of me actually getting my life back,” Luke tells Australian Story.

Gradually Luke began to write again – a volume of poetry and then fragments of what would eventually become Candy, the best-selling account of his relationship with Megan Bannister and their years of addiction.

“I shoplifted the book because I didn’t want him to have any of my money,” Megan tells Australian Story. “I wasn’t talking to Luke at the time. It’s a bit uncomfortable for me to read it.”

When director Neil Armfield turned Candy into a movie starring Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish, Luke co-wrote the screenplay. Luke was also given the task of making a behind-the-scenes documentary – a raw, uncompromising film that makes light of Luke’s anxiety about his small role as a milkman but also explores much darker territory as Luke revisits his past with Megan.

The documentary was never released and excerpts from it appear here for the first time.

Luke won an AFI award for his Candy script and then gambled everything on a move to Los Angeles. However, he struggled to find work and became increasingly debilitated by the effects of Hepatitis C, a legacy of his addiction.

Despite failing health, Luke’s luck began to turn. In 2012 he won the Prime Minister’s Literary Prize for poetry, allowing him to clear his debts. Not long after, he started to get good work – first the script for the 2015 film Life and then Lion, based on the story of Saroo Brierley’s search for his birth mother.

And then during production of Lion Luke received an experimental treatment that cured him of Hepatitis C.

Lion has become a worldwide hit, making Luke one of the most sought-after writers in Hollywood. He was nominated for an Oscar and took his mother Joan to the ceremony.

“I put her through long periods of betrayal and anxiety and pain – pure pain,” he told Australian Story. “The ability to say, ‘Mum, I want you to be my plus one at the Oscars,’ that felt pretty special.”

Australian Story accompanied Luke and his mother to the Oscars and filmed with him extensively in Los Angeles and Sydney.

Candy Man features interviews with Luke’s parents and former partners as well as friends and collaborators, including actors Dev Patel (Lion), Joel Edgerton, Jacki Weaver and Alex O’Loughlin, Candy director Neil Armfield, Candy and Lion producer Emile Sherman and director David Michod.

Together they tell a remarkable story of redemption; of a man whose vision of the world and his own place in it is suffused with poetry but who achieved success only after emerging from the depths of addiction and despair.

Producers: Quentin McDermott and Greg Hassall

8pm Monday 22 May on ABC