DEATH BECOMES HER:

meet the new Ms Fisher

Geraldine Hakewill knows how to make an entrance. Standing outside Labassa Mansion in Victoria’s North Caulfield, the actress recalls how her character, Peregrine Fisher, announces herself in Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries – falling spectacularly through the roof of the Victorianera National Trust building, which was once home to Australia’s first silent movie star, Louise Lovely.

“I will say that being strung up on the chandelier was pretty nerve-racking and there will be a lot of behind-the-scenes footage of me swearing profusely as I’m winched up,” she says. “But I love the physicality and how impulsive Peregrine is with her body – I relate to that. I love doing stunt work.”

And there will be plenty of that in this spin-off version of the original Essie Davishelmed series. Set in the early 1960s,

Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries kicks off after Phryne goes mysteriously missing, Amelia Earhart-style, while flying over the highlands of New Guinea.

Peregrine is her illegitimate niece, the product of Phryne’s father’s Lothario past. And she is stunned to receive word that, not only does she have an aunt she’d never heard of, let alone met, but she has inherited her home, clothes and possessions – and soon her profession as an enterprising detective.

It’s an honour that Geraldine, 31, holds dear. A huge fan of the original series, as well as the Kerry Greenwood books on which the show is based, she’d previously auditioned for a guest role on Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries a few years back. “But I didn’t get it and I thought, oh that’s a shame because I think I’d be quite good in that world,” she says.

So landing the lead in the new Miss Fisher incarnation – which is produced by the same team, albeit airing on a different network,

Seven – was a dream come true.

The icing on the cake for Geraldine is a top-notch cast of co-stars. One of those is former Peter Allen: Not The Boy Next Door star Joel Jackson, who plays Peregrine’s straight man and potential love interest, Detective

James Steed. It was a casting call both had been looking for ever since being introduced at the Logies in 2016 by mutual friend,

Rebecca Gibney.

“Geraldine had just finished working on Wanted season one and I’d worked with Rebecca on Peter Allen,” Joel, 27, recalls. “She’d been talking about us to each other so it was really nice to not only meet, but also to be taken under the wing of Rebecca.”

“We are both musicians as well,” adds Geraldine. “We were hoping to play a gig at an arts festival in Karratha in WA, where Joel is from. And we’d talked about doing a short film together, with music.”

While they won’t be singing and dancing on screen, music is a constant companion on set..“We do a lot of singing between scenes and we’ve got a ’60s playlist for the make-up bus,” says Geraldine. “Joel’s trailer backs onto mine and he’s usually singing really loudly when I get dressed in the mornings, which means that song will be stuck in my head the whole day.”

“My favourite thing to sing to get into the style when I walk onto set is The Coffee Song by Frank Sinatra,” Joel says, adding that the cast also play ’60s-inspired charades in their downtimes. “I have a real passion for that decade. Cary Grant and James Stewart, those Hollywood men of the ’60s are the reason I wanted to act. Also the ’60s to me was the changing of the guard, the generational change between WWII to what became the 1970s. It’s really interesting to see what happened, especially within the feminist movement, with immigration around the world, things settling down and cultures becoming more pronounced. It was an exciting time.”

As well as the murder mysteries, those themes will be explored in this latest Fisher world. Catherine McClements had always avoided period genre pieces, preferring to stick closer to the cop dramas that have been her traditional bread and butter during her long career. Yet the role of feisty Birdie Birnside, the president of The Adventuresses’ Club, champion of women and Phryne’s best friend, won her over.

“Things like marriage and getting a proper job aren’t going to tie Birdie down,” she says of her character, who worked as a spy during the war, proudly bucks all the traditional systems and puts Peregrine through her paces before taking the new recruit under her wing.

“She encourages other women who are in a similar boat – who are smart, who break the norms, who don’t fit into society, to come to this club that she runs. It’s full of these extraordinary women who’ve climbed Mt Kilimanjaro or are world-renowned sword fighters or incredible scientists. She makes a family of women who don’t fit in. Birdie is every bit of liberation you wish for in a person. She’s blazing the trail and saying, ‘Girls, don’t fall for it. Fulfil your own destiny and see where it takes you.’ She’s someone you wish you could be.”

Decked out in full ’60s make-up and wardrobe, Catherine, 53, laughs that spending hours in rollers and hairspray has transformed her into far more than just the character she plays.

“I remind a lot of people of their mother,” she says. “Everyone comes up to me and says it. It’s beautiful. When the producers started this show, they did say it was an homage to their mothers, the people who had lived through this time and paved the way for them.”

For Louisa Mignone, the idea of paying respect to her mother was also a huge draw for taking on the role of microbiologist Violetta Fellini, who assists Peregrine’s investigations with her lab work.

“My mother was a very similar person to Violetta. Although it was probably 10 or 15 years later, she worked in a lab in Adelaide in the

’70s and came from a very conservative family,” says Louisa, 35, adding that Violetta, being a new migrant, resonated personally. “Both my grandparents are Italian immigrants and I find the exploration of migrant

culture in Australia fascinating.

It’s interesting how we include our migrant culture in our own stories.”

Staying true to the times was also key for the passionate crew who painstakingly sourced exquisite vintage pieces from all over Australia – and the world – for the series. The clothes are handmade especially for each cast member, with original ’60s fabric that was sourced in LA and then flown back to Australia by costume designer Maria Pattison.

The cars – which include Phryne’s 1964 Austin Healey convertible, now driven by Peregrine – are on loan from fans of the show, and the era, who responded to call-outs from producers for original automobiles.

And then there’s Peregrine’s inherited apartment. While Essie’s Phryne may be gone, she’s certainly far from forgotten, with the set design team transferring key items from her 1920s home into her fabulous and light-filled ’60s apartment.

“We used quite a few of the artworks from the original house, as well as diaries and other personal items we thought were really important to bring across,” says production designer Ben Bangay. “We wanted to give Peregrine that sense that she’s inhabiting her aunt’s world.”

Also key in fitting out the sets in authentic style was The Australian Women’s Weekly, with several magazines making their way into Peregrine’s new home. “I got almost every edition from 1962 to 1964 in my first few weeks of pre-production,” explains Ben. “It’s been such a beautiful resource for us in terms of figuring out what the current appliances were and what people were thinking and doing.”

The cast have also been making use of the vintage reading material during breaks from filming. “Geri and I have been reading them and trying out the tips – they’re really good,” Catherine says. “I’ve started putting sponges in the bottom of my pot plants – it works!”

As is often the case on film sets, the cast and crew have become incredibly close throughout the long days of production. As we visit, it’s the last day of filming for both Catherine and Louisa and there are teary hugs and presents exchanged. But with four telemovies now in the bag, all involved have their fingers firmly crossed this won’t be the last we see of the 1960s Ms Fisher.

“We’ve just had such a good time and we’ve become a family,” says Geraldine. “Essie is such a wonderful actress that these are huge and very elegant high heels to fill. I hope we’ve captured the spirit of the Fisher family and the franchise, that the fan base enjoy it and potentially new viewers jump on board. The hope is we’ll make some more.” AWW

Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries is coming to the Seven Network in February.

“I hope we’ve captured the spirit of the Fisher family.”