Nicki Wendt: Why I wanted to play Catherine Dugdale in The Ex-PM with Shaun Micallef

NICKI Wendt is pleased with her strike rate as the riotous former first lady on ABC’s The Ex-PM and admits it’s the most fun she has had on TV.

PLAYING the self-absorbed, riotously wrong Catherine Dugdale — wife to Shaun Micallef’s Ex-PM — in the six-part sitcom of the same name has seen Nicki Wendt tick a couple of items off her acting bucket list.

In almost three decades in the industry — playing television and film drama roles, comedy characters, and treading the boards in theatre as both an actor and director, Wendt had never worked with Micallef.

So when the role of Catherine — a woman whose appetite for complaining about her husband is as voracious as her appetite for tennis and extra marital flings came up under her radar, Wendt was determined to win it, and make her mark.

And make her mark she did — from the very first episode in which she was captured having a liaison with someone not her husband on a billiard table. Wendt is adamant it’s the most fun she’s had on television.

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Catherine has quite a voracious appetite for men who aren’t her husband. And she’s totally unapologetic. She must liberating to play?

“She is … well, put it this way, I don’t think I’ve ever been introduced to an audience while being … you know ... rammed against a billiard table. But there you go. That was the first scene we shot too, so everyone’s a little bit nervous, nobody really knows each other and there’s me lying across a … yes, well, let’s just say it was a baptism of fire for all of us on set.”

Laugh a minute: Shaun Micallef. Picture: Supplied

Loving her role: Nicki Wendt. Picture: Julie Kiriacoudis

You waited a long time to work with Shaun ... what’s the verdict?

“I adore him. He is so clever, devoted, passionate and funny. It’s absolutely the most fun I’ve had on television. It’s sort of a bucket list job for me because I have always wanted to do a kind of post-2000 situation comedy — which is what this is — but it’s basically a classy version.”

Did you have a clear picture of Catherine the character going in to audition?

“Rather than playing Catherine as someone appalling, which she sort of is, I decided to make her someone who, even though she seems to be constantly in a slightly bad mood and complaining, actually quite likes her life.

Like “I’m not leaving my husband because I’ve actually got it OK. It’s hideous, but my life in this house is good ... I do what I want”. She’s not so much disgruntled as unapologetic, and she doesn’t ask the audience to like her. She lives her life the way she wants to live it and she’s happy to pass judgment on other people, but never sees herself doing anything wrong. We all know people like that, don’t we?”

Had a strong debut ... Shaun Micallef as the former PM, Andrew Dugdale. Picture: Supplied

The show is set in the world of politics — but isn’t about politics. Are you a political animal?

“Absolutely not, but politics is hunting me down this year. I’m currently rehearsing a theatre show in which I play the Minister for Defence. I’m a bit sad because we actually have a real female Minister for Defence. And I wanted to be the first one.”

After that risqué first episode entrance, does Catherine get wilder?

“It may or may not be true that she beds someone who maybe has a heart attack. Basically there are six episodes and Catherine has assignations with at least three people who are not her husband — so she’s got a 50 per cent strike rate, which is not bad.”

Memoir needed ... Dugdale (Shaun Micallef) with ghost writer Ellen (Lucy Honigman). Picture: Supplied

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Originally published as Nicki Wendt: Why I wanted to play Catherine Dugdale in The Ex-PM with Shaun Micallef