Comedy drama Latecomers is the latest production to wrap filming as part of SBS, NITV and Screen Australia’s Digital Originals initiative.
Now, SBS are thrilled to announce the cast and share more details about the premise.
Who’s in Latecomers?
In her first ever acting role, influential writer and disability and women’s rights advocate Hannah Diviney shines in one of the lead roles. Alongside her is actor and co-creator Angus Thompson (The Angus Project), New Zealand actor Miriama Smith (Filthy Rich, Harrow) and rising star Patrick Jhanur (Sea Patrol, Troppo).
Recently making headlines for holding pop stars Lizzo and Beyoncé accountable for their ableist lyrics, Hannah Diviney is also founder of the global ‘Create a Disney Princess with Disabilities’ campaign and Editor-in-Chief of social impact publication, Missing Perspectives.
Supporting cast members include Tracy Mann (Top End Wedding), Emily Havea (Wentworth), Tom Wilson (Heartbreak High), Brittany Santariga (Fighting Season), Amy Kersey (The Twelve), Piper Brown and Liam Greinke.
What’s it about?
Latecomers follows two strangers with cerebral palsy, Frank (Thompson) and Sarah (Diviney). After watching their carers hook up at a bar, Frank and Sarah decide to explore their own relationships with sex, and each other.
Bold, hilarious, and at times heart wrenching, Latecomers is at once an expression and representation of the intricacies of sex and disability.
Who’s the team behind Latecomers?
Written and created by Emma Myers, Angus Thompson and acclaimed comedian, actor and writer Nina Oyama (The Angus Project, Tonightly with Tom Ballard, Utopia), Latecomers draws from the trio’s lived experiences, from both Nina’s perspective as a carer and Emma’s and Angus’s as individuals with cerebral palsy.
Latecomers is directed by Madeleine Gottlieb (You and Me, Before and After) and Alistair Baldwin (writer on The Weekly and Hard Quiz) and produced by Hannah Ngo (Iggy & Ace, The Heights) and Liam Heyen (Top End Wedding, New Gold Mountain).
Why we’re excited
“Latecomers is not only pure joy, it’s a story that is otherwise underrepresented on Australian screens,” said SBS Commissioning Editor, Loani Arman. “It will have viewers laughing and crying, as Sarah and Frank navigate their way through the highs and lows of love and sex.”
Co-writer and co-creator Emma Myers said “Latecomers was created to combat the assumptions people have about the intimate lives of men and women living with disabilities. Too often characters with disabilities are shown leading sexless lives. With Latecomers, Angus, Nina and I saw an opportunity to explore intimacy and disability on screen in a realistic and authentic way.
“Too often characters with disabilities are shown leading sexless lives.” Latecomers co-writer and co-creator, Emma Myers
“Angus wanted to show his real-life experiences of failure and heartbreak, whereas I wanted to create a narrative in which a disabled character questions her worth as both a young woman and romantic partner. Through combining these ideas, we created a series that asks, ‘How far would you go to be seen sexually?’”
What’s Digital Originals?
Digital Originals is a joint initiative of Screen Australia, SBS and NITV, aimed at developing exciting and innovative short-form drama projects to premiere as a single episode program on SBS platforms.
The initiative is designed to support screen creatives currently underrepresented in the sector, including people who identify as culturally and linguistically diverse, First Nations Australians, people with disability, female and gender diverse, LGBTIQ+ and those who are located in regional and remote areas.
When can we watch it?
Latecomers will premiere on SBS VICELAND and continue on SBS On Demand later this year. We will keep you posted.
