Entertainment over diversity for The Heights

Diversity is a word often associated with The Heights, for good reason.

The ABC serial includes characters of Caucasian, Indigenous, Asian, Middle-Eastern descent mingling with roles that are straight, gay, able-bodied and having a disability.

But as producer Peta Astbury-Bulsara explains, the show wants to be recognised for more.

“Diversity isn’t really something that we normally try to push for The Heights,” she tells TV Tonight.

“We prefer people to be focussed on the show and the story”

“Obviously that’s a secondary thing and an important thing. We prefer people to be focussed on the show and the story. Even though diversity is in our DNA, and it’s how we set the show up on and off screen, pushing that too much makes it seem like a ‘worthy’ show -and not the entertaining show that it is.

“In a way diversity is something that people should just be doing anyway.”

Indeed together with producer and co-creator Warren Clarke, she worked hard to address the matter behind the cameras too. The remarkable thing is how equality was achieved on a production of this scale in a city the size of Perth.

“My personal target was having at least 60% gender parity in our heads of departments and also across the wider crew. We achieved that in both series,” she continues.

“The way to get gender parity is just to do it”

“My view is that the way to get gender parity is just to do it. We’re able to do it in Perth with a predominantly WA crew. I knew the calibre of people that it would take to do a show like The Heights and I looked about at who’s out there.

“In Series One, we had 1 female camera operator in our group of 4, and in Series Two, we had 2. In series two we had women in all departments, except for three. You don’t ever want to push things…but we were able to do it in Perth with a predominantly WA crew.”

“Hugh Jackman talks about ‘sending the lift back down'”

S1 had 96 speaking roles, plus 300 extras, nearly all of whom were WA resident, with similar numbers in S2. There were also 41 interns learning their craft.

“Hugh Jackman talks about ‘sending the lift back down’. Once you get to the top -not that I think that I’m at the top- but I have been given a lot of opportunity throughout my career. I thought ‘That’s a way of giving back and identifying talent.'”

The series was critically-acclaimed, including nominations from the AWGIE Awards, Screen Producers Awards and a win from the Casting Guild of Australia for casting director Annie Murtagh-Monks.

“It would have been better to have a better timeslot in S1”

2020 also sees scheduling changes for the Matchbox Pictures drama. After double episodes on Fridays last year, Season Two will screen in weekly episodes on Thursday nights.

“It would have been better to have a better timeslot in S1, but obviously ABC understood that and have now given us a really great timeslot this year at 8pm Thursday nights. There’s not much more that you can ask for, being in their regular drama slot.”

The show picks up from its S1 cliffhanger with Pav discovering he is father to Shannon’s baby -but in their very own soapie twist, Marcus Graham has been replaced in the role.

“He couldn’t come back for scheduling reasons we recast him and Rupert Reid is in the role of Pav,” she explains.

“There’s not too much being made of it in terms of the way it’s presented in episode one, because actors get changed time all the time in serial drama.”

Returning cast also include Shari Sebbens, Roz Hammond, Fiona Press, Dan Paris, Calen Tassone, Saskia Hampele, Phoenix Raei, Yazeed Daher, Bridie McKim, Mitchell Bourke, Koa Nuen, Cara McCarthy, Briallen Clarke and Carina Hoang,

“We also have Kelton Pell, the fantastic Indigenous actor, who joins our ensemble cast.”

Meanwhile Arcadia Heights community rumours spread that the towers are being sold off to developers, with the wealthier inhabitants representing the growing threat to the housing tower’s very existence. As outside forces intrude threaten the harmony, writers will find connections and commonalities that exist between characters.

“There’s no firm plans around S3”

But the drama in the real world is that ABC is facing a funding freeze and programming is expected to undergo cuts. If a third season gets the approval, the show will have to rebuild sets, with confirmation that current sets were recently sold off instead of being stored.

“It was a bit of an anomaly in S1 that we kept those sets. There was an opportunity to store them, and we did. It’s not unusual for a drama at the end of the series to cast off everything,” says Astbury-Bulsara.

“There’s no firm plans around S3, but that’s not to say that it couldn’t happen.”

Sources suggest rebuilding costs are roughly similar to storage.

How this affects S2 story resolution isn’t so clear.

“It’s something we thought a lot about, and I’m not going to spoil it for you. But the show could go on.”

The Heights returns 8pm Thursday on ABC.