‘I’m Harri’s sister — I can’t f--k this’: Sisters Harriet and Madeleine Dyer on Colin from Accounts
Townsville sisters Harriet and Madeleine Dyer have teamed up for the much-awaited second season of Colin from Accounts, revealing just how much pressure they faced to meet expectations for the award-winning show.
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Harriet Dyer is editing the season two finale of Colin From Accounts when the nerves hit. The quirky Aussie rom-com – which she co-writes, produces and stars in, alongside husband Patrick Brammall – is about two awkward singles who go from strangers to dog co-owners in one calamitous day, and was a breakout hit when it aired on Binge in 2022.
It charmed audiences around the world and won seven awards from a total 21 nominations, including three Logies in 2023.
It was unsurprisingly renewed for a second season and the couple didn’t skip a beat. Brammall had kept a list on his phone of all the ideas they never got around to in season one, and they excitedly filmed for two months in Sydney over summer, before spending another two months together in the editing suite.
When Dyer dials in from Sydney in early April, the couple is preparing to finish the final episode before flying home to Los Angeles, where they live with their adopted daughter, Joni, 2.
“We have one day left in the edit,” says Dyer, 35.
“This is the moment when I’m like, ‘this is the difficult second album’. I don’t want to let people down … I’m sweating a little bit today.”
Her older sister, director and filmmaker Madeleine Dyer, patches in from her own Sydney home. She directed a pivotal episode and assisted behind the lens in several episodes of season one. It’s the Townsville-born sisters’ first official interview together, and she offers her younger sibling a simple reminder.
“I just have this little thought that Mum’s always reminded me of, Harri.
“She’s gone through all our diaries as kids, and you wrote ‘Dyer sisters are going to take over the world’,” recalls Madeleine, 37. “Now, if that’s not manifestation … ”
“Stop! Did I really?” Harriet exclaims. “That’s cool. I like that. I didn’t know I dreamt that big.”
Brammall, who has popped his head before the screen to greet his sister-in-law, quizzes “Your mum read your diaries?”, prompting a round of laughter.
Family is deeply ingrained in the Dyer sisters’ careers and successes. They inherited the creative bug as children growing up in Belgian Gardens, Townsville, with parents Mark and Diana and younger brother John, who now works as a schoolteacher.
Mark, a lawyer, took up amateur theatre when the girls were young, and with an eagerness and dedication that made an impression on his daughters.
“Now I look back as an adult, and I’m like: Dad was a lawyer with three kids, and he still made time to go out on a Thursday night and rehearse tap dancing,” Harriet laughs.
“What was he doing, Mads? I have so many questions all of a sudden.”
They recall their father coming home clean shaven for the first time after he landed a role in a production of South Pacific.
“We didn’t even know he had a chin,” Harriet explains.
“He walked in the door, and we all screamed ‘Get out! Who is this man?’,” Madeleine says with a laugh.
“But the dedication, again, because none of the people going to see the shows would have been able to see it anyway, if it was on or off … and that really stuck with us.”
When it came time for a production of Annie, the young sisters pleaded with their father to join him at the auditions. He told them not to get their hopes up; it was competitive, after all.
Madeleine, 8, landed the title role of Annie and Harriet, 6, was her offsider Molly. There were two girls cast in each role and so the giggling sisters were mostly put on separate shows. But one night they got their first double Dyer on the bill.
“Mum was frothing and booked the entire family tickets for that night,” Harriet says.
Both sisters continued their ambitions in performing arts. Harriet moved to Sydney at 18 when she was accepted into a year-long music theatre course at the prestigious National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA).
Her acting breakthrough came in Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Pygmalion, alongside Cate Blanchett. Then there were roles in the popular series Love Child, No Activity and The Other Guy. It was while filming No Activity that she first met Brammall, co-creator and star of the series.
In 2017 Harriet packed up her life and followed her nose to Los Angeles, using a small loan from her parents to secure her green card. There, she landed roles in The InBetween (2019) and The Invisible Man (2020), alongside Elisabeth Moss.
“It’s pretty hard, Sydney, to break into,” Harriet says of the transition. “I remember I was in class at NIDA, and I called something out and everyone laughed and made fun of my (Queensland) accent, and I was like ‘Oh, shit, turns out I’m much more of a bumpkin than I thought’, and I definitely toned it down.”
That journey fed into the writing of Colin From Accounts, which follows two Sydney singles who are thrown together by a car accident and a loveable injured dog they name Colin. The characters, Ashley and Gordon, are inherently Australian and there’s a unique Queensland sensibility in Harriet’s writing.
“Now that I’m 35 I’m like, ‘These things make you who you are’. I never meant for (Ashley) to be like a Queenslander, but I do think that my sensibility just in being me comes out,” she says.
“I remember before we started rolling on season one, someone at Binge said, ‘I’ve seen your script – you’ve written ‘this arvo’. What if people in America don’t know what that means?’, and I was like, ‘Well, we’re not making this show for people in America’.”
The show became Binge’s first original drama to break out, airing across the US and the UK.
Meanwhile, Madeleine Dyer was following a different path, studying in Toowoomba before moving to Sydney, where she switched from acting to writing and directing.
She began with short films and web series, one of which, the workplace comedy Sexy Herpes (2017), featured Harriet. But Madeleine faced many closed doors as a North Queensland budding filmmaker in Sydney, so Harriet leapt at the chance to offer her sister a foot in the door on a television production.
She signed Madeleine for season one of Colin From Accounts through a director’s attachment scheme to shadow on three episodes, before taking the reins for episode four.
“Mads has been on her journey and I really believe that in this industry you just need
people to back you, you need people to believe in you, you need experience to get experience,” Harriet says.
“I was sitting there doing the scene on Sexy Herpes and … in that moment I was like ‘oh Mads has f--king got this’, because I didn’t know. My sister’s suddenly directing, and
we’ve grown up acting together … and then I sat on her set I was like, ‘Oh, she is amazing, and so it was a no-brainer in terms of getting her involved in Colin’.”
Her sister replies, “Oh, Harri, I love you. It means a lot hearing that and I do remember that chat we had after Sexy Herpes. That was so affirming for me, even at the time, because I was still figuring out if this was a right move for me.
“There’s a huge part in me, just naturally my personality, I don’t know how to put my hand up sometimes unless I know I can do something.
“I felt ready when Harri presented me with this opportunity. Obviously, I know that it’s my sister giving me this leg up, but it doesn’t matter; I’m going to show everyone that I’m meant to be here. I know my worth and I’ve got something to contribute. I’m Harri’s sister – I can’t f--k this.”
Of course, productions don’t film chronologically, and scenes from episode four happened to be scheduled on day one of season one. Madeleine was up.
“She didn’t get a chance to shadow,” a producer nervously told Harriet over the phone. “That’s the schedule man. She’s going to crush it,” Harriet replied confidently.
As Colin From Accounts shot to success – indeed, crushing it – Madeleine hit the ground running. She wrote and directed Binge original film A Savage Christmas (2023) – also inspired by family – earning a nomination for Best Indie Film at the 2023 AACTAs.
She worked on the ABC’s upcoming star-studded comedy series Austin, before rejoining Harriet and Patrick for season two of Colin. She was handed episode six, fittingly all about family, in which the characters visit Gordon’s family in country NSW.
“It’s a double Dyer,” Harriet smiles, memories of their childhood performance in Annie in mind.
“It felt right because Mads is family, and she understands what I mean when I write scenes like that, because we grew up watching these people … we have the same shared experiences of going to a house and the kids are playing and the footy’s on, and it’s loud and people fight.”
Madeleine agrees. “It was such a lovely convergence of our family lives and our childhoods,” she says.
Having developed an entire TV series with her husband, Harriet is used to working with family members, but she admits she was nervous. She received a call from the same concerned producer. “Big ep,” he told her, cautiously.
“I was like, ‘If something goes wrong or I don’t like something, Patty (Brammall), you have to tell Mads’,” Harriet explains.
“Because we have 35 years of sisterhood that I would hate to infiltrate a note. I would hate to be like, ‘Mads, I think this scene needs to be faster’, and for her to be like, ‘Is this because of Year 10?’.”
Of course, it never eventuated. “I’m used to working with family,” Harriet says. “Patty and I aren’t husband and wife on set, not really. We’re collaborators, so then I looked at Madsy and I realised I could say whatever I needed to say.”
In March, Harriet took her daughter to Townsville to visit her family, and was determined to show them the unfinished episode six, beaming about Madeleine’s work.
“It looked and sounded terrible, and I was AirPlaying it off my phone,” Harriet laughs. “And they were so excited. They sat there hooting and hollering through the whole thing; they were so proud. Dad got off his chair to make a G & T. He’s like, ‘She’s done a great job with that’.”
Madeleine smiles. She had FaceTimed with the family when Harriet collected three Logie Awards in 2023 – including for most outstanding actress – and they’d toasted with wine and gin and tonics as she thanked them on stage.
“We’re very lucky to have had the support we’ve had, particularly for me,” Madeleine says.
“Harri’s had some wonderful building blocks that have consistently moved through over the last decade, but the amount of Christmases I’ve come back to and gone … ‘That’ll be my year – don’t worry, guys’.
“But they were so supportive, and they always have been, through our ups and downs.”
Harriet receives countless compliments about Colin From Accounts. “It’s just comfort,” her hairdresser recently gushed to her.
And thinking about the double Dyer on the bill, her comfort grows and the nerves about season two begin to fall away.
“We’ve made a swing and people will see it, they’ll like it, or they’ll hate it, but we’ve been feeling really good because we just want to give people more Colin From Accounts,” Harriet smiles, knowing the Dyer sisters can take over the world.
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