“If this is the last series…. can you let us know?”

When Julia Zemiro sat down with ABC to discuss new episodes of her very popular Home Delivery series, post-COVID, she just had one request.

“We had a feeling that the ABC might take this as a time to wind it up. So when we had a meeting -a great meeting- I just said, ‘If this is the last series, I’m totally fine with that. But can you let us know it’s the last series? Can we do that?'” she tells TV Tonight.

“Every year, we never know if we’re coming back. When COVID happened we had to shut down. Luckily, we already had eight episodes and that made a pretty good series.

“But I think it’s a great thing to know where your final story is going to be happening so you can celebrate what you’ve done. (ABC Entertainment exec) Nick Hayden agreed and said, ‘You want to have your victory lap.'”

There are 4 new episodes again driving famous Australians to their formative homes, schools and destinations. The series kicks off with legendary current affairs host Ray Martin, driven by our host around two states.

“He’s just such a great ‘hang!'”

“He’s got an amazing story. I don’t know how many people know that story but there’s domestic violence in his family. His mum got the family to safety….. Launceston ends up being the furthest point away that she can think of. They loved their time there, he and his mum, while his three older sisters stay back in Sydney,” she explains.

“To visit both places is really great. You get a real sense of the different landscapes he grew up in. He’s just such a great ‘hang’ ….like, you just want to hang out with him!

“He’s got so many stories too, of his time on the road. He loves talking about politics and I was really keen to talk to him about that.”

“It’s a really great migration story”

Episode two features the equally legendary Marcia Hines, who Zemiro knows well from RocKwiz days.

“Another great hang! We couldn’t go to Boston because of COVID but really, in a way, her story kicks off in Australia as this little chicken who comes here to do Hair and then finds out she’s pregnant,” she continues.

“We were able to get into the building where Hair played and no-one from the general public has been in there for over 20 years. It’s in King’s Cross -I think Orwell Street. George Miller took it over at one point as his production office for a long time. The seats aren’t there, but you can still see the shape of the theatre.

“It’s a really great migration story in spite of itself. She didn’t think she was going to live here forever, but she found her home.”

“I’m such a fan of that company and of him”

“Then it’s the magnificent Stephen Page and Bangarra Dance Theatre (Episode 3). I’m such a fan of that company and of him. There was a recent documentary that came out about Bangarra and his brothers, in Firestarter. But we take him back to Brisbane through his schools, then finally to Redfern, and then to Bangarra. And again, he’s someone that you just wanted to be with all day.”

The fourth and last-ever episode sees Zemiro herself as the subject, with hosting duties shared by Costa Georgiadis, Mark Humphries, Justine Clarke and Judith Lucy.

Yielding hosting duties to become the subject does not necessarily come easy for Zemiro, who reveals she has declined earlier requests to feature on Who Do You Think You Are? for SBS.

“I’ve always said no, because my dad didn’t want me to do it. My mum was pretty keen. She was happy that I go and do it because I think you should ask permission of your parents, because you don’t know what they’re going to find. But dad was never keen on it really,” she insists.

“I don’t like the idea of the surprise element where they say, ‘Tomorrow at 10am, you’ll meet outside the local town hall in this French town, and I’m going to read you something on a bit of paper,’ as the camera captures it. That’s fine. I understand the format and how it works.

“Our show doesn’t do that.”

“But our show doesn’t do that. We will never bring out something you’re surprised by. In fact, it’s up to them. When we take them to a location, they might surprise us with something they didn’t mention before, or didn’t remember at the time.

“I don’t want to be part of a show where there might be an angle of ‘catching you out.’ I don’t think that’s what, Who Do You Think You Are? does. But if the camera’s on your face and you find out that there was slavery in your family, you might not have the time to process that and come out with an answer where you feel comfortable with what you want to say.

“I feel like when we take people along, we’re never going to say ‘Here’s a teacher from your past you didn’t know was coming.’

“Everybody knows that when we go to those places, it’s up to them what their emotion will bring to it, what they’ll get out of it and what will surprise them.

“They all take a chance by kind of putting themselves in that situation. I could ask you about your life, in a cafe or in a room, but the minute we go to that place, it changes.”

Julia Zemiro’s Home Delivery 7:40pm Sunday on ABC.