‘We did it right’: Anna Torv and Sam Reid on The Newsreader’s final season

Clenched. It’s a word Sam Reid read over and over again in the script as he filmed the third and final season of The Newsreader. As Dale Jennings, the star newsreader of News at Six, you can see his jaw tighten, his smile strain. Everything about him screams effort. It’s a look his boss Lindsay Cunningham (William McInnes, top form) refers to as “pinched sphincter”.

“He’s achieved all of his quote, unquote dreams, and he’s grappling with the fact that they’re not turning out to be all the things that he thought he wanted,” says Reid. “And he’s just trying to work out what he wants and find his place in the world.

“And he’s got a new sense of power, which he’s never really had before. So he’s trying to work out how to operate within this seat of power. And, I suppose, all power eventually corrupts people, and Dale, unfortunately, is susceptible to that.”

Daniel Henshall as Bill McFarlane and Anna Torv as Helen Norville in season three of The Newsreader.  

Meanwhile, Anna Torv’s character Helen Norville is standing in a field in the middle of the night. Behind her is the wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103. “We are on the outskirts of the small Scottish town of Lockerbie, where there has been a catastrophic disaster,” she says, holding a microphone and facing the camera.

It’s a tantalising glimpse of what lies ahead in The Newsreader, the critically acclaimed drama created by Michael Lucas and directed by Emma Freeman, which manages to beautifully balance a wild and nostalgic trip through the defining news events of the 1980s with the emotionally difficult relationship between its two leads.

Since its premiere in 2021, The Newsreader has become one of the ABC’s most watched shows, winning best drama at the AACTA awards in 2021 and 2024, as well as best actress for Torv and best direction for Freeman, and Logie wins for most outstanding drama and actor for Torv. It’s been a hit in the UK and the US, with Variety naming it one of the best international shows of 2021.

So why end it now? I’m certainly not ready to let Helen and Dale go (cue heaving sobs in most episodes).

“We had lots of chats about what is the most satisfying place to have these people go,” says Torv, who had only a weekend’s break between filming outback drama Territory and season three of The Newsreader.

“And [the end], I think it’s unexpected as well, except that it’s not when you look back, but we did it right. She’s been my favourite character, honestly, to play. I have loved her.

Dale Jennings (Sam Reid) is riding high as News at Six’s golden boy in The Newsreader.

“But it has to end, and she will go on and have another life. What else do you do? You want that satisfying arc. You don’t want to have to come back and continue to repeat the same things, which you have to do when you do long storytelling, or lots and lots of seasons. There’s got to be ebbs and flows.

“Whereas I feel like this has been so succinct. The seasons build upon each other and it’s like a novel, like you have to end it and let it sit in you, or sit with you.”

For Reid, ending the show was the right move for Dale.

“We all felt very strongly that season two was not the right place to leave these characters on,” says Reid. “So it was always about trying to find the right note to leave them on because we spend a lot of time with them, and you care a lot about them. I feel really happy about the place that we got both Helen and Dale.

“It’s a really beautiful finale for them, and I feel really good about the way we finished it. Dale definitely goes through a journey – ‘Who is Dale Jennings?’ and ‘Do I want to be Dale Jennings any more?’ He’s forced to do some deep personal examination.”

Season three picks up in 1989 (with a brief step back to 1988 to cover Lockerbie), where Dale is still the golden boy of prime-time. Helen, meanwhile, has become the first woman to host a prime-time news show after a stellar run as an overseas correspondent for a new network.

Professionally, they are on a high. Personally? It’s complicated.

Kay Walters (Philippa Northeast) brings more complications into Dale Jennings’ life in The Newsreader.

“That first scene in season three between the two of them – it was actually one of the first scenes that we shot – it was a really beautiful and lovely place to start,” says Torv. “But it was just that moment where she laughs [while talking about relationships] and she’s like, ‘God, there was a couple of disasters along the way’.

“And she says, ‘You were my only non-disaster, and we were pretty f---ed’ and she laughs and Dale’s face is just so f---ing beautiful and vulnerable and open and honest. And he says, ‘I don’t think that.’ I just love them. They’re such a gorgeous couple. They love each other and they get each other and they have to be in each other’s lives.”

Dale, though, finds himself tangled up with the Walters family.

“Kay Walters [played by Philippa Northeast] is a very different person to Helen,” says Reid. “I think it’s more indicative of where he is in his life. And Kay is from an established, new dynasty family, and he’s ingratiating himself in that.

“But as he does that, he’s stepping into the world of Evelyn Walters [Marg Downey, iconic] and all of the chaos that that person creates as well. So it’s another form of toxic environment. It’s not the safe place that Helen was and Evelyn is probably the last person who he should be getting in contact with.”

Helen, meanwhile, finds that life back in the office – after stints in Washington and London as a foreign correspondent – isn’t easy.

“At the end of season two, she heads off overseas – and I don’t think it was easy for her little bit – but she collects herself and gets herself together and starts working with a great new producer [Bill, played by Daniel Henshall], and comes back to Australia because she’s been offered a show,” says Torv.

“So she’s good, she’s really good, but it doesn’t take too long before she’s facing familiar problems. She’s being undermined by male management and not listened to by those she’s working with … and it’s like, of course [she thinks], this is just the same old shit, how am I going to make this better?”

Chum Ehelepola (left) as Dennis Tibb and William McInnes as Lindsay Cunningham in The Newsreader. 

This season also features Australian television’s night of nights: the Logie Awards in all its glitzy, slightly faded ’80s glory. The Newsreader effortlessly merges the old footage – Bert Newton hosting! Norman Gunston on the red carpet! Bryan Brown! – with the cast. For Reid, this was a particular thrill – it’s not every day you get nominated for a Gold Logie against Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan and Daryl Somers.

“It was great,” he says, laughing. “We had all the stock footage, particularly of that year [1989], of the late ’80s Logies Awards, which are an absolute riot to watch. They actually made me very nostalgic for that time – not that I remember them – because they were actually really fun, entertaining nights of television, watching people get progressively more drunk, live.”

With the show now finished, did Reid or Torv keep any of the wonderful ’80s props?

“I’ve got Dale’s computer, an original 1980s Apple Computer … and I’ve got Dale’s television, which they gave me for my birthday, a 1989 TV, which is gigantic, and I actually have his original Air Jordans.”

And Torv?

“As a goodbye present they gave me this framed picture of Dale … which is so unattractive and brilliant,” says Torv, laughing. “And then a really, really horrendous ’80s pink painting that was in Helen’s house that just makes me laugh.”

The Newsreader returns on Sunday, February 2, at 8.30pm on the ABC.

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