Last Days of the Space Age: Jesse Spencer, Radha Mitchell and Linh-Dan Pham on suburban family thrills

Australian actors Jesse Spencer and Radha Mitchell are separated by their co-star, French-Vietnamese actor Linh-Dan Pham.

Mitchell joked that Pham was sat between them because they were still recovering from the conflict between her and Spencer’s characters.

The two play husband-and-wife Tony and Judy Bissett in Last Days of the Space Age, an Australian drama set in Perth in 1979. The characters are fictional but their stories are set against the backdrop of some very real events.

It was the year Perth found itself at the convergence of two global events – the Miss Universe pageant and the re-entry and break-up of American space station Skylab whose debris would be scattered over a large part of Western Australia.

The series is sold off the two moments, symbolic of the social changes of the era, but Last Days of the Space Age is really about the personal challenges of the families in one community, faced with similar internal turmoil as the greater shifts around them.

“It’s the backdrop,” Spencer told The Nightly. “I felt like Skylab was the metaphor of the death from above which represents the transformation and change that’s going on in society and within the characters.

“But ultimately, when you nail it down, it’s a story about families and their trials and tribulations. And also their communities, and suburban thrills.”

Those changes include what’s happening inside the Bissett household where Tony has been striking outside the power plant where he and Judy both work. When Judy is unexpectedly promoted to acting general manager, it upsets the balance of their family. Especially when she has to make tough decisions.

Mitchell explained that Judy wasn’t even aware that it was something she could do. “It’s charming, her discovering herself,” she added. “She’s not some power monger, she just finds her stride, and the mirror to that is she’s watching her husband squirm. It’s uncomfortable stuff and they fumble their way through it while trying to raise their daughters and with Skylab circulating above.”

The threat of Skylab and its potential destruction represents the tension that lingers in the air anytime everyone can feel they are on the cusp of something different. It challenges individuals and communities.

The neighbourhood in Last Days of the Space Age is a slice of suburban Australia. You have the Bissetts as well as Eileen Wilberforce (Deborah Mailman) and her grandson Bilya (Thomas Weatherall).

As the street has a block barbecue to celebrate the arrival of the Miss Universe contestants and Perth’s 150th anniversary, Bilya burns a papier mache bust of James Stirling, the first governor of WA. The reason for his actions? Stirling led the Pinjarra massacre against a group of Indigenous people.

The series also features the Bui family, Vietnamese immigrants who have experienced great traumas as they fled war. Pham plays Sandy, the matriarch of a family trying to make a new life for themselves and be woven into the fabric of Australia.

“What was very special to me is that for the first time, maybe not for Australia, but for the first time (for me), we were highlighting a Vietnamese family, not just any Asian family but specifically a Vietnamese family,” she said.

“That was very close for me because, of course, I’m of Vietnamese origin and some of my relatives have lived through what the Bui family has lived through.”

Pham was able to reconnect with some of those relatives and have a better understanding of their trauma because of her experience living with Sandy.

“Like Sandy, they looked to the future and had to provide for their family and just got on with it. It’s like when you know someone but there’s a part of them that’s hidden and opening that conversation made me feel for them, and we’re now closer.”

The Wilberforces and Buis live alongside families that look like the Bissetts not just on TV in 2024 but historically, they have always been there. They were always part of the tapestry of Australian communities. Mitchell said the series allows audiences to reconsider what we think of as “the Australian identity and how we consider ourselves”.

Mitchell was feeling nostalgic about her childhood and thinking about the impermanence of life when this opportunity came along to step back into 1979.

“We had time to think, time to play, time to be creative in a way that I don’t think we have anymore. Everything is so scheduled and important. There was a casualness of life. It felt timely.”

Last Days of the Space Age is Spencer’s first role on TV since his memorable run as Billy Kennedy on Neighbours. In the years since, he has been one of the most consistently working actors on American TV, first on House and then on Chicago Fire.

He returned home for this project partly because he became a father. “This is the first time I’ve ever had the chance to play a family man,” he recalled. “Having a little bit of experience, although my children are very young, I felt like I was looking into a weird kind of time warp version of my future, but in the past, but in the future.

“I was excited to come back and do that and find those dynamics with the girls who played our daughters.”

It all comes back to the family, as it always does.

Spencer added, “There are a lot of dynamics to the families in the show and how they operate and how they really fight to pull through. There are dark elements to it, but it’s a very inspirational show as well.”

Last Days of the Space Age is streaming on Disney+