''Tomorrow When the War Began'' is an Australian drama television series based on the ''Tomorrow'' series by John Marsden, produced by Michael Boughen and Tony Winley and executive produced by Matthew Street and Kim Vecera. The series, which consisted of six one-hour episodes, premiered on

ABC3 ABC Entertains is an Australian free-to-air television channel owned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It was launched on 4 December 2009 as a children's channel called ABC3. It was rebranded on 19 September 2016 to ABC ME. It rebra ...

on 23 April 2016, and covered roughly the events of the first novel, '' Tomorrow, When the War Began''. The series was cancelled after series 1 due to underwhelming ratings.

Premise

Based on the award-winning novels written by John Marsden, ''Tomorrow When the War Began'' follows a group of eight teenage friends who find themselves in the middle of an unexpected war in a small country town after returning from a remote camping trip. Cut off from the rest of the world and everyone they knew, they must find their way in the new world, where they are among only a few remaining free Australians, who must learn to defend themselves against the hostile invaders and save their detained families.

Cast

Main

Molly Daniels Molly Daniels is an Australian actress, writer, director, and producer. She is best known for her roles in ''You're Skitting Me'', '' Tomorrow When the War Began'', '' Ronny Chieng: International Student'' and '' Very Small Business''. She was ...

as Eleanor "Ellie" Linton * Narek Arman as Homer Yannos * Jon Prasida as Lee Takkam * Madeleine Clunies-Ross as Fiona "Fi" Maxwell *

Madeleine Madden Madeleine Madden (born ) is an Australian actress. She is best known for playing Egwene al'Vere in the Amazon Prime series ''The Wheel of Time''. Early life and education Madeleine Madden was born in 1996 or 1997, the daughter of Lee Madden (Ga ...

as Corrie Mackenzie * Andrew Creer as Kevin Holmes * Fantine Banulski as Robyn Mathers * Keith Purcell as Chris Maxwell

Recurring

Sibylla Budd Sibylla Budd (born 19 September 1976) is an Australian actress perhaps best known for her roles in the television series '' The Secret Life of Us'' and '' Winners & Losers''. Early life Budd grew up in Canberra, as one of four siblings. She has ...

as Rachel Maxwell *

Deborah Mailman Deborah Jane Mailman (born 14 July 1972) is an Australian television and film actress, and singer. Mailman is best known for her characters: Parliament of Australia, MP Alexandra "Alex" Irving on the Australian political drama series ''Total Co ...

as Kath Mackenzie * Alison Bell as Liz Linton * Richard Young as Jack Linton *

Spencer McLaren Spencer McLaren (born 28 February 1973, Sydney) is an Australian theatre and television actor, most well known for his starring role on the Australian television drama, '' The Secret Life of Us'', as Richie Blake; a role he played for 66 episode ...

as Daniel Maxwell * Damien Fotiou as George Yannos * Alfred Nicdao as Umar Takkam *

James Stewart James Maitland Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American actor and military aviator. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991. With the strong morali ...

as Colonel Lee *

Robert Rabiah Robert Rabiah is an Australian film actor, screen writer, and producer. He is best known for his roles as Hakim in '' Face to Face'' (2011), for which he was nominated for a AACTA Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Film and Best Actor at the ...

as GDA

Episodes

Production

Filming

The series was shot from 14 September to 13 November 2015. Filming took place in and around

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, on the

Barwon Heads Bridge The Barwon Heads Bridge is a road bridge and a separate pedestrian bridge across the Barwon River between Barwon Heads and Ocean Grove, Victoria, Australia. The bridge is the only crossing of the Barwon River between Geelong Geelong ( ) ( ...

, and in

Clunes, Victoria Clunes is a town in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, 36 kilometres north of Ballarat, in the Shire of Hepburn. At the 2016 Australian census, 2016 census it had a population of 1,728. Clunes is best known as the site of Victoria's ...

Promotion

On 27 November 2015,

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

released its official line-up of new television series to be broadcast in 2016, which included a short preview for ''Tomorrow When the War Began''. On 1 January 2016, the first full trailer was released for the series. Further teasers and trailers were released in March 2016.

Broadcast

''Tomorrow When the War Began'' is broadcast on

and distributed in Australia by

ABC Commercial ABC Commercial, formerly ABC Enterprises Limited, is the revenue-earning division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, one of the two national public broadcasters. ABC Commercial has operated in various forms since its establishment in ...

. The series was distributed internationally by

Annapurna Pictures Annapurna Pictures is an American independent media company founded by Megan Ellison on April 2, 2011, and based in Los Angeles, California. It is active in film, television theatrical production and video game publishing. History Annapurna P ...

Ratings

Home media release

''Tomorrow When the War Began'' was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on 1 June 2016 in Region 4/B.

References

External links

* * {{John Marsden 2016 Australian television series debuts 2016 Australian television series endings Australian Broadcasting Corporation original programming 2010s Australian drama television series Australian English-language television shows Fiction about invasions Television shows set in Australia Tomorrow series Australian children's television series Australian television series about teenagers