Robyn Malcolm stars in hit TV drama After the Party, which will air in the UK for free later this month.
Robyn Malcolm stars in hit TV drama After the Party, which will air in the UK for free later this month.
New Zealand TV drama After The Party, widely hailed as one of the best shows of 2023, will get a huge boost in international viewership this month when it hits UK screens.
The six-part series, created by Outrageous Fortune’s Robyn Malcolm (who also stars) and writer Dianne Taylor, will stream for free in the UK, airing on Channel 4 from Wednesday, November 20.
After premiering on TVNZ 1 and TVNZ+ in October, the series garnered widespread local acclaim, including nine nominations for the 2024 New Zealand Television Awards, which will be held on November 22.
The show’s main plot revolves around the lives of a Kiwi family after a drunken party.
Mother Penny Wilding (Malcolm) sees something that causes her to accuse her husband, Phil (Braveheart actor Peter Mullan) of inappropriate behaviour against her teenage daughter’s friend, but many refuse to believe her.
It has been lauded for its inventive storytelling, with the plot told partly in flashbacks and partly in the present day.
After the Party stars Robyn Malcolm.
The Herald’s Karl Puschmann commented that the series “leaves your head spinning like you’ve had one drink too many and is as dark and relentless as a fierce hangover”.
“There are no easy truths to be found in After the Party but you better believe it’s one of the year’s best shows,” he said.
Duncan Greive of The Spinoff called it “NZ’s best TV drama in years”, praising it for its “dark, tense and highly provocative” nature and saying it would “rattle uneasily around your mind for days”.
The series was produced by Lingo Pictures and Luminous Beast, and was filmed on location in Wellington.
Cross-continent fame for After the Party comes soon after another major international deal.
ABC TV and iview in Australia picked up the series from April 28, 2024, bringing it further international acclaim and landing Malcolm a best actress award at Series Mania, France, for her role in the drama.
“We knew we wanted to put a woman in her 50s at the centre of it. And we knew we wanted to make sure she was somebody that we’ve not seen on screen before.
“At her age, women are supposed to be wise and sage, but often we’re not. I’m so pleased that note is striking a chord with so many women who are getting alongside the story.”
After The Party was shot on location in Wellington. Photo / Marc Weakley, Cereal TV
Malcolm also revealed that when she had some free time, she and Taylor were going to write another series. Not a follow-up to After the Party, but something fresh.
“We both have a lot of ideas, and we can’t wait to get started.”
