Utopia (Australian TV series)
| Utopia | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Genre | Comedy |
| Created by |
Rob Sitch Santo Cilauro Tom Gleisner |
| Written by | Rob Sitch Santo Cilauro Tom Gleisner |
| Directed by | Rob Sitch |
| Starring | Rob Sitch Celia Pacquola Dave Lawson Luke McGregor Kitty Flanagan Anthony "Lehmo" Lehmann Toby Truslove Emma-Louise Wilson Michelle Lim Davidson |
| Opening theme | "Volare" by Dean Martin |
| Country of origin | Australia |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 16 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Michael Hirsh |
| Producer(s) | Rob Sitch Santo Cilauro Tom Gleisner |
| Location(s) | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
| Production company(s) | Working Dog Productions |
| Distributor | Australian Broadcasting Corporation |
| Release | |
| Original network | ABC |
| Original release | 13 August 2014 – present |
| External links | |
| Official website | |
| Production website | |
Utopia, titled Dreamland in the UK, Canada, and US, is a Logie Award-winning Australian television comedy series by Working Dog Productions that premiered on ABC1 on 13 August 2014. The eight-part series follows the working lives of a team in the Nation Building Authority, a newly created government organisation. The Authority is responsible for overseeing major infrastructure projects, from announcement to unveiling. The series explores the collision between bureaucracy and grand ambitions. The second series aired in 2015, beginning with the first episode on 19 August 2015.
Utopia is written and produced by three of the founding members of Working Dog Productions: Rob Sitch, Santo Cilauro and Tom Gleisner. It is produced by Michael Hirsh, directed by Sitch who also stars as one of the main characters Tony, and casting managed by Jane Kennedy. When casting, Sitch wanted to have actors that possessed a certain acting style, that appeared as if nothing absurd was going on. Sitch described the series as being about "the currency of grand dreams". He described that the idea of the "Nation Building Authority" was to portray it as one of those things that got set up in a bit of a mad rush and that under all the grand dreams there was a white elephant waiting to appear.Utopia continues on the satirical themes of other Working Dog works such as Frontline and The Hollowmen. Sitch also noted that the series was more observational than satirical and that it depicted how organisations may or may not function. When creating the show, Gleisner said the production team spoke to people who worked with government authorities and had experienced for themselves the daily unpredictabilities of working in these environments.
The series is set inside the offices of the fictional Nation Building Authority, a newly created government organisation responsible for overseeing major infrastructure projects ranging from new roads and rail lines to airports and high rise urban developments. It follows the working lives of a tight-knit team of bureaucrats in charge of guiding big building schemes from announcement to unveiling. Throughout the series grand projects are frustrated by self interest, constant shifts in priorities and bureaucracy.
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