‘We need to be telling ... stories that truly represent who we are’: Leah Purcell to star in new Foxtel drama, High Country

An upcoming TV series led by one of Australia’s most respected First Nations actors and shot in Australia’s rugged high-country has been unveiled.

A new large-scale drama series led by one of Australia’s most revered First Nations actors and shot in Australia’s rugged high-country has been unveiled.

Mystery thriller High Country will star award-winning actor Leah Purcell – who also serves as an executive producer – with filming to take place in the Victorian town of Jamieson, northeast of Melbourne, the Foxtel Group has announced.

Former Wentworth star Purcell will portray detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford, who is transferred to a fictional small town where she is thrust into the cases of five missing persons who have vanished into the wilderness.

Through an edge-of-the-seat investigation, Purcell’s character “uncovers a complex web involving murder, deceit and revenge”, the production revealed.

Sara Wiseman, Leah Purcell and Aaron Pedersen will star in High Country – a new drama from the Foxtel Group, set to premiere in 2024. Picture: FOXTEL/Narelle Portanier

The 8-part series – to air across Foxtel and Binge in early 2024 – will also star Indigenous actor Aaron Pedersen (Mystery Road), as well as New Zealand’s Sara Wiseman, of A Place to Call Home fame, and Irish-born Game of Thrones star Ian McElhinney.

Purcell said the setting of High Country would have a particular significance that is a “character itself”.

“[The landscape] is a protagonist … how we are utilising and understanding [the] country is coming through in the stories and the scripts,” Purcell said.

“In one storyline, you see it as the enemy, and in another it is … a mother. It has a big part to play. What I experienced on [critically-acclaimed film] The Drover’s Wife, you point a camera in any direction and it [the Australian landscape] is glorious. Those big, open skies and the mountain ranges.”

Sydney-based Purcell, who won the AACTA Award for Best Actress last year for her film The Drover’s Wife, said the series will also explore Indigenous themes.

“This is our Australian culture, whether we’re black or white, or any colour in between,” Purcell said.

“This is ours to share … and be a part of. And if we can bring it to commercial TV and reach a wide audience nationally and internationally, it’s a beautiful thing.”

‘I am happy to take that on.’ Award-winning actor and director Leah Purcell, pictured at the 2022 AACTA Awards, on telling Indigenous stories. Picture: Richard Dobson

“That’s what I love about being able to play Indigenous roles, [to] bring my storytelling, and capitalising on mob. We want our stories told.

“There’s a lot of responsibility of course, when you bring Indigenous stories to screen. And I am happy to take that on.

“We need to be telling all sorts of stories that truly represent who we are. It’s when we share those stories that we can bring about understanding and all move forward as a nation.”

The cast is currently in pre-production, with filming on High Country due to start in Melbourne next week, before moving to Jamieson and its surrounds. “When it happens, it happens fast, and it’s just bang, bang, bang,” Purcell said, of the start of filming.

High Country was commissioned by the late Foxtel Group executive director Brian Walsh, who died suddenly last month.

“[Walsh] was there from the very beginning,” Purcell said.

“He was just a champion for the actors. He is dearly missed now, with his input and his point of view on things. He had a voice and you knew he was coming from a genuine and a heartfelt place. Before he passed, he had said, ‘if you need anything, Leah, you call me, I’ve got your back.’”

Foxtel Group chief content and commercial officer Amanda Laing described High Country as an “original Australian story inspired by the cultures, identities and landscapes of the Victorian Alps – a setting rarely seen on screen”.

Victorian Minister for Creative Industries Steve Dimopoulos said High Country will create around 250 jobs and $15 million for the state’s economy.

The Foxtel Group has partnered with Screen Australia, VicScreen, and Curio Pictures on the production.

Originally published as ‘We need to be telling ... stories that truly represent who we are’: Leah Purcell to star in new Foxtel drama, High Country