Top End Bub: Miranda Tapsell, Gwilym Lee and Sharri Sebbens on sequel series to beloved rom-com

Miranda Tapsell wanted lovely, nice and snuggly things for the characters she created.

But that’s not the philosophy of her co-writer, Joshua Tyler. “Josh is like, ‘That’s not drama, Miranda, you’ve got to kill your darlings, in every TV series, your darlings always die’. I was actually in tears,” she told The Nightly.

The audience might be too when they realise what kicks off Top End Bub, the sequel series to 2019 rom-com Top End Wedding.

Five years after the hijinks of the film in which Lauren (Tapsell) and Ned (Gwilym Lee) are married in its emotional climax, we find the couple living a lively and meaningful DINK life in Adelaide. He’s opened his own café, she’s running her own law firm, it’s all on their terms.

That’s when Lauren gets the call, the kill your darlings moment. Lauren’s cousin, Ronelle (Sharri Sebbens), is killed within the first few minutes of the first episode, and Lauren and Ned have been asked to take guardianship of Ronelle’s daughter, Taya (Gladys-May Kelly).

Sebbens too got the call, one night two years ago. “(They) let me know that it was probably heading down this direction, but also handed over in that same breath, ‘I’d really love you to direct’.

“I was like, ‘F—k yeah!’ because that was certainly somewhere I’ve been projecting my career. So, (Ronelle’s death) was sad, but it’s bittersweet. I got to do something that I’ve always wanted to do, and it’s a small price to pay.”

Sebbens co-directed with Christiaan Van Vuuren, who she had just worked with on the Australian version of The Office, she as an actor, and he off-screen. Sebbens, who had previously directed for the stage, had even spoken to him at the time about maybe taking on a directing attachment with him down the road.

It was meant to be. “I was like, ‘Dammit, another near impossible career to fall in love with!’,” Sebbens added.

Top End Wedding was a classic rom-com but Top End Bub morphed into a different genre – the family comedy. For Lauren and Ned, becoming parents overnight, and to a grieving child, meant uprooting their established life and moving to Darwin.

That makes for rich drama and comedy, as Lauren’s family comes together in a time of change. But as much as they love each other, they can also drive each other mad. Family can be chaotic, loud and spiky.

“This is something I’ve noticed more since becoming a mum, which is that you would not survive without your family. It’s the push-and-pull that I feel in my life all the time, and how much I put myself first and how much do I put others before me,” Tapsell said.

For someone who was told at drama school that she wasn’t funny, Tapsell has impeccable timing. She pops on screen when there are shenanigans afoot, and Top End Bub is replete with heightened, bizarre set-pieces, including moments where attempts at intimacy ends with a bottle of Betadine.

Tapsell is a multi-hyphenate talent, and again pulls double duty as actor and writer. “What’s so great about writing is that all of the melodrama that’s in my head – I like to be dramatic about a lot of things – I can just put it on to the page,” she said.

“And, surprisingly, everyone just loves those characters. They go, ‘Oh, yes, we know those people who blow things out of proportion or completely misinterpret or get flustered quite easily.

“Those are the characters that I want to see on TV. I want the messy people that haven’t figured anything out. It’s refreshing for me to see people who aren’t so put together and financially stable.”

The physical comedy in Top End Bub is essential to the series’ vibrant tone, and Lee’s Ned cops the brunt of it.

“There was a time when I was like, ‘What have I done to Josh and Miranda?’ When I’m reading the scripts and it’s like, ‘What do you want me to do?!’. OK, I’m getting stung by a jellyfish in a painful area, and it’s crazy and fun and ridiculous,” Lee said.

The scene in question is exactly what it sounds like, and Lee said to Van Vuuren, that there was no rehearsing or building up to it, and that they just had to go for it, full throttle. “If you’re tentative about it, it just doesn’t work,” he recalled.

The Welsh actor said that while the tone had shifted from the movie, the series still had “the same depth that the film had, and we are digging into deep themes about family, parenthood, culture and blended families.

“The set-up for it all is this whole Indigenous First Nations idea of kinship, and getting into the real meaning of what that is and the implications of kinship in a modern society.”

Top End Bub is on Prime Video from September 12