Family friction is at the heart of Seven's new home-grown series, writes Michael Idato.

THE STORY of two soon-to-be empty-nesters whose quiet paradise is lost when their adult children return home is a tale of our times, says Jo Porter, series producer of Seven's new drama Packed to the Rafters.

"When we started talking about this series there was an immediate recognition with people, a kind of 'this is happening to me'," Porter says. "Kids are coming home. The cost of living, the cost of real estate in major cities is so crazy that for kids to get that step up in life, they are going back home to parents to breathe and get a bit of financial relief."

Every home is a haven of hopes and dreams, secrets and stories, says Julie Rafter (Rebecca Gibney) in the show's opening narration. Her husband Dave (Erik Thomson) is an electrician who has chucked in his job rather than face the humiliation of being demoted, and a succession of problems put son Nathan (Angus McLaren) and his wife Sam (Jessica McNamee), daughter Rachel (Jessica Marais) and Julie's dad, Ted (Michael Caton) on their doorstep.

The only Rafter not under their roof is son Ben (Hugh Sheridan), who has moved next door with best friend Nick "Carbo" Karandonis (George Houvardas) and a lodger, Melissa Bannon (Zoe Ventoura).

Porter concedes there are particular challenges with a family-based drama, not least that unlike its cousins in the police and medical genres, it doesn't come with a ready template. Packed to the Rafters sits in a more nebulous space, using character-based conflict in place of crimes and misdemeanours.

"When you start anything like this, you sit down and ask, 'What is the engine of a series?'. If it's a police or medical drama it's the crime or the disease of the week which is the engine, but as anyone who is in a family knows, the family is a pretty powerful engine in itself in terms of dramatic opportunities," says Porter.

Curiously, outside-the-square drama is something Seven has a history of doing well, the best recent example being the critically acclaimed Always Greener. "That style of drama is something I think we all love, perhaps not consciously, but it does reflect our collective view of the world," Porter says. "In the case of Packed to the Rafters, this is very affirming in its view of families. They're not perfect but there is this good, solid core."

The series has had a long gestation. The concept was conceived by Seven's executive producer of drama Bevan Lee, together with Anthony Ellis. . In March last year, Porter, whose credentials include Seven's long-running All Saints and Always Greener, was brought on board to produce. In five months scripts were developed, auditions held and a pilot filmed in August.

"Bevan wanted to make a show about empty-nesters and the idea of the kids coming back home to live," says Porter. "We went back in and looked at the document, did quite a bit more work on that and thought a lot more about the characters, who these people were and where to take them."

Porter says the producers - herself, Lee and Seven's head of drama John Holmes - spent almost two months looking at potential actors. They agreed from the outset that parents Julie and Dave, for obvious reasons, were pivotal to structuring the family. "We threw a lot of names around, seeing who were potential starters," says Porter.

Gibney, one of Australia's most recognised television actors, "came to mind quite quickly", says Porter. Her credits include The Flying Doctors, Halifax f.p. and, more recently, Tripping Over and the US remake of Stephen King's Salem's Lot.

Thomson also comes with an impressive pedigree, including Seven's All Saints and The Alice.

"We did a lot of different workshops with different contenders for the roles of the kids," Porter says, adding that two of the actors, Jessica Marais and Hugh Sheridan, were plucked out of their final year at the National Institute of Dramatic Art. "You can test people individually but it's only once you get them in the room and see the various permutations that you see how that chemistry works, or does not work," Porter says.

Australian networks have historically shied away from filming drama pilots, citing them as too expensive. Typically a telemovie doubles as a pilot, or, in the case of a show such as City Homicide, elements of the pilot are reshot to allow it to be used as an episode of the series.

The process of piloting, says Porter, allows producers to set out the elements "and see how they are working - the casting, the chemistry, or not, between them all, the physical locations, costumes, the sets and the story". City Homicide, for example, had several key roles re-cast between pilot and series. Even in the US, where piloting is common (and in significantly greater volume) they are often tweaked. Most recently, the US adaptation of the British drama Life on Mars was binned entirely and the producers sent back to the drawing board.

"I think it's essential, and I can't believe everybody doesn't pilot," says Porter. "It's not a luxury, it's essential. If you look at the overall investment you're making in a drama series, the potential risk of reshooting an episode is expensive, but that's a lot cheaper than getting to the end of a series and realising you had fundamental problems upfront.

"Once that machine starts, and you're filming every day, it's hard to get in and make changes, so the pilot gives you a chance to draw breath, ask some tough questions about the show; what you like, what you want to fix, what you want to make better."

In the case of Packed to the Rafters, Porter says very few changes were made beyond some minor plot tweaks, such as changing Ventoura's character from an English nurse to an Australian one.

"We didn't re-cast a single character from the pilot to the series, because we'd spent a lot of time making sure we got those relationships right," Porter says.

Less certain is the tone. Packed to the Rafters is unequivocally a drama, though some scenes, including one in which Dave takes Viagra, and another in which the boys next door advertise for a flatmate, are played for their humour. To complicate the dynamic slightly, the show's title feels not too distantly related to a sitcom.

Setting the tone, says Porter, is a case of understanding the values of Julie and Dave Rafter. "It's a funny thing, I think you just know," she says. "This is the world of the Rafters, so you have to think about the values of the Rafters, it's their world view. If you understand the characters well enough, that's what drives the tone. It's how they would respond to a situation."

The first episode packs an emotional wallop, particularly the scenes dealing with daughter Rachel's disintegrating relationship and Julie's dad Ted's emotional breakdown. "Particularly when times are tough, family is always a haven. It's somewhere you feel safe and somewhere you go back to, to regroup," says Porter. "That's the heart of the show."

On the eve of the show's launch, Porter concedes she feels like "a nine-and-a-half-months-pregnant woman. We're so ready for this one to be born. There is nothing more we can do now, it's in the hands of the audience.

"We're really proud of the program we've made. We've got a great campaign behind it so the audience know about it, so now it's down to the audience to decide if it's something for them. We're confident that it has the right genetic make-up, to murder the metaphor further, but you just don't know."

Packed to the Rafters premieres Tuesday at 8.30pm on Seven.