From the Top End to the Small Screen with Miranda Tapsell and Joshua Tyler
Creators and writers of hit film Top End Wedding on expanding IP and switching formats for their new series, Top End Bub.
Gladys-May Kelly as Bub and Miranda Tapsell as Lauren in Top End Bub. Image credit: John Platt.
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Following the global success of their debut feature film of Sundance-favourite Top End Wedding, creators and writers Miranda Tapsell and Joshua Tyler found audiences clamouring for more tales from the top end – and they were happy to oblige with the Amazon Australia Original Series Top End Bub.
As Tyler says, “If you've got an audience there, you've got a fan base, keep feeding them!”
The response from Sundance, particularly from global First Nations communities, showed that authentically Australian stories connected with audiences internationally – as Tapsell says, “[We got] really specific with Tiwi culture, Tiwi knowledge and the community, but we still managed to have this mass appeal."
Tapsell and Tyler share how they leveraged the IP from the big screen to television, the joy in collaboration, and how creators can embrace family and community to reflect the breadth and diversity of First Nations experiences on screen.
Tyler also credits the popularity of the film to the communal experience of movie-going and power of experiencing stories on the big screen, and recreating that moment in Top End Bub through the half-hour format – “it is a really special thing to be able to do with a group of people, that you're all laughing together.”
Shot between Adelaide and Alice Springs, the series follows Tapsell’s Lauren, and on-screen husband Gwilym Lee (The Great, Bohemian Rhapsody) as Ned, as they grapple with family tragedy and returning to familial chaos alongside Ursula Yovich (Troppo, The Royal Hotel) and Huw Higginson (Ladies in Black) as Lauren’s parents, and Gladys-May Kelly as the eponymous Bub. The eight-part series is available now on Prime Video.
Writer and co-creator Joshua Tyler on the set of Top End Bub. Image credit: John Platt.
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Screen Australia