Tomorrow When the War Began (TV series)

Last updated

Tomorrow When the War Began
Tomorrow When the War Began Title.png
Genre
Based on Tomorrow series
by John Marsden
Directed by Brendan Maher
Starring
Opening theme"Hold On" by Gusto Music feat. D'arcy Madison
Country of originAustralia
Original languageEnglish
No. of series1
No. of episodes6 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers
  • Matthew Street
  • Kim Vecera
Producers
  • Michael Boughen
  • Tony Winley
Running time46 minutes
Production companyAmbience Entertainment
Original release
Network ABC3
Release23 April (2016-04-23) 
28 May 2016 (2016-05-28)

Tomorrow When the War Began is an Australian drama television series based on the Tomorrow series by John Marsden, produced by Michael Boughen and Tony Winley and executive produced by Matthew Street and Kim Vecera. [1] The series, which consisted of six one-hour episodes, premiered on ABC3 on 23 April 2016, [1] [2] [3] and covered roughly the events of the first novel, Tomorrow, When the War Began . [4] The series was cancelled after series 1 due to underwhelming ratings.

Contents

Premise

Based on the award-winning novels written by John Marsden, Tomorrow When the War Began follows a group of eight teenage friends who find themselves in the middle of an unexpected war in a small country town after returning from a remote camping trip. Cut off from the rest of the world and everyone they knew, they must find their way in the new world, where they are among only a few remaining free Australians, who must learn to defend themselves against the hostile invaders and save their detained families.

Cast

Main

Recurring

Episodes

No.TitleDirected byWritten byOriginal air dateAustralian viewers
1"Episode 1"Brendan MaherBlake Ayshford23 April 2016 (2016-04-23)120,000 [7]
Ellie Linton is an Australian country girl, dealing with her senior year of high school with her friends and family. She plans a trip into the wilderness with her friends, leaving their parents to attend the annual Wirrawee Show. While they enjoy their time in the remote area called "Hell", the group's town and country is invaded by foreign forces, and when the group returns from their vacation, they find their home and town barren and empty. Their parents and fellow townspeople have been captured and kept as prisoners at the local showgrounds. Ellie, Kevin and Corrie investigate the showgrounds but are spotted and chased by armed soldiers. Realising they’re about to be surrounded, Ellie sets fire to a lawnmower which explodes and wounds the soldiers, mortally injuring one of them. They manage to escape, and the group comes to terms with the fact that they are at war. Ellie reflects on her split-second choice to kill in defence of herself and her friends. Her life is drastically changing and the once-clear lines between right and wrong are quickly blurring in the pursuit of survival.
2"Episode 2"Brendan MaherAlice Addison30 April 2016 (2016-04-30)63,000 [8]
The teenagers have to deal with the consequences of their town and country being invaded. As they flee to avoid capture by soldiers, Lee is shot in the leg and Robyn manages to hide him away while she goes for help. On the other side of the town, Fi visits her house with Homer, where her younger brother, Chris, is captured and taken away with their father. Inside the prison camp, the parents of the teenagers begin to plan an escape, and deny the existence of their children to protect them. However, the Colonel operating the system becomes suspicious of Fi's mother when she denies she has any children, but her husband admits they do. Ellie, Homer and Kevin rescue Lee in a stolen army truck, while Corrie, Fi and Robyn cycle out of town, and the group later reunites. When the injured soldier dies, the army intensifies their search, identifying the names and addresses of the missing group, and soldiers are commanded to pursue and kill them.
3"Episode 3"Brendan MaherBlake Ayshford7 May 2016 (2016-05-07)52,000 [9]
As the soldiers begin searching the property of every missing teenager, the group is taken by surprise and narrowly misses injury during an explosive firefight. They escape to Hell – unmapped territory where they believe they'll be safe – and start the search for native food to sustain them. Kevin insists on fighting the invasion, Robyn (the pacifist) wants nothing to do with violence, and arguments erupt amongst the rest of the group as to how to face the war. Corrie tells Ellie about wanting to break up with Kevin, but they wrestle with how to do such a thing under the desperate circumstances. The Colonel showers Mrs Maxwell with favours in an attempt to recruit her as a prisoner informant, to which she eventually agrees in return for her family's protection. When Lee discovers from Ellie that his mum has been shot, he flees Hell with a rifle and the Land Rover to discover the truth, and only barely manages to contain his rage against the soldiers. The group, now without a vehicle, head to Homer's property, but discover trucks arriving with soldiers and workers to harvest the fields. Realising only two soldiers are present, the teens rush them, capturing their weapons. Homer's father pleads with them to surrender and not cause any further trouble and Homer is forced to question his loyalty to the group. Releasing the soldiers, the teens flee on motorbikes back to Hell to regroup.
4"Episode 4"Brendan MaherAlice Addison14 May 2016 (2016-05-14)44,000 [10]
5"Episode 5"Brendan MaherJosh Mapleston21 May 2016 (2016-05-21)37,000 [11]
6"Episode 6"Brendan MaherJustin Monjo28 May 2016 (2016-05-28)38,000 [12]

Production

Filming

The series was shot from 14 September to 13 November 2015. [13] Filming took place in and around Melbourne, on the Barwon Heads Bridge, and in Clunes, Victoria. [14] [15]

Promotion

On 27 November 2015, ABC released its official line-up of new television series to be broadcast in 2016, which included a short preview for Tomorrow When the War Began. [16] On 1 January 2016, the first full trailer was released for the series. [17] Further teasers and trailers were released in March 2016. [18] [19]

Broadcast

Tomorrow When the War Began is broadcast on ABC3 and distributed in Australia by ABC Commercial. [20] The series was distributed internationally by Annapurna Pictures. [1]

Ratings

No.TitleAir dateOvernight ratingsConsolidated ratingsTotal
viewers
Ref(s)
ViewersViewersRank
1 Episode 1 23 April 2016120,00064,0004183,000 [7]
2 Episode 2 30 April 201663,00046,0006109,000 [8]
3 Episode 3 7 May 201652,00034,000686,000 [9]
4 Episode 4 14 May 201644,00032,000576,000 [10]
5 Episode 5 21 May 201637,00022,000759,000 [11]
6 Episode 6 28 May 201638,00022,0001660,000 [12]

Home media release

Tomorrow When the War Began was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on 1 June 2016 in Region 4/B. [21]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Home and Away</i> Australian television soap opera

Home and Away (H&A) is an Australian television soap opera. It was created by Alan Bateman and commenced broadcast on the Seven Network on 17 January 1988. Bateman came up with the concept of the show during a trip to Kangaroo Point, New South Wales, where he noticed locals were complaining about the construction of a foster home and against the idea of foster children from the city living in the area. The soap opera was initially going to be called Refuge, but the name was changed to the "friendlier" title of Home and Away once production began.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Clunes</span> English actor (born 1961)

Alexander Martin Clunes is an English actor, director and television presenter. He is best known for portraying Dr Martin Ellingham in the ITV comedy-drama series Doc Martin, Gary Strang in Men Behaving Badly, and William Shawcross in William and Mary. Clunes has narrated a number of documentaries for ITV, the first of which was Islands of Britain in 2009. He has since presented a number of documentaries centred on animals. He has also voiced Kipper the Dog in the animated series Kipper.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clunes, Victoria</span> Town in Victoria, Australia

Clunes is a town in Victoria, Australia, 36 kilometres north of Ballarat, in the Shire of Hepburn. At the 2016 census it had a population of 1,728.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caitlin Stasey</span> Australian actress (born 1990)

Caitlin Jean Stasey is an Australian actress. She is known for her role as Rachel Kinski in Neighbours. Previously she played Francesca Thomas in The Sleepover Club, although her breakthrough film role came in Tomorrow, When the War Began, a 2010 film adaptation of the teen novel of the same name in which she played lead protagonist Ellie Linton. She also played Lady Kenna in the CW series Reign from 2013 to 2015 and had a recurring role in the ABC2 series Please Like Me from 2013 to 2016. In 2017, Stasey starred as Ada on the Fox television drama APB, which was cancelled after one season in May 2017. In 2020, she starred in the short film Laura Hasn't Slept and had a brief role as the same character in the feature film version Smile (2022).

<i>Tomorrow</i> series Series of young adult novels by John Marsden

The Tomorrow series is a series of seven young adult invasion novels written by Australian writer John Marsden, detailing the invasion and occupation of Australia by a foreign power. The novels are related from the first-person perspective by Ellie Linton, a teenage girl, who is part of a small band of teenagers waging a guerrilla war on the enemy soldiers in the region around their fictional home town of Wirrawee. The name of the series is derived from the title of the first book, Tomorrow, When the War Began.

<i>Neighbours</i> Australian soap opera (1985–present)

Neighbours is an Australian television soap opera that has aired since 18 March 1985. It was created by television executive Reg Watson. The Seven Network commissioned the show following the success of Watson's earlier soap Sons and Daughters. Although successful in Melbourne, Neighbours underperformed in the Sydney market and was cancelled by Seven four months after it began airing. It was immediately commissioned by rival Network Ten for a second production season, which began screening on 20 January 1986. Neighbours became the longest-running drama series in Australian television history. In 2005, it was inducted into the Logie Hall of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ABC Entertains</span> Australian television channel

ABC Entertains is an Australian English language general entertainment free-to-air television channel owned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It was launched on 4 December 2009 as a children's channel called ABC3. It was rebranded on 19 September 2016 to ABC Me. It rebranded once more on 3 June 2024 to ABC Entertains, now focusing on general entertainment programming.

<i>Tomorrow, When the War Began</i> 1993 novel by John Marsden

Tomorrow, When the War Began is the first book in the Tomorrow series by John Marsden. It was published in 1993, and is a young adult invasion novel, detailing a high-intensity invasion and occupation of Australia by a foreign power. The novel is told in first person perspective by the main character, a teenage girl named Ellie Linton, who is part of a small band of teenagers waging a guerrilla war on the enemy garrison in their fictional home town of Wirrawee.

<i>The Jonathan Ross Show</i> British chat show

The Jonathan Ross Show is a British comedy chat show presented by Jonathan Ross. It was first broadcast on ITV on 3 September 2011 and airs on Saturday evenings following the conclusion of Ross' BBC One chat show, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, in July 2010.

<i>Tomorrow, When the War Began</i> (film) 2010 Australian film

Tomorrow, When the War Began is a 2010 Australian action-adventure war drama film written and directed by Stuart Beattie and based on the 1993 novel of the same name by John Marsden. The film was produced by Andrew Mason and Michael Boughen. The story follows Ellie Linton, one of seven teenagers waging a guerrilla war against an invading foreign power in their fictional hometown of Wirrawee. The film stars Caitlin Stasey as Ellie Linton and features an ensemble cast including Rachel Hurd-Wood, Lincoln Lewis and Phoebe Tonkin. Production began in September 2009.

Dance Academy is an Australian teen drama television series produced by Werner Film Productions in association with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and ZDF. Series one premiered on 31 May 2010, and series two began airing on 12 March 2012. Series three premiered on ABC3 on 8 July 2013 in Australia.

<i>Doctor Who</i> series 6 2011 series of Doctor Who

The sixth series of British science fiction television programme Doctor Who was shown in two parts. The first seven episodes were broadcast from April to June 2011, beginning with "The Impossible Astronaut" and ending with mid-series finale "A Good Man Goes to War". The final six episodes aired from August to October, beginning with "Let's Kill Hitler" and ending with "The Wedding of River Song". The main series was preceded by "A Christmas Carol", the 2010 Christmas special. The series was led by head writer and executive producer Steven Moffat, alongside executive producers Beth Willis and Piers Wenger. Sanne Wohlenberg, Marcus Wilson, and Denise Paul served as producers. The series was the sixth to air following the programme's revival in 2005 after the classic era aired between 1963 and 1989, and is the thirty-second season overall.

Takaya Honda is an Australian actor and television presenter. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Josh in the children's television series A gURLs wURLd, Klaus Thomson in the comedy series The Family Law and David Tanaka in Neighbours. Honda has also presented episodes of My Great Big Adventure and Play School.

<i>The Voice UK</i> British talent competition series

The Voice UK is a British singing reality competition television series. Created by John de Mol and Roel van Velzen, it premiered on BBC One on 24 March 2012. Based on the original Dutch singing competition The Voice of Holland, and part of The Voice franchise, it has aired twelve series and aims to find currently unsigned singing talent contested by aspiring singers, drawn from public auditions. Presented by Emma Willis since 2014, it was previously presented by Holly Willoughby and Reggie Yates from 2012 to 2013 and Marvin Humes from 2014 to 2016. The winners receive a recording contract with Universal Music Group. Winners of each series have been: Leanne Mitchell, Andrea Begley, Jermain Jackman, Stevie McCrorie, Kevin Simm, Mo Adeniran, Ruti Olajugbagbe, Molly Hocking, Blessing Chitapa, Craig Eddie, Anthonia Edwards, Jen & Liv and AVA.

Get Ace is an Australian animated television series that follows the adventures of Ace McDougal, a young boy with amazing hi-tech super powered dental braces. The series officially premiered on Eleven, on 19 January 2014, where it took first place in rating amongst animated programs.

<i>Atlantis</i> (TV series) British television series

Atlantis is a British fantasy-adventure television programme inspired by Greek mythology and created by Johnny Capps and Julian Murphy with Howard Overman. It premiered on 28 September 2013 on BBC One. In the show, submarine pilot Jason washes up on the shores of legendary Atlantis and must navigate the powerful leaders of the mythological realm.

<i>Manhattan</i> (TV series) American drama television series

Manhattan is an American drama television series based on the project of the same name that produced the first atomic weapons. While some historical figures appear in Manhattan, most characters are fictional, and the show is not intended to maintain historical accuracy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arrowverse</span> American superhero media franchise and shared universe

The Arrowverse is an American superhero media franchise and shared universe that is centered on various interconnected television series based on DC Comics superhero characters, primarily airing on The CW as well as web series on CW Seed. The series were developed by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg, Geoff Johns, Ali Adler, Phil Klemmer, Salim Akil, and Caroline Dries. Set in a shared fictional multiverse much like the DC Universe and DC Multiverse in comic books, it was established by crossing over common plot elements, settings, cast and characters that span six live-action television series and two animated series.

<i>Legends of Tomorrow</i> 2016 American superhero television series

DC's Legends of Tomorrow, or simply Legends of Tomorrow, is an American time travel superhero television series developed by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg, and Phil Klemmer, who are also executive producers along with Sarah Schechter and Chris Fedak; Klemmer and Fedak originally served as showrunners, while Keto Shimizu became co-showrunner with Klemmer starting with the fourth season. The series, based on the characters of DC Comics, premiered on The CW on January 21, 2016, and ran for seven seasons until March 2, 2022, before its cancellation on April 29. It is a spin-off set in the Arrowverse and features characters introduced in Arrow and The Flash, along with new characters.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "TV SERIES - The Tomorrow Series". tomorrow-series.eu. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
  2. "Tomorrow, When The War Began - The Series New Trailer & Air Date!". tomorrow-series.eu. 14 March 2016. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  3. Bleasdale, Lauren (1 September 2015). "Fresh New Stars of 'Tomorrow, When the War Began' Announced". Tomorrow, When the War Began. Archived from the original on 25 November 2015. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
  4. TWTWB - The Series. "@mjstoddart1991 Yes, the 1st season will roughly cover the first book #TWTWB". Twitter .
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Tomorrow, When The War Began - The Series Full Cast Announcement!". tomorrow-series.eu. 1 September 2015. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Tomorrow, When The War Began Press Release" (PDF). Retrieved 22 March 2016.
  7. 1 2 "Saturday 23 April 2016 - News / Television Ratings - Media Spy". Media Spy. 26 April 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  8. 1 2 "Saturday 30 April 2016 - News / Television Ratings - Media Spy". Media Spy. 2 May 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  9. 1 2 "Saturday 7 May 2016 - News / Television Ratings - Media Spy". Media Spy. 9 May 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  10. 1 2 "Saturday 14 May 2016 - News / Television Ratings - Media Spy". Media Spy. 16 May 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  11. 1 2 "Saturday 21 May 2016 - News / Television Ratings - Media Spy". Media Spy. 23 May 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  12. 1 2 "Saturday 28 May 2016 - News / Television Ratings - Media Spy". Media Spy. 30 May 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  13. "That's a wrap for Tomorrow, When The War Began - The Series!". tomorrow-series.eu. 13 November 2015. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
  14. "Tomorrow, When The War Began - The Series To Feature Barwon Heads Bridge!". tomorrow-series.eu. 8 October 2015. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
  15. "Tomorrow, When The War Began - The Series Will Be Filmed in Clunes!". tomorrow-series.eu. 17 September 2015. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
  16. "First look at Tomorrow, When The War Began - The Series | Short ABC Promo". tomorrow-series.eu. 27 November 2015. Retrieved 27 November 2015.
  17. "Check out this exclusive sneak peek of Tomorrow, When The War Began - The Series, one of the TOTALLY EPIC new shows coming to ABC3 this year!!!". Facebook . 1 January 2016. Retrieved 1 January 2016.
  18. "Tomorrow, When The War Began - The Series extended sneak peek!". tomorrow-series.eu. 6 March 2016. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
  19. "Tomorrow, When The War Began - The Series New Trailer & Air Date!". tomorrow-series.eu. 14 March 2016. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
  20. "Tomorrow, When The War Began TV series adaptation will air on ABC3". tomorrow-series.eu. 13 May 2015. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
  21. "Tomorrow When The War Began Blu-ray" . Retrieved 10 May 2016.