ADAM Zwar has been Mr Everywhere over the past couple of years. In the past six months alone, the Melbourne-based actor and writer has popped up on ABC1 fronting his celebrity-packed ‘‘advice’’ programs Agony Uncles and Agony Aunts, and appearing as a story-hungry reporter on Howzat! The Kerry Packer Story on Channel Nine.
He’s also the co-creator of cult SBS comedy Wilfred, about a pot-smoking dog, which was successfully remade for the United States, starring Elijah Wood. Now screening locally on Eleven, it has wrapped its second season.
Another Zwar project, Lowdown, returns to screens this week. The first series of the comedy – co-created and written by Zwar and his wife Amanda Brotchie – aired in mid-2010, winning praise and awards.
Two years down the track, the fictional Sunday Sun newspaper is still searching for celebrity scandals in gutters and rubbish bins, and Zwar’s entertainment reporter Alex Burchill is happy to oblige.
All the familiar faces from the first series – including Kim Gyngell as Sun editor Howard Evans, Beth Buchanan as Alex’s on-off girlfriend Rita, and loyal photographer sidekick Bob (Paul Denny) – return, as does Geoffrey Rush as the deadpan narrator.
Episode one revolves around a political scandal, as Alex finds himself in possession of sexually explicit photos of the conservative Minister for Families, passed over by her creepy disgruntled boyfriend Frank (Clayton Jacobson). To publish or not to publish? Do you really need to ask?
While the show throws a few barbs at tabloid newspapers and egocentric journalists (Alex has his home address on media lists, he explains, ‘‘in case I get sacked, so I still get invites to opening nights’’), Lowdown isn’t exactly Frontline-level satire. But where the show shines is in its character comedy; the dysfunctional relationship between Alex and Rita, the strange bromance between Alex and Bob and the oddballs who drop by.
There are a couple of laugh-out-loud moments in the first episode but by and large, Lowdown is just as warm and engaging as it is funny.
The only question: after so much Zwar on our screens this year, can you handle another eight weeks? My answer – where do I sign?
Thursday, ABC1, 9.30pm.
