Petra (Lily Sullivan) stands
out from the crowd. Right,
top to bottom: Blake (Lachy
Hulme) spreads his vitriolic
message; John Brumpton’s
Magoo prepares to crash the
party; Gabe (Jacqueline
McKenzie) receives a call.“I think they were curious,” explains
Wright, who co-directs the series with Daina
Reid and James Napier Robertson, talking
about the three actors who have returned.
“Gabe, played by Jacqueline McKenzie, has,
from the outside, landed in a very good place.
Dan Wyllie was a bit surprised by his character
Cackles, as disorganised as he was, but we
explained to him that, obviously as a very young
person in the old movie there was plenty of time
for him to grow-up. Not in a socially acceptable
way, but certainly in a way that was logical to his
character. John [Brumpton] saw his trajectory the
easiest and the quickest because there was
something very simple about Magoo in the
movie and there’s something very simple abut
Magoo in the series. But very pivotal too.”
“It’s a very different world to step back into,”
adds McKenzie (Deep Blue Sea, The Water
Diviner), obviously thrilled to be working with
Wright and over-joyed to be playing Gabe again.
When we last saw Gabe, she had left her boyfriend
Hando for dead on the beach and was surviving the
scene in the arms of his best friend Davey (the late
Daniel Pollock). “It’s completely current. Geoffrey
has always had his fi nger on the pulse of what’s
going on. He’s never been frightened to talk or have
a dialogue about that. He wasn’t frightened of it
back then. It is just interesting where Gabe’s life has
led her. She’s the matriarch now.”
“We are the geriatrics of the piece!” joins in a
droll Wyllie (No Activity, Jasper Jones). ❯