New TV shows and faces to watch in 2021 in Australia

Now that the sh*tshow that was 2020 is over, look out for these new faces and bold new shows coming to your TV screen.

With the sh*tshow that was 2020 finally behind us, there’s plenty of new shows and new talent to look out for this year:

AFTERTASTE, ABC

IT’S her first role on television and musical theatre star Natalie Abbott is on fire.

Selected from more than 500 people for the role as pastry chef Diana West in ABC comedy Aftertaste, she shines as bright as she did on the stage in Muriel’s Wedding the Musical.

Co-star Erik Thomson agrees, telling The BINGE Guide: “She is brilliant – it’s like she’s been doing it all her life. It’s sometimes hard to find that jewel, but we certainly found that with Natalie. Audiences are going to love her.”

He’s not wrong, just sitting chatting with the 24-year-old on the Adelaide Hills set of the six-part series to hit our screens early next month, and you want to be her best friend.

She’s contemplative, relaxed, funny, refreshingly wide-eyed and just oh-so grateful for her debut role.

“I literally can’t believe it – I was really pinching myself, well I pretty much still am every single day,” Abbott says.

Double act … Natalie Abbott and Erik Thomson star in new ABC dramedy, Aftertaste. Picture: Supplied/ABC

Diana is the niece of Thomson’s volatile celebrity chef Easton West.

She’s a confident, body-positive, creative young woman who owns every room she enters.

Oh, and a word of warning: she has “quite a mouth on her,” Abbott laughs.

“She uses all of the swear words … well as many as we can use on the ABC.”

It seems “the swears” come naturally to Abbott too, she confesses, adding: “My mum would be very embarrassed but yes, I do it in day-to-day life.”

The cast also includes Rachel Griffiths, Remy Hii, Wayne Blair and Susan Prior so Abbott was understandably starstruck.

“It was really daunting. I was like, ‘I’m a fan of these people and then I have to work with them and I don’t know how I’m going to be able to do that’,” Abbott says with a giggle.

“I was Skyping with [writer] Julie [De Fina] and she said, ‘you deserve to be there, so you act like you deserve to be there. That’s what Diana would do.’

“One of my favourite things someone told me is ‘you never want to be the most talented person in the room because you won’t learn.’ I really love being around these people and picking up all the different things.” – Lisa Woolford

IVAN MILAT: BURIED SECRETS, Seven

WHEN Australia’s most notorious serial killers, Ivan Milat died last year, many of his deadly secrets went with him. But using advanced surveillance technology and police intelligence, this chilling new documentary will explore whether Milat was responsible for even more gruesome murders in and around his killing fields in the NSW Belangalo State Forest. – Holly Byrnes

Ivan Milat. Picture: Supplied.

REAL HOUSEWIVES OF MELBOURNE, Foxtel

ONLY a global pandemic could have curbed the over-enthusiasm of our favourite housewives, who were due to return to champagne-fuelled catfights last year. Instead, Gina Liano and co were forced into Melbourne’s strict lockdown and will be champing at the bit to get back out on the town for their latest moment to ‘shine, shine, shine.’ – HB

Real Housewives of Melbourne star Gina Liano. Photographer: Liam Kidston.

THE END, Foxtel

AS the title suggests, this dramedy explores the issues around end of life care, euthanasia and suicide in what reads on paper like a grim series, but is actually acutely-observed and hilarious in parts. A touching script by Sam Strauss, and an unbeatable cast including Frances O’Connor, Noni Hazlehurst, Roy Billing, Luke Arnold, Brooke Satchwell and the esteemed Dame Harriet Walter. – HB

Harriet Walter as Edie and Frances O'Connor as Kate in The End. Picture: Foxtel

OLD PEOPLE’S HOME FOR 4 YEAR OLDS, ABC

ONE of the most heartwarming TV experiments returns, with a twist, this year. While the first season saw kindy kids make regular visits to a retirement village – where they joined the older residents in educational and physical activities – season 2 will turn the tables, with pensioners reporting at a purpose-built day care centre. – HB

A new season of The Old People's Home For Four Year Olds will return to the ABC in 2021. Picture: Nigel Wright/ABC .

HOLEY MOLEY, Seven

AFTER the year we’ve all endured, what we need is a heavy dose of silly and this mini-golf reality series will deliver on the laughs in spades (or five irons). And surprisingly, the man in the hot seat, working over our funny bones, will be Aussie sports legend Greg Norman, who takes the mickey out of himself and gives Roy & HG a run for their comedy dollar. – HB

Fun and games … Greg Norman shows off his sense of humour in new Seven reality show, Holey Moley. Picture: Instagram

HOME AND AWAY, Seven

SUMMER Bay has long been a nursery for some of Australia’s best new talent and this year will be no different. Joining Seven’s longest-running drama, UK-born, Nigerian-raised Anna Samson found her way to Sydney in her early teens, before moving to Melbourne to study at the Victorian College of the Arts. Her previous credits include 10 drama, Wake In Fright and HBO drama, The Leftovers. She will play Mia Anderson, a gusty, gorgeous and strong-willed mother of one. Her daughter, Chloe is brought to life by Sam Barrett, a WAAPA graduate whose appeared semi-regularly in ABC soap, The Heights. The two arrive in the Bay and come face-to-face with their past in the shape of Ari Parata, who previously dated Mia and lost a baby boy together. Ari’s grief manifested itself self-destructive behaviour, which landed him a 10-year prison sentence. In the fallout, Mia moved her daughter away from the only father she’d ever known. Can they heal old wounds and be a family again?

Family time … Anna Samson and Sam Barrett join Seven drama series, Home And Away. Picture: Supplied/Seven