All the tears, but no hugs, as Rosehaven wraps its final season

Celia Pacquola and Luke McGregor tease Rosehaven’s final season will answer all the questions viewers have had from the beginning.

Celia Pacquola’s sad to say goodbye to Rosehaven and all its inhabitants after seven years, but she’s so very grateful they were able to finish things the way they wanted to.
With dragons and explosions, she adds, tongue firmly planted in her cheek.

Luke McGregor quips Covid restrictions prevented them from having the fire-breathing creatures, but Pacquola assures us season five of the show she co-created, wrote and starred in with her best friend McGregor will have plenty of animals – because she loves animals and what’s the point of having your own show if you can’t write in what you want to do at work.

Will they, won’t they? Daniel (Luke McGregor) and Emma (Celia Pacquola) have been best friends throughout the seasons of Rosehaven but will they become more? Picture: Supplied

It will also answer all the questions viewers have had from the beginning. So will Pacquola’s Emma and McGregor’s Daniel end up more than just best friends?

“You’ll have to watch to find out,” Pacquola replies, giving absolutely nothing away.

Strict protocols on set meant the last day of filming was even sadder than she anticipated.

“How’s this? Are you ready for me to break your heart?,” Pacquola says.

“There was no hugging. And everyone’s a hugger on the last day of season five of a show that you’ve made for seven years. Luke and I were in a bubble so we hugged each other a lot and then pointed to the others and said ‘See what we are doing?, that to you too’.

“But the sads didn’t sneak up on us. Every couple of days we were saying goodbye to someone having their last scenes. I was saying to Luke it was like being on a boat that you were giving pieces of wood away and in the end it was just Luke and I hugging on a raft at the end.”

Celia Pacquola and Luke McGregor in one last stand for Rosehaven. Picture: Supplied

Filmed over seven weeks, season five of Rosehaven continues the story of friends and unlikely real estate agents, Daniel and Emma and showcases Tasmania’s natural beauty with locations including Richmond, Geeveston, New Norfolk, Seven Mile Beach, Lauderdale, Ridgeway, and Longley as well as the Huon Valley’s Brightside Farm Sanctuary.

Over its four seasons to date, Rosehaven has won multiple awards including Logies and AACTAs.

Last year it was the No.1 comedy show across all ABC so understandably there’s a lot of pressure to wrap the beloved series in a satisfying manner.

“I am notoriously the harshest on myself and the show,” Pacquola says.

“But I am so proud of the last episode and the season. I think it’s the best of all of them. And it’s a final that we worked really hard on making it satisfying. I don’t know if people will like it. I do.”

McGregor’s most intrigued to see if viewers will love the post credits scene.

“We ummed and ahhhed for ages – but there’s just a little bit of a dumb conversation between Daniel and Emma – we really didn’t know what joke to go out on,” he says with a laugh.

Luke McGregor, Katie Robertson and Celia Pacquola in the fifth and final season of ABC's Rosehaven. Picture: Supplied

They’re going to miss spending two months of their year and their fabulous crew and cast which includes Katie Robertson – (“that’s why we had to go to a fifth season, she wasn’t available for the fourth,” Pacquola shares) and Kris McQuade.

“One thing I’m not willing to say goodbye to just yet though is having Kris as a mum – so Kris if you’re reading this, just a heads up that I’m gonna call you every mother’s day until you tell me to stop because it’s weird,” McGregor shares.

The pair – who became firm friends on the set of Utopia – has plans to continue working together. While there’s nothing set in concrete, they may delve into their mutual fascination for sci-fi.

They confess they did worry that their friendship would be tested in the pressure cooker that is television, McGregor shares, however, they made contingencies early on to defuse any tension if things became heated.

“We had talks early on about what we’d do if we couldn’t reach a decision on a story idea – (and we decided) we’d have script editors or other people break the tie,” he says.

“We even made a video at one point to say watch this if we ever really got mad at each other.

“But look sometimes it had to get heated because there was no right answer and we’d be OK to argue and know that it’s not personal.”

Celia Pacquola as Emma in the fifth and final season of ABC's Rosehaven.

Luke McGregor as Daniel in ABC's Rosehaven.

Both McGregor and Pacquola were in Melbourne’s fifth lockdown when we chat.

They were coping fine – although McGregor – who lists largely indoor activities as his hobbies – jokes he misses going out and even misses being in a crowd right now.

So he feels he’s been changed by the latest stay-at-home orders.

They have their fingers crossed that they can at least watch the final episode of their creation sitting next to each other, after not being able to watch a single one of the last series.

And they’re truly thankful people embraced Rosehaven and its small-town, quirky characters.

“We didn’t envisage even getting one series so we were glad to get two,” Pacquola says.

“It’s hard to get even one comedy series in this country, so when it was well received and we were able to have another shot at it – that was the biggest thrill.”

Rosehaven, Wednesday, 9pm, ABC