Rebecca Gibney on the run in rural Queensland in new TV drama series Wanted

PREPARE to see actor Rebecca Gibney as you’ve never seen her before ...

PREPARE to see Rebecca Gibney as you’ve never seen her before.

In Channel 7’s latest series, the Aussie actor is as far away from her Gold Logie-winning role of Julie Rafter as you could imagine.

Gibney and husband Richard Bell co-created the drama Wanted, in which she stars as the tough and uncompromising Lola forced on the run from police with a young female stranger named Chelsea (Geraldine Hakewill).

“The idea just came to me one day. Two women at a bus stop, complete strangers, and what would happen to them if a catastrophic event forced them together and on the run,” Gibney said.

“Initially they don’t like each other, they have nothing in common, but then they start to find out about each other. They realise they’re both lonely and isolated, and perhaps ultimately they only have each other.”

Gibney said she deliberately wanted to play a character that was far different from her most famous roles.

“Lola is a little bit more rough around the edges than some of the characters I’ve played before, but I did that on purpose,” she said.

“It was actually (Channel 7 head of drama) Julie McGauran who said ‘it’d be nice to see you play someone with a bit more edge’.”

Rebecca Gibney stars in Wanted which goes to air on Channel 7 on February 9. Picture: Jack Tran

In television terms, the series was off the ground and shooting incredibly quickly.

Gibney said after production company Matchbox Pictures ran with the idea for Wanted, they were pitching to Channel 7 within two weeks.

“Then in May last year Seven said they wanted it on the air by February, and at that stage we hadn’t even written a script,” she said.

“That’s when our wonderful head writer Tim Hobart was so valuable.

“He went away and wrote the first 20 pages in 24 hours and said ‘is this what you’re thinking?’ and I said ‘yes, yes, yes!’.”

“It’s been a wonderful way to not only see Queensland, but meet the people of Queensland.”

Gibney and her team assembled a stellar cast — including Stephen Peacocke, Ryan Corr and Nicholas Bell — and headed to small towns across Queensland to shoot the series. “We’ve been so lucky — we’ve taken over tiny towns, everyone’s been so welcoming.”

Wanted will go to air on February 9.