From its initial pilot in 2016, to its second series premiering tonight, The Letdown has been both a critical and popular success.
Following the life of Audrey, as she embarks on motherhood, The Letdown is a comedy of parenting, relationships, family and the struggle to make a good life.
Glam caught up with co-creator and star of the show, Alison Bell.
Originally a law student, Bell switched careers after graduation and went off to Victorian College of the Arts to study acting.
” I never practiced law”, says Bell. “I knew that if I started, the regular pay-packet and the clear career trajectory, would stop from going into the madness [of a career in the arts].”
A stellar career in theatre and film were not enough for Bell who wanted to write, but took some time to build up the confidence. It was a conversation one night with friend and co-writer Sarah Scheller, that kicked off the idea which became The Letdown.
“So many of the portrayals of women on screen are told through the male gaze, and we wanted to redress that.”
As Bell points out, many portraits of parents on screen, don’t involve children very much.
“Often you see the baby once and then it’s sort of whisked away never to be seen again!”
Although Bell was not a mother herself when she wrote the first series, she was surrounded by mothers, including her sister. She has, of course become a mother since, and this experience adds a wealth of material for series 2.
Bell is keen to explain that the second series has a different tone to the first.
“Where Series 1 was really about the new motherhood identity crisis, Series 2 is more about families: how they interact and negotiate. “
Sure to be as much a smash hit as the first series, The Letdown Series 2 premieres tonight at 9 pm on ABC TV and iview.
For more information, and to access iview, click here.
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