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Lie with Me

A new nanny finds a perfect family isn't all it appears to be in 10's new melodrama / thriller.

It’s taken until November, but 10 finally has a new local drama -its first all year.

Originally conceived as With Intent, a co-production with ViacomCBS-owned Channel 5, Lie With Me was created by Neighbours executive producer Jason Herbison and produced by Fremantle. Neighbours director Scott Major steps behind the camera again here, and former Ramsay Street hunk Brett Tucker is the male lead.

However the tone is more playful, ricocheting between Melodrama and Thriller in ways that would make Izzy Hoyland proud….

Tucker plays Jake, a wealthy lawyer, with the golden locks and rockin’ bod, husband to Brit Anna (Charlie Brooks) and father of two young kids. They live on an Aussie version of Dallas‘ Southfork (I’ll take a wild guess at Lysterfield?) manicured to within an inch of its life.

But there’s trouble in bush paradise, with Anna recovering from incidents in the UK and questions around Jake’s fidelity.

Enter attractive young nanny Becky (Phoebe Roberts) who’s here to help with the kids -yeah right- but is warned by handsome gardener Liam (Alfie Gledhill): “Something’s not right in this house . . . get out while you can.” I’m reaching for the popcorn, ready for something in the vein of The Hand That Rocked the Cradle, Fatal Attraction or Return to Eden please.

There’s a fair bit of signposting in early scenes and even the odd cliche (“This country is full of things that can kill you”) but it’s all good fun and comes with ample shots of shirtless Brett Tucker. Even Jake’s mum Cynthia (Caroline Gillmer) sows seeds of doubt around this marriage as Becky starts to wonder what she has walked into.

But it’s Anna who is the central character here, presumably as part of the show’s quite obvious pitch to British viewers. She confides to Becky that Jake may be returning to his adulterous ways, and hires private detective Ray (Neil Melville) to assist in spying on his movements.

Over its 4 episodes the cast will also feature Nadine Garner, Bert LaBonté, Frank Magree & Stephen Lopez.

Like another recent miniseries The Secrets She Keeps, if you don’t take it all too seriously this is an easy entertainment. Characters go to extraordinary lengths to achieve their outcomes when logic might suggest a swifter solution -but that doesn’t necessarily fit with episodic drama. It’s also a tad over-produced… I’m not so sure that after a marital fight at 2am in the morning, one has the notion to sit outside with a bottle of red, turn on the festoon lighting and light 3 tea candles.

But such grievances can be put to one side for the broader and accessible fun of this carnival ride, with a cast that is clearly enjoying the freedom of showing how the other half live and shattering perfect family portraits. If only 10 could play in the drama pool a little more than once a year, please?

Lie with Me airs 8:40pm Wednesday on 10.

4 Responses

  1. We now know it is an imperfect family that finds their nanny is also imperfect, and is basically Gaslight without the fake supernatural bit that made it the great story that it was.

  2. Finally. Thank you David for the review and reminder of when it is airing. I originally had a reminder in my phone to record this back in Aug/Sept? Time to reset that reminder 😊

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