Phryne Fisher/1920s Melbourne come to Television

[LordBest]

Happy news, I don't think it has been posted yet:

Essie Davis is set to star in a new ABC series Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries based on the best-selling Kerry Greenwood novels.

The series will start production in Melbourne next month and air on ABC1 next year.

It also stars Nathan Page, Miriam Margoyles and Hugo Johnstone-Burt and is produced by Deb Cox and Fiona Eagger.

Davis, who is currently starring in Cloudstreet, will play sleuth, Phryne Fisher, who sashays through the back lanes and jazz clubs of late 1920s Melbourne, fighting injustice with her pearl handled pistol and her dagger sharp wit.

From here.

More about the Phryne Fisher series here.

I do hope the ABC does a good job of this, it is about time they did a decent costume drama if they are serious about rivalling the BBC.

 

[Shangas]

Ooooh, now this I will certainly look forward to. Although by all accounts, Melbourne in the 1920s wasn't that big. And I do wonder how they'll manage the whole public transport issue, what with there being barely any 1920s/1930s W-class trams left running. And trams are an integral part of Melbourne life.

 

[LordBest]

There are probably enough W-class trams left for them to film on, if not they can come to Ballarat and borrow some from our tram museum. I'm wondering how they will get around the fact that much of the CBD has been violated by fifty years of apalling development. CGI, if they can afford it, filming in gold towns that haven't brutalised their archictural heritage so much (Ballarat again, Bendigo etc), clever photography, maybe a mix of all three? I have no idea how this sort of thing works, I just hope they do a good job.

 

[Shangas]

Much of the Melbourne CBD has changed a LOT since the 1920s. I think the only place where it hasn't is Flinders Street Station and various boulevards (Bourke St, and Swanston St, for example). I can't think of any other places in town where it's 1925 for more than one block. Or for that matter, for more than two consecutive street-numbers.

I think they'll rely heavily on photographs and CGI. Here are some photos to show fellow loungers what "Marvellous Melbourne", as once it was callled, looked like in the Roaring Twenties:

Flinders & Swanston; 1927:

Collins St; Mid-1920s:

...Bourke St, 1940s:

(The clocktower on the left belongs to the Melbourne General Post Office...see below)
...Exhibition St; 1935:

...Melbourne Town Hall, ca. 1925:

...Elizabeth St, early 1900s:

On the right, in the background, you can see a clocktower, which is...

...The Melbourne General Post Office...

(Corner of Elizabeth & Bourke).

The Melbourne GPO was a functioning post-office until fairly recently. It was shut down for renovations and then a fire ripped through the building, gutting it entirely. It's since been repurposed as a shopping-center, but the fantastic Victorian facade remains, and the mechanism in the clocktower still runs, ringing out the time every fifteen minutes.

 

[BinkieBaumont]

I always thought the books a bit immature, and shallow, I think they should transfer to the small screen very well

 

[LordBest]

I rather like the books, Ms Greenwood certainly gets the feel of the 1920s right, which were rather immature and shallow.

There is a casting call for the television series too, if anyone is interested:
http://www.everycloudproductions.com.au/news/p/16


Thanks for the pictures Shangas, though it really does bring home just how mutilated the city is now.

 

[Benny Holiday]

Should be interesting. Like Sydney's any better . . . any edifice more than a week old is ripe for demolition here.
There's an old joke Melbournians used to say about Sydney: "Nice place but I'll come back when it's finished."
Which, of course, it never is. Makes me wonder how they filmed the new Underbelly 'Razor' series. It'd be hard
to find a period location for 1927 unless you're going for a very narrow camera shot.

 

[listenone]

It is worth reading.

 

[Shangas]

Melbourne owes its beautiful Victorian public buildings to the gold rushes of the 1800s, but sadly not many of those fine structures still exist. There is extensive photodocumentary of old melbourne, though, so producers might have to rely on that to reproduce 1920s Melbourne.

 

[Smithy]

This is fantastic news, looking forward to this immensely and many thanks for the heads up Lord Best.

Talking of old buildings, I was having a chinwag with a chap down at Flinders Station the other week who reckoned there's a plan afoot to refurbish the upper level rooms there. Not sure whether he was talking out of his youknowwhat but nice if true.

 

[Shangas]

The upper rooms of Flinders St. Station haven't been used in decades, if I remember my local history correctly. According to what I've heard, there used to be a ballroom up there...

Oh, and you're very welcome, with regards to the pictures, m'lud.

 

[Smithy]

This fellow mentioned a ballroom up there Shangas so there might be some truth in that.

Would be truly fantastic if they decided to tart the place up. Due to its iconic status, I'd have thought it would be on council's must do list.

 

[Shangas]

Flinders St. Station, Melbourne:

Somewhere on the upper levels is the famous and sadly neglected ballroom which hasn't had a good party flung in it since at least the 1960s...

Ballroom of Flinders Street Station:

Date unknown

...and in 1996...

...and 2007...

Entrance:

Back in the good old days...

Photo taken ca. 1915

Photo taken 1950

At the back, you can see the door that leads to the musicians' gallery.

 

[Smithy]

Brilliant Shangas! Thanks for posting those.

They do need to do her up and throw a decent bash in there again.

 

[Shangas]

You're welcome, Smithy.

Can you imagine what that place would look like today if it was restored to its 1910s splendor? Melbourne would have another thing to be proud of instead of bloody Crown Casino all the time. As you can see from the photos, it's a pretty decent-sized room. You could chuck a pretty swell shindig in there if you had a mind to...

 

[Smithy]

Seriously, we should start a petition about this to have her tarted up to her former glory. It's a bit on the nose that Melbourne's most iconic building has those sorts of areas just lying in the doledrums.

Just imagine if they'd put 10% of what they've spent on Myki into doing that up...

 

[Shangas]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! I'm sorry. Your comment about MyKi made me laugh. They wasted HOW many millions of dollars on that hunk of junk?? If they spent 10% of that on the Flinders Street Ballroom, we could hold New Years' parties there and get a ringside seat to the riverfront fireworks displays every December. I agree. FSS is Melbourne's most iconic building and that the ballroom should exist in this state is deplorable. Hardly anybody knows it exists! I bet if you went around central Melbourne and stopped 100 people in the street, they wouldn't know the station has a ballroom (or a daycare center, which it also apparently used to have). I didn't know about it until a couple of years ago when I found out when a friend mentioned it to me (she was doing a research piece on the station for a project).

 

[BinkieBaumont]

I am constantly amazed how many neglected little gems there are in Melbourne that are very sad and neglected, I suppose Melbourne is not a wealthy as it was in the 19th century

 

[Shangas]

Came with caption reading "The Flinders Street Station building includes a large ballroom which was once used for elaborate dances and other functions but is now derelict."

Apparently back in 2007, there was a plan to restore the Flinders Station ballroom to its former glory...

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/our-sickly-ballroom/story-e6frf7kx-1111113022399

...but that never happened.

The ballroom as it looks from the musicians' gallery.

 

[vinspired]

Oh yes, heard about this last year I am very much so looking forward to this.
Melbourne in the late 1920s, hope they get it right [seeing Australia loves tearing buildings down and whatnot].
What actress would be a good candidate to play Ms Fisher?