ABC turned down Molly Meldrum’s forthcoming miniseries

The forthcoming miniseries, about Australian music icon Ian 'Molly' Meldrum, was turned down by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The Australian reports reasoning by a senior ABC TV manager was that local audiences wouldn’t be interested.

Channel 7 will air the two-part miniseries later this year with critics already predicting a ratings spike following the success of INXS: Never Tear Us Apart on the network last year.

The state-owned and funded public broadcaster told TMN one of the reasons the miniseries was turned down was because of Meldrum’s contract with 7.

“The ABC makes regular decisions on which programs it will commission and for a variety of reasons turned down this particular project, one of which was Mr Meldrum’s contractual obligations to Seven,” an ABC spokesman told TMN. “However the ABC’s factual series, Countdown: Do Yourself a Favour, was the highest rating factual program of 2014 with an audience of 1.5 million.”

Produced by Mushroom Pictures, the TV drama is based on Jeff Jenkins’ biography of the music industry legend, The Never, Um ... Ever Ending Story. It detailed his early years writing for Go Set magazine, to his years as the face of Countdown and Hey Hey it’s Saturday, as well as his music production credits.

Funding for the series was injected by Screen Australia, the entertainment funding body who is investing over $12 million in 11 projects this year.

The TV drama will be directed by Kevin Carlin (Blue Heelers, The Wedge, BoyTown) from a script written by local playwrights Matt Cameron and Liz Doran.

In February the official announcement was made that The Secret Life of Us star Samuel Johnson will play Meldrum.

Domestic and international sales will be handled by Mushroom Pictures with Michael Gudinski acting as executive producer.

Channel 7’s last music icon miniseries INXS: Never Tear Us Apart was one of the highest rated shows of 2014 on the network. It screened in Australia, New Zealand, US and in Latin America. The first part had a total audience of 2.243 million metro viewers and the second had 2.579 million, including regional viewers. In New Zealand when it was screen on TV3 last August, it attracted an average total audience of 220,000 New Zealanders and took greatest hits album, INXS: The Very Best to #1 on the NZ album charts - the first time INXS has had a #1 album in the territory since 1987.

In December INXS: Never Tear Us Apart was nominated for four Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards and in May this year its star Luke Arnold won a TV Week Logie for Most Outstanding Actor.