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Speaker 1: In my humble opinion, although I do like to think

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Speaker 1: of myself as quite discerning. The Newsreader is one of

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Speaker 1: the best shows that has ever been on Australian television.

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Speaker 1: Season three starts at eight thirty on Sunday on the

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Speaker 1: ABC and ABC iView and we are so lucky to

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Speaker 1: have the wonderful star at a torf and creator Michael

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Speaker 1: Lucas with us this morning.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, morning you two.

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Speaker 3: What a beautiful introduction.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well we're going to start singing. Please don't go.

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Speaker 1: What a beautiful Let's not think about that yet, okay.

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Speaker 1: Synopsis The Newsreader, in case you're not after date with

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Speaker 1: It explores the personal and professional lives of the journalists

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Speaker 1: and crew in a nineteen eighties Australian newsroom. As Helen Norvel,

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Speaker 1: played by Anna trv It becomes the first female newsreader

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Speaker 1: of the ratings dominant News at six. Now full disclosure,

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Speaker 1: I started in this job in radio newsroom, but I

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Speaker 1: also worked weekends in a television newsroom and it was

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Speaker 1: the second half of the eighties. So I am here

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Speaker 1: to tell you the nastou level. The accuracy of this

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Speaker 1: show is so spot on. Michael Lucas, you do not

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Speaker 1: look old enough to have been able to get this

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Speaker 1: as spot on as it is.

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Speaker 4: Well, I can assure you, well, look, I was a

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Speaker 4: kid in the eighties. Yeah, but I certainly remember news

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Speaker 4: rooms of that area. I did actually do work experience

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Speaker 4: in a newsroom. But in nineteen ninety four, ye, a

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Speaker 4: bit afterwards that a lot of the you know, a

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Speaker 4: lot of a lot of the same people, characters and

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Speaker 4: situations were still occurring.

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Speaker 5: Then right, absolutely, mate, a lot of things got nailed,

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Speaker 5: and of course.

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Speaker 2: We definitely you were there as well as well.

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Speaker 5: While I got fired by Bill Mcinni's I think made

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Speaker 5: eighties technology from the right from the get go, that

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Speaker 5: first episode Series one with Dale answering his answer checking

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Speaker 5: his answering machine. Did you have all kinds of people

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Speaker 5: out scouting and sourcing this old tech to get it?

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Speaker 5: How it was so on point?

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Speaker 4: Yeah? Well, actually we were really cancerned about that how

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Speaker 4: we would get all that old analog technology. But it

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Speaker 4: turns out there's a lot of nerves out there that

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Speaker 4: have kept a lot of stuff in their garages, and

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Speaker 4: they're all on Reddit forums. And so you go to

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Speaker 4: these sort of specialized Reddit forums and you find out

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Speaker 4: that pretty much everything, and they've taken great pride in

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Speaker 4: keeping them in perfect working order, so generally we're able

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Speaker 4: to rig them and have them work just like they

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Speaker 4: did back in the day.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and you must be you must really believe in

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Speaker 1: and love this show, because we could have lost you

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Speaker 1: to you know, wider pastures. You're in mind Hunter, you're

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Speaker 1: in the Last of Us. You've been doing amazing things

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Speaker 1: and yet here we have you on Australian TV still

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Speaker 1: as well.

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Speaker 3: But i love working in Australia, and I've always tried

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Speaker 3: to do that. Yeah, Like, to be honest, I mean,

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Speaker 3: I would pick season three The news Reader over anything

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Speaker 3: else I've done. I've just loved it. It's just been

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Speaker 3: just such a joy.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: That's quite so great, it too, because it's it's one

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Speaker 3: of my favorite projects.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it was.

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Speaker 5: It one of those ones when you first read Helen's

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Speaker 5: story and you went, I've got to do this, yes, yes, yeah.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, And it was also yeah, and it was you know,

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Speaker 3: Emma Freeman at that point was attached to it. We'd

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Speaker 3: work together before, and I loved her, and Joe Werner

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Speaker 3: we'd work together as well, and I loved her, and

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Speaker 3: Michael was it actors. When I was at NIDER we

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Speaker 3: did me and I don't remember.

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Speaker 1: They were just like point me to the shoulder pads.

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Speaker 2: I mean, yes.

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Speaker 1: The first two series cover off such big news stories.

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Speaker 1: That's the still, you know, to remind us of the

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Speaker 1: stories that all happened in the same year, like the

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Speaker 1: Challenger launch, Hailey's comment, Lindy Chamberlain's release in the Russell

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Speaker 1: Street bombing, and the AIDS crisis. That was all in

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Speaker 1: that first season, and then the second ones there was

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Speaker 1: the Hoddle Street massacre, the bi centennial celebrations, which, by

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Speaker 1: the way, I cried laughing at the the the promos

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Speaker 1: that you had to.

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Speaker 3: Do that I remember, but I remember so clearly and

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Speaker 3: watching them like yea, so clearly. This was just so great, Michael.

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Speaker 1: Panning across the you know, the crew singing the song

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Speaker 1: and how I think, So, what have we got in

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Speaker 1: season three, which is focuses on nineteen eighty nine.

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Speaker 4: Well, it's a blockbuster eighty nine. Absolutely, You've got the

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Speaker 4: Berlin Wall and Square, Exton Velde's oil spill Lockerbie. I

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Speaker 4: feel like I'm not just talking it up. I think

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Speaker 4: it's the best year in terms of news events out

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Speaker 4: of all the three seasons that we've done, and it

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Speaker 4: was just such a sort of big end to the

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Speaker 4: eighties and a real sense of turning the page of

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Speaker 4: history too.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 5: Absolutely, there are so many huge stories there, but it

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Speaker 5: was things were starting to change and we were trying

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Speaker 5: to think what are we going to be in the nineties.

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Speaker 5: Did you feel that you had to change things from

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Speaker 5: that sort of mid eighties period to there as well

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Speaker 5: because our thinking started changing at that point in time.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, totally. I mean, you know, there was a real

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Speaker 4: sense that the Cold War was ending and that had

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Speaker 4: just dominated the entire decade, and also you know, fashion

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Speaker 4: was changing, and you'll notice if you're looking in this season,

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Speaker 4: all of a sudden, there's computers in the newsroom all newsroom,

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Speaker 4: whereas back in season one they were still using sort

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Speaker 4: of electric typewriters. And so even in the clothes and everything,

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Speaker 4: we've tried to sort of just look forward a little

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Speaker 4: bit this time into the nineties that were just around

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Speaker 4: the corner.

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Speaker 1: Lockerby to this day is one of the biggest, most horrendous,

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Speaker 1: tragic stories that has ever happened.

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Speaker 4: Yes, it's unbelievable. I mean, a plane crash, you know,

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Speaker 4: on its own is just unfathomable. But a plane crash

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Speaker 4: into a town on you know, right on just before Christmas,

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Speaker 4: it's just the magnitude of it is just horrifying.

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Speaker 1: So the logis feature in this season as well. Now

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Speaker 1: what is that they say about art imitating life? And

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Speaker 1: so because I mean, Annie, you've won a LOGI for

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Speaker 1: for the role.

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Speaker 3: Actually we all went so we spent a couple of

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Speaker 3: days shooting the logis in you know, this great big

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Speaker 3: ballroom and you know, like that weekend we all kind

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Speaker 3: of came down to the actor rewards, which was very

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Speaker 3: metu I think for everybody in the from our show.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, how was that?

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Speaker 5: Did you get to go in one of those silver

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Speaker 5: Ford LTDs that you had on the set, because that

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Speaker 5: was pretty cool. Well man had one of those things

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Speaker 5: that brought bake some memories.

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Speaker 4: I have to say that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: Weirdly the cars obviously a great deal of care is

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Speaker 4: taken with the cars. Yes that they are protected so carefully.

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Speaker 4: I remember one time being attracted by one of those

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Speaker 4: cars and wanting to go and sit in and take

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Speaker 4: a picture, and before I knew it, the owner was

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Speaker 4: right there, just making sure I didn't do anything wrong

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Speaker 4: with it because he loves that car. Protected some driving scenes.

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Speaker 4: She is an amazing drive. Really, no sun double necessary.

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Speaker 4: You can do a very fast point turn.

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Speaker 3: That's because my first car was like a nineteen seventy

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Speaker 3: eight Corona.

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Speaker 2: You're the quadriple threat right there. You can drive as well.

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Speaker 3: And a seventy seven.

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Speaker 1: Dat's in one twenty y so they said you can

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Speaker 1: drive a manual.

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Speaker 3: Friend of Wayne apparent both you don't want your car

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Speaker 3: broken into or you know, stolen, you just got to

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Speaker 3: get a manual exactly.

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Speaker 5: But you're right about those car owners, if they're on set,

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Speaker 5: they're more protective than the people with child stars. Ash.

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Speaker 4: That is sadly true, Michael.

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Speaker 1: It's the last season. I'm not quite ready to talk

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Speaker 1: about that yet. But is it because it's the last

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Speaker 1: year of the eighties, Is because you're.

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Speaker 4: High or there's certainly something that feels right about ending

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Speaker 4: at you know, at the crescendo of the eighties. It's

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Speaker 4: really just more of the characters, Like we had a

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Speaker 4: really specific idea of the kind of character arcs we

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Speaker 4: wanted to take Helen and Dale, and they've had a

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Speaker 4: big arc and this like the where they were at

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Speaker 4: the beginning to where they end up in just a

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Speaker 4: few years later. It's huge, and you know, rather than

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Speaker 4: trundle them along and keeping on engineering, we felt like

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Speaker 4: we wanted to bring them to a specific and kind

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Speaker 4: of cathartic conclusion that you know, hopefully would make the

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Speaker 4: whole the series as a whole, feel really satisfying.

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Speaker 5: Okay, that's a good point, now, you two. We're into

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Speaker 5: twenty twenty five. As we know, twenty twenty six is

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Speaker 5: the time that it's listed to finish, and I speak

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Speaker 5: of the completion of the new studios and new film

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Speaker 5: studios here in Perth. Can we any chance we could

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Speaker 5: see both of you being able to work here in

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Speaker 5: the West because that a new setup is going to

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Speaker 5: be wonderful.

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Speaker 4: Look, we've got a lot of over particularly working in studios.

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Speaker 4: I have to say that The news Reader was shot

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Speaker 4: almost all on location, and because it was the nineteen eighties,

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Speaker 4: they were the most terrible, decrepit old buildings we tried

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Speaker 4: to pretty up. So the notion of being in a

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Speaker 4: brand new, perfect gleaming person studio.

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Speaker 3: Very low araplanes, Yeah sounds good, not a fly path.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll have a car ready for Ana. If you're

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Speaker 2: working over here.

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Speaker 3: We.

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Speaker 4: Can't.

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Speaker 1: We can't let you go just without asking, you know,

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Speaker 1: talking about shows that you don't want to leave, and

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Speaker 1: the reaction to mind Hunter. There's been two seasons and

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Speaker 1: us smart Hunter fans want another one so bad, and

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Speaker 1: we're here or it might come, and then he moves

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Speaker 1: on to working on something else and he sounds.

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Speaker 5: A bit fickle.

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Speaker 1: And what do you think that there will be another

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Speaker 1: mind Hunter?

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Speaker 3: I don't know. I mean, like, I feel like no.

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Speaker 3: I think we've all sort of said goodbye, but I

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Speaker 3: don't think anyone would say no if that if the

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Speaker 3: phone call came, Yeah, true, yeah, yeah, there was a

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Speaker 3: lot of work. That was a that was a really

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Speaker 3: lovely bunch to actually that show you a very different.

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Speaker 1: Vibe, another brilliant, brilliant show.

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Speaker 5: Speaking of a reaction, the reaction to that scene in

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Speaker 5: the last of Us, Tessa's final scene, well, there's no

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Speaker 5: way out of this.

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Speaker 3: She definitely isn't coming back Britain.

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Speaker 1: A miraculous comeback that will eventually now. Season three of

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Speaker 1: the Newsreader begins eight thirty Sunday on the ABC and

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Speaker 1: ABC Ivy. Thank you so much for joining us and

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Speaker 1: please give our love to that crazy William mckinner, so

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Speaker 1: we could not love me.

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Speaker 2: We love a twenty five minute bill.

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Speaker 1: Yes, it's nuts and we love him.

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Speaker 2: Oh, thank you very character. Yes, thanks you. It's been

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Speaker 2: absolute pleasure.

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Speaker 3: Thank you.

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Speaker 2: With cart waiting Sunday night, Bye bye