Tim Minchin says he never wanted to make another season of Upright

A “more bonkers” second season of his award-winning Foxtel comedy series Upright was never on Tim Minchin’s agenda.

A “more bonkers” second season of his award-winning Foxtel comedy series Upright was never on Tim Minchin’s agenda.

However, the multi-talented creative who is co-writer and executive producer, found there were still questions he’d like to answer for his character, Lucky.

“I quite explicitly didn’t want to do another series,” Minchin, 47, told Confidential at the Enmore Theatre in Newtown, ahead of the season two premiere on Tuesday night.

“I was resistant because I like moving on, and because the story ties itself up in a lovely little bow.”

That story had a simple premise: Imagine if a guy was trying to get across Australia with a piano, and a tough-talking teen runaway for a companion. Minchin calls it “lightning in a bottle”.

Pictured at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney: Jessica McNamee and Tim Minchin for the premiere of Season 2 of the Foxtel show, Upright. Picture: Richard Dobson

“I’ve spent the last 10 years trying not to be pigeonholed as a comedian, so I said ‘let’s do this and make it funny, but let’s also make people cry and make it real’.”

“It’s f..king good. I still get messages from 60-year-old truck drivers saying ‘I watched this thing, and it’s so beautiful’. I get messages from all different types of people, because it’s about family and loss, making mistakes, and atoning for them. I’m very proud of it.”

Season two finds our antiheroes four years later, when Lucky (Tim Minchin) and Meg (Milly Alcock) reunite on a mission to find Meg’s mum, who has joined a hippy cult in Far North Queensland.

The characters, Minchin says, owe each other a great deal.

Milly Alcock. Picture: John Tsiavis/Foxtel

“People do owe each other,” he said. “I see a lot of s … on Facebook, people saying if someone’s a drain on you, or doesn’t believe in you, cut them out of your life. Sure. But if you have the capacity to help people … I have people in my life who are a drain, but they need me, for f..k’s sake, and I have the resources … sometimes you’ve got to think about what other people need a bit.”

Co-star Alcock, who scored a big break in Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, is “a tough act to follow”, he said.

“But I want people to see her in this. This is much more challenging. You want to see her working hard, and have a full range of human emotions? Watch good Aussie drama. It’s not all about dragons.”

Upright season 2 premieres at 8.30pm on November 15 on Foxtel and Foxtel On Demand.