‘He needs to have the worst thing happen’: The Newsreader’s ending explained

Michael Lucas, creator of the ABC’s hit drama The Newsreader, which has just finished its award-winning three-season run on the ABC, speaks with TV Editor Louise Rugendyke about the series.

Michael, when I interviewed you for season two in 2023, I predicted Dale Jennings (Sam Reid) would end up in Berlin. I was right! Did I give you the idea?
Sam Reid and I were talking about that at the end of shooting season one! I’m sorry [laughing], but you can take credit for being something of a Nostradamus. It [the fall of the Berlin Wall] is the last big event of the ’80s. I remember we were talking about a kind of environment that’d be good to leave Dale in, and I was sending Sam all these pictures of East Berlin, and we both felt like that would just convey freedom and new beginnings.

Damn. Where did you find the Berlin Wall in Melbourne?
There is an amazing wall of graffiti that’s on the side of West Richmond train station. But then our magnificent digital team sort of added in the rest. It sounded ridiculous to say we were looking for East Berlin in Melbourne, but we found it.

Why did you want to end the show after three seasons?
It was driven by Helen (Anna Torv) and Dale. The whole newsroom setting could go indefinitely, but in terms of Helen and Dale, early on, we saw it as three acts. She wanted to be in control and have some sort of respect and agency, and he wanted to be famous and loved. So it definitely felt to us like you’d watch two seasons of them getting to that position, and then the third and final season would be how they cope with it and what it does to them. And, obviously, she ended up thriving, and [fame] was not a good choice for him, he fell apart. So once we’d written those stories out and delivered them to the endpoint, our instinct was, “That’s a complete story.” And what we wouldn’t want to do is then just bring them back and engineer lesser dramas.

There’s a great scene in the final episode of season three where Helen is sitting at the head of the boardroom table, surrounded by all these men, and she’s in charge. It sums up her arc so perfectly.
So much credit to, firstly, [director] Emma Freeman, who really wanted to see that table of men. In the first draft of the script, there were just four or five men, and she was like, “No, I’m sitting [Helen] on a full board table.” But also to Anna, because we had always thought Helen’s reached the point where she knows she holds power, and she can find calm, even in the storm. Anna suggested we go all the way and that she just say one word, which was “No”. And that was such a brilliant suggestion.

One of my favourite things about Helen is she is such a ferocious driver. I’m glad you noticed that because [it’s one of my favourite things] too. Really early on, we discovered that. There was a scene at the start of season two on election night when Anna had to frantically drive to Parliament House – and no one changes gears like Anna Torv. She makes strong decisions as a driver, and she’s got absolute pinpoint precision. I’m very happy to showcase it on screen [laughing].

The original News at Six newsreaders, Helen Norville (Anna Torv) and Geoff Walters (Robert Taylor), in The Newsreader.

I’ve been turning this one over: The show is called The Newsreader, but there are three newsreaders – Helen, Dale and Geoff Walters (Robert Taylor). Who is the newsreader the show title refers to?
I looked at it as it’s the position of the newsreader and what that means to people. So, for Dale, he thinks, “If I am the newsreader, everyone will love me and respect me. I’ll be complete for once in my life.” And for Helen, the newsreader is a role she feels conflicted about, but it’s a bit of a means to an end, and then she wants to do good journalism. But, ultimately, it was a false goal for Dale, and it almost destroyed him. Whereas Helen grew into it … she was able to stop trying to be the perfect person and admit her struggles. So she emerges as the one that’s reconciled her relationship with being a newsreader and an on-camera person, so she takes the title.

Behind the scenes on The Newsreader: (from left) producer Joanna Werner, star Anna Torv, creator Michael Lucas and director Emma Freeman.

Where did the idea come from in the final episode, where Dale has a complete breakdown at the news desk? It’s extraordinary.
The initial idea for it came from when Mike Willesee once went on air, sort of drunk [in 1989 when Willesee was the fill-in host for A Current Affair]. I read his autobiography, and he was actually trying to detox, but it went wrong, and then he started spinning out. So the initial conception was closer to that, but then Sam – this is what’s so great about him – he was so ambitious for the character and for the actor that he was like, “Yes, alcoholism is a part of this, but can we take Dale to a full breakdown? He’s been putting on this fake mask for so long, and he’s going to crack at one point.” That [performance] is the first take.

Anna Torv and Sam Reid in the final episode of The Newsreader, in which no goldfish were harmed.

Dale’s breakdown was so difficult to watch, but in a good way.
It was incredible, and it was terrifying. For me, it worked as a bit of a metaphor, especially if you’re queer. You spend so much time imagining if people find out, it’s the worst thing that could happen. But then when it happens, you realise, oh, well, I’m still breathing, and I’m still here, and there are people that care about me. So with Dale, I thought he needs to have the worst thing happen, but Helen is there for him. The way the whole series starts is that she has a breakdown, and he scoops her up, saves her and brings her to the house. And I always felt like in the ending, it should be him that falls apart, and the only person who is there for him by that stage is her. She saves him and then sort of gives him this pathway forward.

What about those poor goldfish that Dale vomited on? Tell me they’re OK!
Emma Freeman and the first AD [assistant director] Todd Embling went to the catering truck and got carrots and carved goldfish shapes, so they’re what Sam is vomiting on. And I always feel like you’re very lucky if you’re working with a director who is that willing to be hands-on and make a scene work.

William McInnes as the blustering boss Lindsay Cunningham in The Newsreader.

The final episode is where news boss Lindsay Cunningham (William McInnes) finally gets some sort of punishment. Were you ever tempted to just kill him off?
We discussed the potential of him just dropping dead. There was a discussion about should he even get a comeuppance because, in reality, these guys steamed on for decades after that. It was actually my research contact, who worked in the industry at the time, who said the one thing that could really get someone booted is if he offended another man. And then he quickly added, “Oh, I’d love it if some of the women could execute that.”

Once that idea was on the table, we knew we had to get Marg Downey in there, and the beautiful Caroline Lee, who played Jean the secretary. That idea for us was more exciting than a heart attack, the notion that these women he’s dismissed so much, very elegantly and cleverly, could do something so simple that just ruins it.

From the beginning of season one to the end of season three, Helen and Dale (Anna Torv and Sam Reid) were there to catch one another.

If you could write a postscript for Helen and Dale, where would you like them to end up?
Helen would suit being one of those 60 Minutes reporters of the ’90s that flew to various parts of the world. She’s definitely not going to get married, and she’s not going to have children. I want Dale to end up in Europe and have a place in London. He could be a decent journalist if he got that obsession with being famous out of his system. And when Helen gets flown over to do anything, even if her network will put her up in a fancy hotel, she just goes and stays with him. And she puts on his T-shirts – as they’ve been doing the whole series – and they hang together and there’s still these two workaholics that love chatting to each other.

The Newsreader is on ABC iview.

Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.