“My mum was always taking in kids,” Tapsell says. “Even though I’m an only child, I was never by myself,” she said.<\/p>\n
In Top End Bub<\/a>, Tapsell’s high-powered lawyer Lauren Ford and husband Ned (British actor Gwilym Lee; The Great) move from Adelaide to Darwin to care for Lauren’s niece Taya, nicknamed Bub (newcomer Gladys-May Kelly), after her mother dies in a car accident.<\/p>\n Miranda Tapsell told ABC News last year Gladys-May Kelly brought “youthful curiosity” to the role of Bub. (Supplied: Prime Video\/John Platt)<\/p>\n The warm and loving depiction of Lauren’s family, including her mother Daffy (Ursula Yovich; ABC TV’s Troppo<\/a>) and non-Indigenous father Trevor (Huw Higginson; Ladies in Black<\/a>), is at odds with how Indigenous families are sometimes depicted in the media, especially in the 15 years of the Northern Territory Intervention<\/a>, from 2007 to 2022.<\/p>\n “The families I know in Darwin and on the Tiwi Islands, they’re not negligent,” Tapsell says.<\/p>\n “They are very inclusive. My dad is non-Indigenous and he has really been brought into the fold; same as my husband.”<\/p>\n Loading…<\/p>\n It was also important for Tapsell to show the dynamic kinship system of Tiwi people.<\/p>\n “We do think outside the nuclear family,” she explains. “It isn’t just the mum and the dad: it’s the nanna, it’s the aunty, it’s the uncles.<\/p>\n “The whole village takes care of a kid.”<\/p>\n Co-star Lee thinks Top End Bub will resonate with worldwide audiences because it is both specific and universal.<\/p>\n Top End Wedding earned $5.2 million at the Australian box office. (Supplied: Prime Video\/John Platt)<\/p>\n “We’re telling a story about this blended family and this different version of a family,” he says. “And I think anyone can relate to that.<\/p>\n “We have to re-imagine how we have a family, how we bring up children, and actually reconnect with the idea that it takes a community, a village, to raise a child \u2014 something we’ve kind of lost touch with a little bit.”<\/p>\n Returning to Darwin<\/p>\n In the original movie<\/a>, Lauren returns to her hometown of Darwin to marry Ned.<\/p>\n But when her mother Daffy runs away from home, Lauren finds herself reconnecting with her heritage on the Tiwi Islands.<\/p>\n It was a distinctly Australian story, but one that quickly found an international audience after it opened at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2019.<\/p>\n “It meant so much to me that so many people that watched the movie were able to apply their own lives to it,” Tapsell tells ABC Entertainment.<\/p>\n “Especially when it came to their family, their relationship with their mother, their relationship to their culture and their identity.”<\/p>\n Watch Top End Wedding on ABC iview<\/a><\/p>\n She and co-creator Joshua Tyler wanted to return to Darwin and the Ford family five years on to find out: “what happens after happily ever after?”<\/p>\n It’s a happily-ever-after with eerie parallels to Tapsell’s life. She was single when she started writing the movie, but married by the time it came out. Then, she fell pregnant, twice, while working on the TV series.<\/p>\n Beyond the accidental “manifesting”, as Lee jokes, Tapsell wanted Top End Bub to expand upon the relationship between Daffy and Trevor.<\/p>\n “[Ursula Yovich] could just stand there and not talk and I would still be captivated,” Miranda Tapsell says. (Supplied: Prime Video\/John Platt)<\/p>\n “Ursula Yovich did such an incredible job in the film, but she’s only in it for, like, six minutes,” Tapsell says.<\/p>\n “She deserved another go, especially when I started to see the incredible chemistry that she and Huw had in the film.”<\/p>\n Opportunities for Indigenous artists<\/p>\n Yovich isn’t the only person whose star power is spotlighted in the movie and series. The majority of Top End Bub’s soundtrack is by Indigenous musicians, including King Stingray, Baker Boy and Jem Cassar-Daley.<\/p>\n But it is not just a showcase of Australia’s best Indigenous musicians and actors; it also offered opportunities to Indigenous artists behind the scenes.<\/p>\n The cast of Top End Bub at the series premiere in Sydney. (Supplied: Prime Video\/Scott Ehler)<\/p>\n Shari Sebbens<\/a> played Lauren’s sister in the movie, and directed much of the series. It’s one of her first forays into directing for the screen, after years of working in theatre.<\/p>\n Tapsell points to another example: Tiwi woman Libby Collins, script consultant on Top End Wedding and producer on Top End Bub.<\/p>\n “She was our bridge between the [Tiwi] community and the creative team,” Tapsell says.\u00a0<\/p>\n “To see her grow as a producer and see Shari grow as a director is really wonderful.<\/p>\n “It all just begins with asking the question: Why can’t these people come along for the journey?”<\/p>\n The humour of Blak matriarchy<\/p>\n The Ford family \u2014 especially the women \u2014 is funny and strong-willed.<\/p>\n First images of Top End Bub <\/a><\/p>\n Top End Bub is a follow-up to the 2019 smash-hit film Top End Wedding. But instead of another movie, its creators have opted for a TV series.\u00a0<\/p>\n In one episode, Lauren and Ned are determined to give Bub a birthday party to remember \u2014 without asking if that’s what she wants. At the same time, Lauren has resolved to find out who Bub’s father is, and enlists the mysterious Cowboy (Clarence Ryan; Territory<\/a>) to help her.<\/p>\n Of course, he crashes the party, and it all ends with smashed cake, bruised feelings and a carton of iced coffee on the beach.<\/p>\n Tapsell could not help but create women characters in this way; she writes what she knows.<\/p>\n “My mum and my aunties, they were just so driven and formidable, and they had really high expectations of me and my cousins,” she says.<\/p>\n “Even if I didn’t get a great mark in Year 12 \u2014 which I didn’t \u2014 they just said, ‘Get the piece of paper please, get a good job, make a great life for yourself. Because we’ve tried to ensure that happens for you’.”<\/p>\n Other people noticed MIranda Tapsell’s “natural comedic timing” before she did. (Supplied: Prime Video\/John Platt)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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