LIFE & CULTURE

SeaChange Is Coming Back To Our Screens In 2019

Oh Diver Dan, we've missed you

I distinctly remember the look on my mum’s face when I requested, age 11, the SeaChange soundtrack for Christmas. It might have seemed an unusual request (most of my friends probably had the Spice Girls at the top of their wish lists), but as anyone who grew up watching the ABC drama with their parents well knows, it didn’t take long for SeaChange to work its way into the hearts of Australians young and old.

Now, almost two decades after it aired its final season, the beloved show is making a comeback. Channel Nine is producing a reboot as part of it 2019 lineup, Pedestrian reports, with original cast members Sigrid Thornton and John Howard on board.

That just leaves David Wenham, William McInnes, Shaun Micallef and Kerry Armstrong to do the nation a favour and say they’ll sign up as well.

Yes, I have some fears about what Channel Nine might do to the ABC classic, but for now they’ve been assuaged by news.com.au’s report that the shows original creator and head writer, Deb Cox, is returning as executive producer. What could possibly go wrong?

SeaChange, which screened from 1998 to 2000, followed big city lawyer Laura Gibson as she packed up her life and moved to the sleepy seaside town of Pearl Bay to work as the local magistrate. Freshly single, she becomes romantically involved with three men over the course of three seasons, played by Wenham (Diver Dan!), McInnes and Micallef respectively.

Thornton has said she is “absolutely thrilled” to be returning to Pearl Bay in a statement. “Time has passed and the world has changed, so as we revisit this rich and strange place I trust we’ll all delight in the chance to explore how far we’ve come and how far we still have to go. I can hardly wait.”

Me either.

Related stories