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In the small town of Batchelor, population 371 (according to the 2021 census, but rapidly falling, according to local knowledge), a young police officer is running after a van in which a couple of her colleagues are driving. “Wait, wait,” she yells as the car pulls away.
It’s 36 degrees and way too hot for anyone to be running, but Nina Oyama – the stand-up comedian and actor who plays budding forensics specialist Abby Matsuda – does it over and over again, as fellow actors Kate Box (police detective Dulcie Collins) and Madeleine Sami (detective Eddie Redcliffe) watch on.
The cast and creators of Deadloch outside the fictional Barra Creek Tavern in Batchelor, NT (l-r): Madeleine Sami, Kate Box, Kate McLennan, Kate McCartney, Nina Oyama and Alicia Gardiner.Credit: Kane Skennar/Prime
Welcome to season two of Deadloch, the smash-hit Australian murder mystery comedy drama from Kate McLennan and Kate McCartney. Only this time, it’s relocated from Tasmania to the Northern Territory. A whole other set of shady characters and red herrings have entered the frame, and the sleuthing has taken on a decidedly sticky feel.
“We are so excited to be bringing the second season of Deadloch to life in beautiful Garramilla/Darwin and we’re beyond thrilled to be working with this exceptional crew and cast of actors, dogs and crocodiles,” said McCartney and McLennan, who also co-wrote and co-starred in The Katering Show and Get Crack!ng, as Amazon Prime Video officially revealed the show was in production, two weeks into shooting in and around the northern capital.
One of the two pubs in Batchelor has been taken over by the production. In the name of authenticity, four semi-trailer loads of red dirt were trucked in to cover the concrete drive and parking area, a scrap-metal crocodile sculpture has been installed in the garden, and signs reading “we serve both beers” hung outside.
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What the locals make of it can only be guessed, as this is, for now, a pub with no beer. But in another couple of weeks, they will get the local back as the production relocates to Brisbane, where the interiors of the fictitious Barra Creek Tavern will be replicated at the Screen Queensland studios in the riverside suburb of Hemmant. By October, it will simply be too hot – and likely too wet – to continue filming in the NT.
With Alicia Gardener also returning as Dulcie’s veterinarian partner Cath York – by what contrivance all four leads end up in the NT is yet to be revealed – the cast is also bolstered by new members Steve Bisley, Shari Sebbens, Genevieve Morris, Ursula Yovich and Syd Brisbane.
Hopes are high at Prime that season two will replicate the success of the first season of Deadloch, which won five AACTA awards and hit the platform’s top 10 in 165 countries around the world. The second season, of six episodes (down from season one’s eight), will be distributed even more widely, to 240 countries and territories.