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Home / Entertainment

TV: New sensation

By Paula Yeoman
Herald on Sunday·
10 Aug, 2014 03:20 AM4 mins to read

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Tim Farris and Nick Masters.

Tim Farris and Nick Masters.

INXS had fun on stage, and it shows.

INXS: Never Tear Us Apart opens with a sweeping shot of a packed and amped Wembley Stadium. It's real footage of INXS' sold-out 1991 concert.

The Australian rockers are at the heady heights of world domination and the atmosphere is charged.

Cue the actors. Excitable groupies fall over themselves to catch a glimpse of the boys as they arrive in a limo; a harem of supermodel girlfriends hover backstage. The first beats of New Sensation resound through the crowd. "Have fun out there," says the band's manager Chris Murphy. "I will," replies Michael Hutchence, as he pops Ecstasy and bounces on stage to thunderous applause.

Sex, drugs, rock and roll - it might be one of the most over-used cliches in music but it makes the storyline in this two-part TV mini-series no less real. "I think if anything it's played down a little," says founding INXS member and the series' co-executive producer Tim Farriss.

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"I've sort of become quite numb to it, really. There's no point harping on about that stuff. Everybody knows. But reading the script to start with, one of the things I kept saying was, 'Look, this seems so serious'. Most of the time we were having the best time of our lives. It was a real hoot and I wanted that to come across."

It wasn't the only hurdle Farriss faced when he embarked on the project several years ago. He carried the burden of being the only band member closely involved and felt he owed it to his brothers and band members, Andrew and Jon [Farriss], Kirk Pengilly, Garry Gary Beers - and to the memory of Hutchence - to make sure it accurately depicted the life and times of INXS.

"Squeezing 35 years into just two hours of television was always going to be a challenge," he says. "But I wanted to keep it as real as possible because I was there. And I was there during every stage of this, too. I checked all the drafts and scripts for accuracy and at the same time I was trying to protect individuals' rights and feelings. I was worried about how I would balance all those things together and still be happy with the outcome."

There were emotional struggles, too. "It brought back a lot of startling memories. A lot of it's quite close to the bone," he explains. "My biggest fear was dealing with Michael's death all over again."

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Casting an actor in the role of a star as enigmatic yet distinct as Hutchence can't have been easy but Luke Arnold's take on the INXS singer is a stroke of genius. So uncannily similar are his mannerisms, even Farriss found himself almost believing his friend was in the room.

"When [Arnold] was in character, he was incredibly like him. When I was on set with the guy, I wanted to talk to him about stuff I'd always wanted to say. It was more the body language. Seeing him there, I didn't have to tell him anything about Michael, he'd obviously done his homework and it was quite daunting."

Farriss had no worries about actor Nick Masters' portrayal of him, either. "Fortunately, he was an incredibly great musician, so he was able to help me a lot as well. I was pleased he was an awesome guy, but it was quite weird seeing him propose to my wife," he laughs.

Similarly, actress Samantha Jade nails the part of Hutchence's one-time lover, Kylie Minogue. "Kylie approved of Samantha and the whole show. I think it got to Kylie. She was on 60 Minutes here and she talked about her relationship with Michael. She's awesome. And I think that Paula Yates was portrayed very well too. She [Georgina Haig] was uncannily good at playing Paula," says Farriss.

It is this spot-on casting, coupled with a cracking soundtrack of original music and the gripping story of a group of friends that triumphs against the odds to become the biggest band in the world, only to have it all come crashing down with the heartbreaking death of their front man, that makes Never Tear Us Apart such a compelling watch.

More than 2.8 million Australians tuned in when it aired there earlier this year. "It was a great relief," says Farriss. But what really mattered was the thumbs up from the lads. "They hadn't seen it until it was virtually finished, because we would never have had the thing made if everyone had been involved. I was so pleased the band loved it. That meant the most of all to me."

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