Remember we asked a few pertinent questions of the writers of the series, Robyn Butler and Wayne Hope? Here are their replies…
We know your show is all about the characters (a “social satire” as you described it), but what made you choose a library as the locale for this series?
Robyn: About ten years ago, I came up with a character called Lynette the Librarian which I wrote for Eric Bana’s sketch show, Eric, (in which I performed with Roz Hammond aka Christine Grimwood). Lynette was a terribly shy and insecure young woman who lived her life a little like Walter Mitty, through fantasy, becoming the characters in the books in the library. I had written and performed versions of this for stage where a shy young girl who works in a bookstore turns into a Phillip Marlowe type character. We never shot the character pieces for Eric but Roz and I always loved it and it stayed with us. Several years later, Roz and I began throwing up ideas to do a telly project together and she suggested we revisit the library. It still seemed appealing to me, so Wayne and I set about writing it.
Wayne: Initially the idea of library was an attractive place to set a series because it seemed to house a broad section of the community, which is a bonus when writing a dramatic/comic storyline. Also, we recognized that for the most part, when people think of libraries it generally conjures a warm memory of some kind for many people. But beyond this, the library setting really made sense once we fleshed out the central character of Frances.
Robyn: We had been toying with the idea of a passive aggressive controlling type of character in several scripts before this, but suddenly this seemed the perfect fit. A library is place of containment, order and structure – qualities which Frances adores. I guess there’s a tiny hint of the old Lynette character in that Frances is deeply repressed. Comedy is all about irony and surprise, so setting turbulence and chaos in a place we all associate with tranquility and calm seemed to us naturally funny.
How did you research libraries and librarians to develop the script?
Robyn: What we really wanted to do with Frances was make her a study in repression. We built her character first, then found her antithesis in Christine and created their story and backstory that will become apparent throughout the series. Then we decided to add a political spin on Frances, to make her a lot like “Middle Australia” (hence Middleton), which is why we have her being intolerant to the Muslim Community etc. The librarians in our local library are nothing but tolerant, so we can happily say Frances was not researched in ANY way in a library or via a librarian. The other characters also are figments of our imagination. However… We are the parents of children and we have been visiting our library for a long time and we have watched our lovely Children’s Librarian take story time on many occasions. So “What Colour are your Knickers?” was read at our library just as it was in Episode One and in Episode two, Christine’s Who’s Hot routine was also witnessed at Story Time. Generally speaking in library research terms, the visitors to the library were probably of more interest to us in terms of the way the background was layered.
Wayne: When it came around to filming we visited lots of libraries in the outer suburbs of Melbourne. We needed to arrive at a ‘look’ for the series because we knew we needed to build the set as no library in their right mind would let a crew of fifty occupy every centimeter of their space for 12 hours a day, 5 days a week for 8 weeks. We loved the modern-ness of many of the libraries that had been built in the last 10 years. It was clear that architects had been told “look, we don’t wear pearls, we don’t say shush and we don’t want any of that oldie worldie wood paneling either.” The newly built Sydenham library opened just as we were starting pre production. It’s a knock out place, the staff was fantastic to us and even allowed us to use the multi language signage from the front of their library.
Robyn: St Kilda Library also gave the cast and crew a tour to show us the inner machinations as part of our rehearsals as did the State Library of Victoria.
Did you think setting the show in a library would create as much interest amongst librarians as it has?
Robyn: Nooooo…. That has been surprising. But the press coverage has been surprising too - librarians strike a chord with everybody. I’m sure if we had called the show its working title “Shelve This”, we would not have received such a response.
Do you have a favourite library-related memory?
Robyn: My parents are big library visitors – eight books a fortnight. When we were little I remember going every week to the library at the end of our street and borrowing the SAME three books every time. One of our daughter’s favourite books at the moment is a Charlie and Lola one “Excuse Me, But That Is My Book” and I totally get where Lola is coming from.
Wayne: Look, mine involves a moment in year 9, a girl named Kylie and A/V carrel in the back corner but I’m not sure I should go into it here.
What are you reading now?
Robyn: I just read Ian McEwan’s On Chesil Beach for First Tuesday Bookclub on the ABC, which I loved and found unspeakably sad. Wept and wept. Now I’ve started Money by Martin Amis (sadly neglected thus far in my reading life) and I’m only a few pages in but I’m loving it so far.
Wayne: Christopher Hitchens’ God is not Great and Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders Raging Bulls. Together they prove God and Hollywood are strange, man made constructions that we insist on.
And finally, what do you REALLY think of librarians?
Robyn: I think they’re MUCH smarter than Frances. I think they are technologically savvy and totally on the groovy side of nerd. Remember, our local library is St. Kilda so it’s all very bohemian and cool. Above all, every one we’ve met in the course of this has been totally gorgeous.
Wayne: Robyn’s just being nice, you’re a bunch of passionate kooks.