Insider TV: A Place To Call Home to begin filming season four for Foxtel

MARTA Dusseldorp and the cast of Foxtel’s revamped hit series A Place To Call Home will begin filming season four tomorrow. The show’s original creator, Bevan Lee, is once again back at the helm.

Supplied Entertainment EMBARGOED SUN FEB28 TV COLUMN A Place To Call Home star Marta Dusseldorp returns to production fo

MARTA Dusseldorp and the extraordinary ensemble cast of Foxtel’s revamped and runaway hit series A Place To Call Home will begin filming season four tomorrow — with the show’s original creator Bevan Lee once again back at the helm.

The hardest-working woman on Australian television — on air now in ABC detective series Jack Irish, with a second season of her legal thriller Janet King due back next month — compared her anticipation for Home’s return to going “back to school” this week, joining co-stars, including Noni Hazlehurst, Brett Climo and Frankie J Holden on set at a new location near Wilberforce (on the outskirts of northwest Sydney).

A Place To Call Home episodic, season three episode eight, Marta Dusseldorp as Sarah and Ben Winspear as Rene

But it’s her reunion with Lee — who was obligated to work on other projects last season when the drama was unexpectedly saved from the scrap heap by Foxtel’s director of television Brian Walsh — which, Dusseldorp says, thrills her the most.

While the man with the Midas touch (whose credits include crafting All Saints and Packed To The Rafters) plotted season three for script producer Susan Bower and a team of four writers to flesh out, Lee’s enduring passion and vision for the post-WWII story fuelled his decision to take back the reins.

Dusseldorp described Lee’s return as “the cherry on the cake” for both cast and crew, who have revelled in the show’s ratings success (it is Foxtel’s most-watched drama after Game Of Thrones) and international acclaim (named by the Wall St Journal as one of the best TV shows of 2015).

EMBARGOED SUN NOV29 TV COLUMN ONLY A Place To Call Home's Marta Dusseldorp. Picture: Foxtel.

“Everyone enjoyed (season three) but I love him and I love his love of (her character) Sarah … his take, his minutiae is always really beautiful, so I’m excited to be back working to his direct vision. There’s a reason everything he touches turns to gold,” she told TV Insider, “he’s a treasure.”

After fans successfully campaigned for the show to be revived following its initial axing by Channel 7 in 2014, the audience was rewarded last year with edgier plot lines and an invigorated production, now sold around the world, including North America, Israel, Holland and the UK.

Such has been the overwhelming response to the series, producers have extended the season to 12 episodes this year; with leading directors Shirley Barrett (Offspring, Love Child, Winter), Kriv Stenders (Red Dog, The Principal), Catherine Millar (Wentworth, All Saints) and Tony Krawitz (Devil’s Playground, The Kettering Incident) adding their creative firepower.

Macht unveils his soft side to suit the good life Down Under

YOU can’t imagine TV’s sexiest alpha male, Harvey Specter, on US legal drama, Suits, ever showing much of a soft side.

But Gabriel Macht, the actor who plays the Lothario lawyer, left us swooning last week when he took a break from a family holiday to Melbourne and the Sunshine Coast with his Australian actor wife, Jacinda Barrett, and their two children to do press for the Universal channel show ... only to spend most of the time talking about his love for them and her homeland.

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 03: Gabriel Macht (L) and Actress Jacinda Barrett attend the "Bloodline" New York Series Premiere at SVA Theater on March 3, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Pont/FilmMagic)

From Vegemite (“yes, I am a fan”) to downing a schooner of XXXX beer at his in-laws’ local bowlo (“in Bris-Vegas”), the Bronx-born star has done his own crash course, but says he’s committed to using the trip to continue his kids’ education about their maternal heritage: “My daughter (Satine, 4) is constantly working on her Australian accent, but she sounds too British right now. She’s got the ‘noiii’ down. My little boy (Luca, 2) doesn’t have a clue yet what’s in store for him, this is his first time to Australia, but I can’t wait to get him out on the beach.”

Trump may divide Hollywood but earns Giuliana’s vote

EXPECT Presidential hopeful and Republican frontrunner Donald Trump to be the butt of many jokes when those largely left-leaning Hollywood types throw on their working-class diamonds and designer tuxedos to gather for tomorrow’s Academy Awards (12.30pm, Nine).

While Democrat contender Hillary Clinton swept through Tinseltown last week on her latest charm offensive — posting selfies with the cast of political drama, Scandal — Trump can surely count on at least two celebrity votes come election day: from Fashion Police co-host Giuliana Rancic and her Apprentice-winning husband, Bill.

Guiliana Rancic and her husband Bill at the Westfield event at Bar 60 Sydney Tower, Sydney CBD. cocktails to welcome Westfield Style ambassador Guliana Rancic and husband Bill to Sydney. Picture by DAMIAN SHAW

The Live From The Red Carpet (9.30am, E!) anchor told TV Insider she owed Trump her loyalty after he hand-picked her hubby on the 2003 season of his reality series — a decision which changed both their lives.

The real estate broker from Chicago won a fulltime, two-year job with Trump; but more significantly met his wife when the then E! News reporter interviewed him about the show.

During a sit-down with the TV star in Los Angeles last month, the self-deprecating Rancic told me: “I don’t think anyone is looking for a Giuliana Rancic endorsement when it comes to politics, maybe fashion, but I will say this, Donald Trump made my husband’s dreams come true. Donald took my husband under his wing when he won the first Apprentice ... and Bill has always, to this day, been incredibly grateful.”

LAS VEGAS, NV - FEBRUARY 23: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a caucus night watch party at the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino on February 23, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The New York businessman won his third state victory in a row in the "first in the West" caucuses. Ethan Miller/Getty Images/AFP == FOR NEWSPAPERS, INTERNET, TELCOS & TELEVISION USE ONLY ==

She explained: “Bill and I come from a school of ‘you don’t forget where you came from’ and you stay loyal to the people who were instrumental in your life. That’s who we are ... so good for him. But boy, is he making a splash. I can tell you everywhere I go, a lot of people know the connection with my husband, and they come up and you wouldn’t believe the number of people who say, ‘I’m voting for Donald Trump’ and ‘I love Donald Trump’ ... it’s remarkable to see.”

Originally published as Insider TV: A Place To Call Home to begin filming season four for Foxtel