''Upper Middle Bogan'' is an Australian television comedy program created by
Robyn Butler
Robyn Butler is an Australian writer, actress and producer who is best known for her starring role in the television comedy series '' The Librarians''. Butler hosted a radio program called ''Tough Love'' on the Triple M network. She is married t ...
and
Wayne Hope
Wayne Hope is an Australian actor, writer, director, and producer.
Career
Television
Hope's acting career began in 1996, when he appeared on ''The Glynn Nicholas Show''. Some of his acting roles have been in the following shows:
*''The Glyn ...
. It began screening on
ABC on 15 August 2013. The series is directed by Hope and
Tony Martin. ''Upper Middle Bogan'' was renewed for a second series of eight episodes, which began airing from 16 October 2014. Series 3 of the show aired in 2016.
Synopsis
''Upper Middle Bogan'' follows the story of two different families connected by blood. Bess Denyar is a doctor who lives in a nice house in an inner city suburb of Melbourne with her architect husband Danny and 13-year-old twins Oscar and Edwina. Bess is stunned when she finds out from blood test results that she is adopted. This occurs when her overbearing posh mother Margaret is admitted to the hospital for high blood sugar levels. Bess tries to meet her birth parents, Wayne and Julie Wheeler. She is shocked to learn that she has three siblings (Amber, Kayne and Brianna) and that her biological family, the "
bogan
Bogan ( ) is Australian slang for a person whose speech, clothing, attitude and behaviour are considered unrefined or unsophisticated. Depending on the context, the term can be pejorative or self-deprecating. The prevalence of the term boga ...
" Wheelers, head a
drag racing team in the outer suburbs of the city.
Cast and characters
Main
*
Annie Maynard
Annie Maynard (born 30 October 1981) is an Australian actress. She is best known for her starring role in the ABC comedy series '' Upper Middle Bogan'' as Bess Denyar.
''Upper Middle Bogan'' began screening on ABC on 15 August 2013 with Mayn ...
as Bess Denyar
*
Robyn Nevin
Robyn Anne Nevin (25 September 1942) is an Australian actress, director, and stage producer, recognised with the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards and the JC Williamson Award at the Helpmann Awards for her outstanding contributions to Austr ...
as Margaret Denyar
*
Patrick Brammall as Danny Bright
*
Glenn Robbins
Glenn Maxwell Robbins (born 30 December 1957) is an Australian comedian, writer, actor, television and radio presenter. Robbins has appeared on '' The Panel'', ''Thank God You're Here'' and '' Have You Been Paying Attention?''. He is best known ...
as Wayne Wheeler
*
Robyn Malcolm
Robyn Jane Malcolm (born 15 March 1965) is a New Zealand actress, who first gained recognition for her role as nurse Ellen Crozier on the New Zealand soap opera ''Shortland Street''.
She is best known for six seasons of playing Cheryl West, m ...
as Julie Wheeler
*
Michala Banas
Michala Elizabeth Laurinda Banas (born 14 November 1978) is a New Zealand television actress and singer.
Life and career
Born in Wellington, New Zealand into a family of German descent, she starred in her first advert at only 18 months of age.
...
as Amber Wheeler
* Maddy Jevic as Brianna Wheeler
*
Rhys Mitchell
Rhys or Rhŷs is a popular Welsh given name (usually male) that is famous in Welsh history and is also used as a surname. It originates from Deheubarth, an old region of South West Wales, with famous kings such as Rhys ap Tewdwr.
It is pronounce ...
as Kayne Wheeler
* Harrison Feldman as Oscar Bright
*
Lara Robinson as Edwina Bright
*
Dougie Baldwin
Dougie Baldwin (born 1996) is an Australian actor from Frankston, Victoria
Frankston is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, south-east of Melbourne's Melbourne city centre, Central Business District, located ...
as Shawn Van Winkle
Recurring
*
Dave Thornton
Dave Thornton (born 13 December 1979) is an Australian stand-up comedian, actor, television and radio presenter. He has performed stand-up comedy throughout Australia, in Edinburgh, Singapore and New York. He has also appeared on Australian tele ...
as Troy Van Winkle (Amber's ex-boyfriend and Shawn's father)
*
Sue Jones as Pat (Margaret's best friend)
* Khaled Khalafalla as Younis
*
Martin Dingle-Wall
Martin Dingle-Wall is an Australian actor, producer and screenwriter. He originated the role of Flynn Saunders on the Australian soap opera ''Home and Away'' in 2001. He departed the show in 2002. Dingle-Wall has appeared in '' Satisfaction'', ...
as Evan
Filming locations
The town house featured as Margaret Denyar's house in ''Upper Middle Bogan'' is located at Summerhill Road in
Brighton East, Victoria
Brighton East is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 12 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Bayside and Glen Eira local government areas. Brighton East recorded a population of 1 ...
.
It is used to shoot both interior and exterior scenes for the series.
The house was sold for $1,905,000 at an auction held on 24 May 2014.
The house featured as the Wheeler's House is located at 61 Saratoga Crescent in Keilor Downs, Victoria, which can be confirmed by comparing the opening scenes with Google maps earth view (see solar panels on neighbor's house). Amber's new house is at Copernicus Way. The Driving Office scenes were filmed in Gisborne, Victoria, as were the motel scenes.
The scenes with the
dragster are shot at the
Calder Park Raceway
Calder Park Raceway is a motor racing circuit in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The complex includes a dragstrip, a road circuit with several possible configurations, and the "Thunderdome", a high-speed banked oval equipped to race either c ...
.
Episodes
International broadcasts
In the United States the show is titled ''Bess of Both Worlds'' and began streaming from 4 March 2015 on the subscription
video-on-demand
Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...
service
Hulu
Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television seri ...
. In New Zealand, the show airs Thursday nights at 10:00 pm on
TV One. Episodes are available weekly to stream through TVNZ's Watch Now service.
Awards and nominations
See also
*
List of Australian television series
Future shows
Seven
* '' The 1% Club'' (Seven Network game show 2023–)
* '' Apartment Rules'' (Seven Network reality 2023–)
* ''Animals Aboard with Dr Harry'' (Seven Network reality 2023–)
* ''Armchair Experts'' (Seven Network sport ...
*
List of Australian Broadcasting Corporation programs
This is a list of television programmes that are currently being broadcast or have been broadcast on ABC Television's ABC TV (formerly ABC1), ABC TV Plus (formerly ABC2 and ABC Comedy), ABC Kids (formerly ABC 4 Kids), ABC Me (formerly ABC3) o ...
*
Upper middle class
In sociology, the upper middle class is the social group constituted by higher status members of the middle class. This is in contrast to the term '' lower middle class'', which is used for the group at the opposite end of the middle-class stra ...
*
Bogan
Bogan ( ) is Australian slang for a person whose speech, clothing, attitude and behaviour are considered unrefined or unsophisticated. Depending on the context, the term can be pejorative or self-deprecating. The prevalence of the term boga ...
References
External links
Websiteon
ABC
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Upper Middle Bogan
2013 Australian television series debuts
Australian Broadcasting Corporation original programming
Australian comedy television series
Television shows set in Melbourne
Australian television sitcoms