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New show for Erik Thomson?

The Seven Network is keen to find a new vehicle for Erik Thomson after the end of Packed to the Rafters.

The actor is set to shoot a pilot for the network playing a character who is far removed from Dave Rafter, the decent, salt-of-the-earth family man who loved sport and 1980s music.

Thomson will play the title character in Hartman as a brilliant but flawed, over-sexed surgeon with an unfortunate bedside manner.

Shooting will start in Melbourne later this month, produced by Southern Star Entertainment. IF understands Paul Moloney, a director-producer whose credits include Winners & Losers, City Homicide, Bed of Roses and Home and Away, will work on the project.

The pilot will also feature a female GP, a local cop and a female vigneron. If it’s picked up the series would probably start shooting in the second half of next year.

Rebecca Gibney, who played Dave’s wife Julie in Packed to the Rafters, is to set to produce and star in The Killing Field for Seven, playing the head of a special police task force sent to a small country town to investigate a shocking crime.

Thomson and Gibney were such a winning combination in Packed to the Rafters it would not be surprising if Seven searches for a new show which would reunite the pair.

The network would only say “we are developing a number of projects.”

  1. A vehicle for Erik Thompson?
    Erik is a passable actor, but in no way was the driving force in Rafters popularity.
    And that was an airy, lightweight show in any case.
    Over exposure will not be in the best interest of the viewing public, who simply tune out when bored, and casting the same actor over and over again may well put off viewers from watching productions that may well rate better with new names and faces in the mix, especially when it comes to greying 40 something males.
    And how long before the PC bleaters start complaining about the lack of Muslim or Indian, ect, leads, not realising of course that this is Australia, not the third world, and viewers would rather watch endless re-runs of any show with genuine Aussie talent, as opposed to the “shove multiculturalism down our throats” alternative.
    Then Erik might indeed be a safe bet.

  2. This sounds suspiciously like a down under version of Doc Martin. I don’t mind Erik Thomson and I think this sort of role suits an actor his age and he has the right vibe about him to play a doctor. If I am not mistaken, he played a doctor in All Saints. I think he’d be believable. As long as they cast some new faces and it doesn’t descend into a typical medical melodrama it should find an audience.

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