“We looked at a lot of middle-aged women on screen at that time, particularly in Hollywood. This was before Mare of Easttown and Olive Kitteridge, and the women were either evil, or failures or screw-ups in some way. And if they were none of those things, they needed to wear white and laugh a lot, like Meryl Streep in It’s Complicated and Diane Keaton in Something’s Gotta Give. The reality of middle-aged women just didn’t seem to be a thing.”

So the pair set out to create a credible one, talking to women in the age group. “We discovered that the wonderful thing about women, when they get past that currency of ‘I can make babies for you’, is that they don’t give a shit what people think of them, and they’re often quite angry. They may have a sexual appetite, they might not want to wear make-up and they don’t need to be people-pleasers.”

Penny grew from there. “We went with that old adage about finding a character, putting them up a tree and throwing rocks at them. So we found Penny and started chucking rocks to see what the most interesting rock would be. And, of course, it has to be about history, it has to be about the past and the present colliding, and then we put that inside the pressure-cooker of a family, and a crisis within a family.”

Neither of the women had developed a TV series before and Malcolm says, “We were learning to fly the plane while we were in the air.” But they were sure of their commitment to retaining control of it, with Malcolm noting she’d been burned once before, on Agent Anna. “I was so proud of the first season and then we all lost control of it, which just broke my heart.”

The women developed the project “in our own bubble”, eventually seeking advice from Mullan, who they thought would be perfect as Phil. “Peter’s been a dear friend since we did Top of the Lake,” says Malcolm. “He was my go-to guy for advice. He knows the world of filmmaking, writing, directing and acting. Early on, I sent him a script and asked him to play Phil and he said, quite prophetically, ‘No, the script’s not good enough yet, but if you get this right, it will be an award-winner.’”

The screenwriters aimed to make the central trio ‘really hard to pin down’.

He offered some notes, adding, “You have to be prepared to shoot your own project in the head, rather than compromise the important stuff.” And he passed on advice he’d received from English filmmaking legend Ken Loach when they made My Name is Joe: “No can be a powerful word.” Eventually they sent him a reworked version and he signed on.

Phil could be seen as an opportunistic manipulator and predator, or as an innocent man demonised by his unhinged ex-wife. “There are a lot of actors who might’ve said no to that role because of the accusation,” Malcolm observes. “But he’s an extraordinary actor and he’s proper: he wants to find the humanity in all sorts of people.”

She also says one of the production’s discoveries was newcomer Tara Canton, who plays their daughter and was then in her final year at drama school. “It was Tara’s first professional job, and she started her career doing scenes with Peter. But instead of being freaked out, she just jumped straight into the work with an absolute lack of vanity. And he’s a helluva teacher.”

The screenwriters aimed to make the central trio “really hard to pin down”, wanting viewers’ perspectives on them to shift throughout the drama. And rather than being portrayed as an avenging saviour, Penny becomes increasingly problematic, her behaviour alienating even close friends and colleagues.

She’s frequently seen at home alone, where dinner is a generous glass of wine and chunks of cheese. “The two major food groups, protein and wine,” Malcolm laughs, adding appreciatively, “We had the best art department. When I first walked into Penny’s bedroom, there was a plate of peanut butter toast crusts by the bed, a cold cup of tea and an empty packet of estrogen patches. I was like, ‘This is telling me everything I need: they absolutely get her.’”

Penny’s also often seen cycling over Wellington’s hills, the city chosen because, Malcolm says, “We wanted to put her in an environment that she had to fight with and Wellington’s known as a windy city. We were expecting that she’d be battling wind and rain, but because of climate change, we had day after day of still sunlight.” Yet there’s continual turbulence under the sunny skies, a tension throughout about what Penny saw and what kind of man Phil is.

It’s precisely the sort of murky situation of alleged sexual misconduct that’s so often shrouded in ambiguity and clouded by alcohol. And while there’s little doubt of the ferocity of Penny’s conviction, she’s a difficult woman. Whether her behaviour is justified is a question that drives the drama until its final scenes. But long before that, it’s clear that Malcolm and Taylor have achieved their aim of creating a multi-dimensional middle-aged woman.

After The Party premieres on ABC, Sunday, April 28, at 8.30pm and iview (all episodes).

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