Upright | |
---|---|
Genre | Comedy drama |
Created by | Chris Taylor |
Written by | |
Directed by |
|
Starring |
|
Composers |
|
Country of origin |
|
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 2 |
No. of episodes | 16 |
Production | |
Executive producers |
|
Producers |
|
Cinematography | Katie Milwright |
Editors |
|
Running time | 25–30 minutes |
Production companies | |
Original release | |
Network |
|
Release | 28 November 2019 – 13 December 2022 |
Upright is an Australian comedy drama television series created by Chris Taylor that premiered on 28 November 2019 on Sky Atlantic in the United Kingdom, and on 1 December 2019 on Fox Showcase in Australia. [1] The series stars Tim Minchin and Milly Alcock in the lead roles, with Minchin also writing and composing. [2] The series was later broadcast on Super Channel in Canada and on SundanceNow in the USA.
In October 2021, the series was renewed for a second season, which premiered in its entirety on 15 November 2022 on Fox Showcase in Australia and moved to Sky Comedy in the UK. [3]
The first season follows the journey of Lucky, a struggling musician, and Meg, a runaway teenager who, after literally crashing into each other's lives, attempt to transport an upright piano across the southern Australian Outback to Lucky's terminally ill mother in his hometown of Perth.
The second season takes place four years later, where Lucky, now a successful musician, and Meg, who is two months pregnant, reunite and embark on a mission to find Meg's missing mum in the rainforests of northern Queensland.
Series | Episodes | Originally released | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
First released | Last released | |||
1 | 8 | 28 November 2019 | 19 December 2019 | |
2 | 8 | 22 November 2022 | 13 December 2022 |
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date [6] | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | "Episode 1" | Matthew Saville | Tim Minchin | 28 November 2019 | |
Lucky Flynn wants to head to Perth to return his family piano. He forges an unlikely bond with a young runaway named Meg. | ||||||
2 | 2 | "Episode 2" | Matthew Saville | Chris Taylor & Tim Minchin | 28 November 2019 | |
Lucky struggles without his anxiety medication. Meg picks a fight with bikers in a small town pub. | ||||||
3 | 3 | "Episode 3" | Matthew Saville | Leon Ford | 5 December 2019 | |
Lucky and Meg need fuel, which is complicated by Meg losing her wallet, along with all their money. | ||||||
4 | 4 | "Episode 4" | Matthew Saville | Kate Mulvany | 5 December 2019 | |
Lucky and Meg reach the half way point across the Nullarbor. At a roadside camp Lucky is goaded into reliving his glory days. Meg starts to realise that running won't leave her problems behind. | ||||||
5 | 5 | "Episode 5" | Matthew Saville | Kate Mulvany | 12 December 2019 | |
Abandoned on the Nullarbor, Lucky gets a snake bite. | ||||||
6 | 6 | "Episode 6" | Matthew Saville | Leon Ford | 12 December 2019 | |
Lucky abandons his piano in order to continue his journey west. Meg steals a horse float. | ||||||
7 | 7 | "Episode 7" | Tim Minchin & Matthew Saville | Chris Taylor & Tim Minchin | 19 December 2019 | |
Lucky gets arrested for stealing the horse float. Esme, the horse float owner drops charges but it's not Lucky's day. | ||||||
8 | 8 | "Episode 8" | Tim Minchin & Matthew Saville | Tim Minchin | 19 December 2019 | |
Meg learns the truth about the piano. Lucky arrives home for his mother's final days. Deathbed confession. |
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date [6] | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
9 | 1 | "Reunion" | Mirrah Foulkes | Tim Minchin | 22 November 2022 | |
Years after his adventure with Meg, Lucky struggles to adjust to his new life as a successful musician and it's not long before Meg comes bursting back into his chaotic world. | ||||||
10 | 2 | "Tomatoes" | Mirrah Foulkes | Tim Minchin | 22 November 2022 | |
Beginning their search in Queensland for Meg's mum, Lucky struggles to manage his relationship back home as Meg is startled by someone who followed her from Karingunna. | ||||||
11 | 3 | "Bananas" | Mirrah Foulkes | Tim Minchin | 29 November 2022 | |
As Meg continues the search for her mum in Cairns, Lucky tries to lie low to avoid his dubious past. | ||||||
12 | 4 | "Reparations" | Mirrah Foulkes | Ian Meadows | 29 November 2022 | |
Lucky and Meg head out of Cairns, but Lucky's best-forgotten past catches up with him. | ||||||
13 | 5 | "Fold" | Mirrah Foulkes | Natesha Somasundaram & Tim Minchin | 6 December 2022 | |
Wounded in the rainforest, Lucky is desperate to return to civilisation, but Meg wants to push on as they get close to finding her mother. | ||||||
14 | 6 | "Eskimo Jonestown" | Mirrah Foulkes | Niki Aken | 6 December 2022 | |
Meg and Lucky finally make it to the Wellfulness Commune but don't get the reception they were expecting. | ||||||
15 | 7 | "Harmless Untruths" | Mirrah Foulkes | Tim Minchin | 13 December 2022 | |
Trapped at the Wellfulness Commune, Lucky starts to unravel its secrets as Meg finally gets the chance to speak to her mother. | ||||||
16 | 8 | "Enough's Enough" | Mirrah Foulkes | Tim Minchin | 13 December 2022 | |
After escaping the commune, Lucky and Meg race back to Sydney hoping to make it in time to meet Billie at the airport. |
Lake Bumbunga in South Australia was used as a filming location for some scenes, [7] with over 50 cast members performing in the pink lake at the same time. [8]
"The whole thing is both quintessentially Australian and deliciously unexpected," wrote Melinda Houston for The Sydney Morning Herald when the show originally aired, adding "great to see another show making creative use of our landscapes: the dry interior is blasted one moment, enchanted the next." [9] Decider wrote "Minchin and Alcock make a good road trip pair, and that’s pretty much what Upright is all about," and gave it a "stream it" verdict. [5] In Luke Buckmaster's review for The Guardian , he characterizes the two leads: "Minchin’s performance combines stoner-like man-child and emotionally stunted adult with a splash of shaggy panache all his own, evolving his character from sad-sack weirdo to a reasonably complex person. Alcock is excellent as the other half of the odd couple: with a head-turning, hair-trigger performance that delivers the show an almost electrical energy." [4]
Christopher Thornton Taylor is an Australian comedy writer, performer and broadcaster from Sydney. As a member of The Chaser, he is best known for co-writing and appearing on satirical ABC Television shows CNNNN (2002–2003) and The Chaser's War on Everything. He formerly co-hosted the drive radio show Today Today (2004–05) on Triple J with fellow Chaser member Craig Reucassel, and in 2007, he wrote the musical comedy Dead Caesar. Taylor also hosted the mini documentary series 'Australia's Heritage: National Treasures'. In 2010, with his Chaser colleague Andrew Hansen, Taylor made a musical comedy series for Triple J titled The Blow Parade, which became the number one podcast in the country, and won the 2010 ARIA Award for Best Comedy Release. In 2019, Taylor was the creator and co-writer of the drama Upright starring Tim Minchin. The series screened to critical acclaim in both Australia and the UK.
The Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) at Edith Cowan University (ECU) was established in 1980 to provide performing arts tuition. WAAPA operates as a part of ECU, located at the ECU campus in Mount Lawley, a suburb in Perth, Western Australia.
Leslie Allen Jordan was an American actor, comedian, writer, and singer. His television roles include Beverley Leslie on Will & Grace, several characters on television in the American Horror Story franchise (2013–2019), Sid on The Cool Kids (2018–2019), Phil on Call Me Kat (2021–2022), and Lonnie Garr on Hearts Afire (1993–1995). On stage, he played Earl "Brother Boy" Ingram in the 1996 play Sordid Lives, later portraying the character in the 2000 film of the same name. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Jordan became an Instagram contributor, amassing 5.8 million followers in 2020, and published his autobiography How Y'all Doing? Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived in April 2021.
Timothy David Minchin AM is a British-born Australian comedian, actor, writer, musician, poet, composer, and songwriter.
Daniel Lapaine is an Australian stage, film and television actor, living in London. He first came to prominence in 1994, playing South African swimmer David Van Arkle in Muriel's Wedding (1994). He also works as a writer and director.
Ewen Leslie is an Australian stage, film and television actor.
Toby Schmitz is an Australian actor and playwright.
Mirrah Foulkes is an Australian director, screenwriter, and film and television actress. She was raised on the Sunshine Coast, in South East Queensland, Australia. She has appeared in films such as Animal Kingdom (2010), Sleeping Beauty (2011), and in the Australian anthology film The Turning (2013).
Louis Gabriel Basso III is an American actor. He began his career as a child actor and from 2010 to 2013, he had a regular role on the Showtime series The Big C. In film, he starred in the 2011 science fiction film Super 8 and the 2013 comedy-drama The Kings of Summer. In 2020, he portrayed J. D. Vance in the drama Hillbilly Elegy and in 2023, he played the title role in the action thriller series The Night Agent, both for Netflix.
Bumbunga is a locality in the Mid North of South Australia 125 kilometres (78 mi) north of Adelaide. It lies 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) east of Lake Bumbunga.
See-Saw Films is a British-Australian film and television production company founded in 2008 by Iain Canning and Emile Sherman, with offices in London and Sydney. Their productions include The King's Speech, Top Of The Lake, Lion, The Power of the Dog, Slow Horses and the British teen series Heartstopper.
Brett Clifford Gelman is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his role as Murray Bauman in Netflix's horror-supernatural series Stranger Things and as Martin in the BBC comedy Fleabag.
Daniel Frederiksen is an Australian actor who has worked in television, film and live theatre.
Top of the Lake is a mystery drama television series created and written by Jane Campion and Gerard Lee, and directed by Campion and Garth Davis. It was broadcast in 2013, and the sequel, entitled Top of the Lake: China Girl, in 2017. It is Campion's first work for television since An Angel at My Table in 1990.
Aunty Donna is an Australian surrealist comedy group formed in Melbourne in 2011. The group consists of performers and writers Mark Bonanno, Broden Kelly and Zachary Ruane, alongside writer and director Sam Lingham, director Max Miller and composer Thomas Zahariou. Their work spans numerous live shows, a YouTube channel, a podcast, a studio album, the Netflix series Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun, the ABC Australia series Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe and the picture book Always Room for Christmas Pud.
Kate Box is an Australian stage, film, and television actress. She is known for her roles as Nicole Vargas in Rake, Lou Kelly in Wentworth, and as Dulcie Collins in Deadloch.
Apart Together is the debut studio album by Australian musician Tim Minchin. It was released on 20 November 2020.
The BACK Tour was a concert tour by Australian musician Tim Minchin. The tour began on 5 March 2019 at the Thebarton Theatre in Adelaide before touring Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom before concluding on 22 January 2022 at the Enmore Theatre, Sydney.
Amelia "Milly" Alcock (born 11 April 2000) is an Australian actress. She received an AACTA Award nomination for her performance in the Foxtel comedy-drama Upright (2019–2022). She gained wider recognition for starring as young Rhaenyra Targaryen in the HBO fantasy series House of the Dragon (2022). For the role, Alcock was nominated for a Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.
The Lovers is a romantic comedy television series starring Johnny Flynn and Roisin Gallagher. It is written by David Ireland and directed by Justin Martin for Drama Republic and Sky Studios. It premiered on 7 September 2023.