00:00I always dreamed of having a film or a TV series made from any of my books.
00:05You never think it's going to happen.
00:06I'm really lucky this is the second book of mine that's being transformed in this way.
00:11It was sort of a bit of an underground success that slowly made its way through the world
00:16and it's had this 20-year life.
00:18We were so delighted to get the rights to the book.
00:20It was much sought after for a number of years,
00:23mostly by US producers chasing down the rights.
00:26We contacted Marcus and he'd been holding off on selling it to anybody over the years
00:31but he knew they needed it to be made in Australia.
00:33To me that's part of the key to the book's success in general
00:38is that it's a really local story.
00:40It's people you kind of know, people you grew up with,
00:43people you argue with at the dinner table at home
00:46and I feel like holding out has really been worth it in that sense.
00:50It has been a really exciting but kind of crazy job to sort of try and adapt it
00:56and bring it into the world of television.
00:58It's so beloved, like so many people really, really love this story.
01:02It had all those sort of touchstones about,
01:04I think right at the moment what we're looking for,
01:06life-affirming, joyous, funny and just a sense of community about it,
01:11you know, in terms of people helping each other.
01:13The wonderful thing was is that early on we met Marcus and talked with him
01:18and it was such a great experience because what he said to us was be brave.
01:22My philosophy has generally always been,
01:25all right, I'll write the book, the book's mine, this is yours,
01:29go ahead and really make it yours.
01:32I really like the idea that you come into the TV series
01:37and there are differences, there should be differences.
01:40I think it's a really dangerous path to be too loyal to the book.
01:43That's such an incredible gift to give a group of writers,
01:47to be able to say to us, you know, no, I completely support you.
01:51So we've made some quite big departures from the book.
01:54When we all came together and started brainstorming,
01:57one of the things that we really wanted to do was
01:59we looked at the sort of Ritchie character
02:01and we really felt that he was a character we really wanted to update.
02:04And so Ritchie was born as Ritchie being female
02:07and having a very different sort of journey across this series
02:11and she's been just such a joy to create.
02:14Ritchie's character immediately in the hands of the writers of the TV series
02:19just turns into this whole new story which I'm incredibly grateful for.
02:24So I'm thrilled not only with the way the characters have made that transformation,
02:30in the ways that it was loyal to the book,
02:32but in the ways that it took the book as a platform to step off to greater heights.
02:36I don't think you'll see many other TV series like it.
02:40It has humour, it has warmth, it's got a lot of heart and a bit of magic.
02:45I think audiences will feel better for watching this show.
02:49you
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