McLeod's Daughters

McLeod's Daughters
McLeod's Daughters season 5-7 title card
Also known as	Drovers Run, McLeod's
Genre	Drama
Created by	Posie Graeme-Evans Caroline Stanton
Developed by	Posie Graeme-Evans
Starring	Bridie Carter Lisa Chappell Rachael Carpani Simmone Jade Mackinnon Aaron Jeffery Michala Banas Abi Tucker Matt Passmore Zoe Naylor Jessica Napier Brett Tucker Myles Pollard Doris Younane Sonia Todd Luke Jacobz Jonny Pasvolsky Gillian Alexy Dustin Clare Edwina Ritchard John Schwarz
Theme music composer	Chris Harriott
Opening theme	Rebecca Lavelle Posie Graeme-Evans Chris Harriot
Composer(s)	Chris Harriott Alastair Ford
Country of origin	Australia
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	8
No. of episodes	224 and Telemovie (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Kris Noble Posie Graeme-Evans Susan Bower Karl Zwicky Sandra Levy Jo Horsburgh
Producer(s)	Posie Graeme-Evans Susan Bower Karl Zwicky Vikki Barr
Production location(s)	Kingsford between the townships of Gawler and Freeling, one hour north of Adelaide
Camera setup	Single-camera setup; Film (Super 16)
Running time	45 minutes
Production company(s)	Millennium Television Southern Star
Distributor	Southern Star
Release
Original network	Nine Network
Picture format	576i PAL (16:9 SDTV) 1080i (HDTV)
Audio format	Dolby Digital 5.1
Original release	8 August 2001 – 31 January 2009
External links
Website

McLeod's Daughters is an Australian television drama program created by Posie Graeme-Evans and Caroline Stanton. It was produced by Millennium Television and later Southern Star for the Nine Network, premiered on the Nine Network on 8 August 2001, becoming one of the most successful series on Australian television as it was met with critical acclaim. Initially, the series starred Lisa Chappell and Bridie Carter as two main protagonists, with Sonia Todd, Jessica Napier, Rachael Carpani, Aaron Jeffery and Myles Pollard in leading roles. John Jarrett had a recurring role as Killarney station hand and Meg Fountain's love interest, Terry Dodge. Following the third season, the series took a different direction as main cast members began to depart, with a high cast turn-over occurring throughout the remaining years. After eight seasons and 224 episodes, the series was cancelled and the final episode was broadcast on 31 January 2009.

The origins of the series go back to the early 1990s, when Graeme-Evans had the ideas of creating a television series set in rural Australia with women in the leading roles. A television film was produced and aired on 11 May 1996 and was extremely successful and remains the most successful telemovie in Australian history. The series was intended to follow the film soon after but failed to do so when the Nine Network refused to pick it up. It eventually went into production in 2000. The film starred Jack Thompson as Jack McLeod, Kym Wilson as Tess Silverman McLeod and Tammy MacIntosh as Claire McLeod.

The series was an instant success in Australia, averaging at 1.51 million viewers for its first season and continued to achieve high ratings until it peaked during its fourth season, averaging at 1.52 million viewers. Although the series was slowly declining in the popularity, it remained somewhat successful in the ratings. It declined dramatically during its seventh season and eventually it was announced that the series would be cancelled following its eighth season, which only averaged at 0.63 in the ratings. The series was sold internationally via Southern Star to many countries around the world where it has endured enormous success and developed a devoted fan base in the United States, Canada, Ireland and several European countries. It has a moderate success in the United Kingdom. The series has been nominated for forty-one Logie Awards, winning eight in total including Most Popular Actress, Most Popular actor and Most Popular Australian Drama Series. In addition to Logie Award nominations, it has received an APRA Award for its music.

For the entirety of the show's run, the music has been composed by Chris Harriot and Alastair Ford. The soundtrack was written by Graeme-Evans and Harriot, with lead vocals being provided by Australian singer-songwriter, Rebecca Lavelle.

On 6 July 2017, the Nine Network confirmed that they are in talks with Posie Graeme-Evans about a potential reboot of the series.^[1]

On 6 September 2017, Posie Graeme-Evans announced, "We have a story now, and I think it's a cracker. Just finishing the work we need to do before I talk about the next steps with the Network.

On 23 October 2017, Posie Graeme-Evans announced she had ended negotiations with Nine as there were creative differences for a new series, but hasn’t ruled out potentially crowd-funding her project.^[2]

Development

Posie Graeme-Evans developed the idea for McLeod's Daughters in the early 1990s for her company Millenium Pictures in conjunction with the South Australian Film Corporation. She also developed the idea for children's television programs such as The Miraculous Mellops and Hi-5. The idea was for a television drama set on an Australian rural property with two half-sisters running the property inherited from their father with an all-female workforce. She developed the idea from stories from friends who grew up in the country and from the love of South Australian landscapes as shown in the paintings of Hans Heysen.

Graeme-Evans pitched the idea to the board of the Nine Network who agreed to film a telemovie in March 1996 with Jack Thompson starring as the father Jack McLeod, whose death leads to the two half-sisters (portrayed by Kym Wilson as Tess and Tammy MacIntosh as Claire) inheriting the property.^[3]

Following the success of the telemovie shown on Mother's Day 1996 the Nine Network board agreed to commission a 22 episode series, but the project was left on the shelf for four years. It was not until late 2000 after the Opening Ceremony for the 2000 Sydney Olympics featured a The Man from Snowy River theme, which highlighted the cultural significance of the bush to Australians.

Success and cancellation

The two original protagonists of the series, Tess (Bridie Carter - left) and Claire (Lisa Chappell - right)

The first episode of McLeod's Daughters eventually debuted in August 2001 and proved to be a hit, attracting 1.89 million viewers. The first season was a success, attracting an average of 1.5 million viewers per episode in Australia. The show aired in New Zealand on TV2, one of TVNZ's free-to-air channels. The final season on TV2 began airing a month after Australia and eventually became 10 episodes in front of Australia until the finale. Re-runs from Season 1 are currently on Vibe in New Zealand, a channel aimed at woman's programming.

The second season of McLeod's Daughters was equally successful, being the third most popular drama on Australian television. By 2003, the show was the most popular drama series on Australian television.

The popularity of the program in Australia was highlighted when the show won four Logie Awards, including Lisa Chappell winning most popular female actor and Aaron Jeffery winning most popular actor, with the show itself winning most popular Australian drama series in 2004 and 2005.

The show then began to decline in popularity and perceived quality. Cast turn-over was high, and increasingly far-fetched explanations were employed to explain the sudden departure of formerly important characters such as Rachael Carpani who departed in 2007 and Aaron Jeffery who left in 2008. 2007 marked the point at which many viewers considered the show to have "jumped the shark" as the show had drifted into a new direction, that of a soap opera; at that point, the show began to experience low ratings. Aaron Jeffery commented to The Daily Telegraph that his desire to depart from the show was due to the new direction the show was taking, which he did not like.

The 200th episode of McLeod's Daughters aired on 3 October 2007, with Hugh McLeod (Grace, Jasmine and Regan's father) returning for this special event. An entirely different script was originally written when one of the original cast (speculated to be Bridie Carter) agreed to come back; however, it was pulled at the last minute. Ratings for this episode were very poor by Australian standards, with only 1,008,000 viewers tuning in; the highest that season was 1,415,000 for episode 16.

The eighth and final season began on 23 July 2008 with the episode 203, "Aftermath", but after two further episodes, Channel 9 pulled the show from its schedule due to extremely low ratings. The remaining episodes were eventually aired from December to January in a double-episode format, with the final two episodes ("Into the Valley of the Shadow" and "The Long Paddock") airing on 31 January 2009^[4] with original cast members returning for the special event.

Cast

Overview

The first season premiered on 8 August 2001. The season finale aired 20 March 2002. Season one's storylines included:

• The reunion of Claire and Tess
• Meg and Terry's forbidden romance
• Becky's rape and subsequent pregnancy scare
• Tess's dream to own a cafe
• Liz's disapproval of Tess
• Brick and Becky's relationship
• The mystery behind Nick's limp
• Jodi and Alberto's blossoming romance

The second season premiered on 27 March 2002. The season finale aired 16 October 2002. Season two's storylines included:

• Claire and Peter's romance
• The arrival of Jodi's father
• Tess leaves to run her cafe
• Alberto's return from Italy
• Brick's disappearance
• Sandra's arrival
• Alex and Nick's infatuation with Tess
• Claire's pregnancy

The third season premiered on 12 February 2003. The season finale aired 29 October 2003. Season three's storylines included:

• Alex and Claire's sexual tension
• Jodi and Alberto's marriage and subsequent annulment
• Becky's quest for Brick and new romance with Jake
• The sexual tension between Nick and Tess
• The birth of Claire's baby, Charlotte
• Sally and Nick's relationship
• Dave and Tess' relationship
• Sandra's meddling and romance with Alex
• The departure of Becky
• Tess' cancer scare
• The arrival of Stevie Hall
• Claire's car crash and her death
• Tess' quest: run Drover's single-handedly

The fourth season premiered on 11 February 2004. The season finale aired 24 November 2004. Season four's storylines included:

• Stevie's promotion to part-owner
• Nick and Tess' relationship and eventual marriage
• The custody battle for Charlotte
• Meg's decision to leave Drovers
• The introduction of Kate Manfredi
• Sandra's pregnancy and subsequent miscarriage
• Jodi's relationship with Luke and her joining of the CFS
• The brief arrival of cousin Jasmine
• The birth of Sally and Nick's son, Harrison

The fifth season premiered on 9 February 2005. The season finale aired 23 November 2005. Season five's storylines included:

• The disintegration and eventual reconciliation of Tess and Nick's marriage
• Regan McLeod's arrival and plans to mine Drovers
• Stevie and Alex's growing affection for one another
• The introduction of mysterious farm-hand Rob Shelton
• Meg's book publication
• Stevie's decision to tell Rose the truth
• The arrival of Dave's mentally-unstable little brother, Patrick
• Nick's presumed death
• Jodi's discovery that her father is Jack McLeod

The sixth season premiered on 15 February 2006. The season finale aired 29 November 2006. Season six's storylines included:

• The discovery of Rob's witness protection secret
• Harry's murder and the subsequent police investigation
• The love triangle between Stevie, Alex and Fiona
• Nick's return and his departure with Tess
• Meg and Terry's engagement and wedding
• Regan's return and subsequent gain of Drovers
• Rose's work experience
• The arrival of the arrogant Riley Ward
• Dave and Kate's departure

The seventh season premiered on 7 February 2007. The season finale aired 17 October 2007. Season seven's storylines included:

• Rob/Matt's return and his and Jodi's presumed death
• Moira and Phil's relationship
• Regan's departure
• Alex and Stevie's engagement and wedding
• The introduction of Grace McLeod and Marcus Turner
• Kate's return and her developing relationship with Riley
• Ashleigh's arrival and deception
• Rose's fall and subsequent paralysis
• Tayler and Patrick's growing friendship
• Stevie's pregnancy
• Riley's presumed death

The eighth and final season premiered on 23 July 2008. The season finale aired 31 January 2009. Season eight's storylines included:

• Kate's departure
• Alex's return, tragic death and the birth of his and Stevie's son
• The Grace-Marcus-Ingrid love triangle
• Jaz McLeod's return and Ben Hall's introduction
• The production of a controversial dam
• Ben and Jaz's relationship
• The return of Ingrid's violent husband
• Phil's musical about Moira's life
• Drovers Run's financial crisis

Production

Locations

A hotel in Freeling, is painted as the "Gungellan Hotel" for a set in McLeod's Daughters.

Locations in Gungellan

• Drovers Run – Drovers Run is the main setting for the show. Drovers Run has been in the McLeod family for years, passed down to father, son, and now daughters. Claire McLeod, Tess McLeod, Jodi McLeod and Grace McLeod all have run Drovers Run along with part owners Stevie Ryan and Regan McLeod.
• Killarney – Killarney is also known as the Ryan Empire. At the start of the series Harry Ryan owned the property, and as he grew older his sons Alex and Nick took over. After Nick and Tess married, marrying then left to run a ranch in Argentina. Alex ran Killarney for a couple of years, until his biological father (Bryce) became part owner of the property. On Bryce's death, half-brother Marcus became part owner of the property. In the final years of the show both Alex and Marcus own and run Killarney, although Alex became a largely absentee owner as he also began to spend much of his time on the ranch in Argentina.
• Kinsellas – Kinsellas is a local farm that was run by Sandra Kinsella from 2003–2006. The name was changed after Heath Barret bought it.
• The Local Pub – The Local Pub is where everyone goes for a drink after a hard days labour. Becky worked there in 2001, Jodi worked there briefly in 2005 and Tayler also worked there briefly in 2007. The pub is most likely the only pub in Gungellan.
• The Truck Stop – The Truck Stop is where most of town buy their supplies and when they need fuel. It was first owned by Ken Logan then Harry Ryan. When Harry was owner Terry Dodge managed it then Moira Doyle, Later on Moira and Regan McLeod went into business supplying the fuel, Phill Rakich was the last owner.
• The Town Hall – The Town Hall is where most major events are held, such as the Miss Gungellan contest, plays, and the town's birthday celebration.
• Fisher – Gungellan's closest neighboring town.

McLeod's Daughters is filmed on location at Kingsford, a 35-acre (55 ha) property which is listed on the South Australian Heritage Register and which is located in the locality of Kingsford north of Gawler.^[7] Gawler is north of Adelaide, which Posie Graeme-Evans refers to as "our very own backlot". Kingsford was originally part of a 30,000-acre (12,245ha) property. Kingsford had been used in the years prior to filming by the South Australian Government as a wheat research station then by a Montessori school as a primary school campus. The property was purchased by The Nine Network in 1999. The historical house was built from Edinburgh sandstone, transported to Australia as a ship ballast. The house took over 30 years to build and was finished by 1856. Although Kingsford was a grand property at the time, it is now quite run down - a look that was important for the production design of the series, as the McLeod family has no money for maintenance.

The interior scenes set at Drover's Run are all, in fact, filmed inside the house. It added authenticity to the production, and it was convenient in that the large rooms and high ceilings were ideal for filming. Kingsford was a working farm in its day.^[8]

Ratings

Merchandise

Awards

See also

• McLeod's Daughters (TV movie)
• List of Australian television series
• Station (Australian agriculture)
• List of McLeod's Daughters episodes

References

External links

• McLeod's Daughters at the Australian Television Information Archive
• Interview with the cast on WHO.com
• McLeod's Daughters at the National Film and Sound Archive
• McLeod's Daughters on IMDb
• McLeod's Daughters at TV.com
• McLeod's Daughters Season 1-8 Full Episodes Now Available on YouTube