National broadcaster the ABC has well and truly lifted the veil on Utopia, the impending new comedy show from veteran Aussie production house Working Dog, revealing everything from its cast to its outline and premiere airdate.
Utopia is pegged as "a satire about the difficult process of taking grand, uncosted, inadequately planned, fundamentally flawed schemes — and passing them off as 'Nation Building' ", inspired by governments' apparent real-life penchant for announcing big, important-sounding debt-funded public works and then losing interest within a few months.
The eight-part series takes place inside the offices of the newly established Nation Building Authority, whose responsibility is to oversee major infrastructure projects, and follows the working lives of the NBA's core team as they navigate their daily tasks of constructing large-scale "white elephants" to placate the public.
Working Dog veteran Rob Sitch leads the cast — he also directs, and co-writes and produces the show with long-time collaborators Santo Cilauro and Tom Gleisner — which also features esteemed local talent such as Celia Pacquola (Offspring), Dave Lawson (I Love You Too), Luke McGregor (Please Like Me), Kitty Flanagan (Full Frontal, The Project), Anthony 'Lehmo' Lehmann (The Project), Emma-Louise Wilson (Any Questions For Ben?), Michelle Lim Davidson (Play School) and a bearded Toby Truslove (Laid, Outland, The Strange Calls, myriad theatre shows).
Utopia — not to be confused with the Brit thriller series, its forthcoming US adaptation, the 2013 documentary, 2013 horror film, or 2012 documentary of the same name — will premiere on ABC1 on Wednesday, August 13, at 8.30pm.
Check out the ten-second teaser below:
