Bryan Brown & Greta Scacchi To Star In ‘Darby & Joan’ For Acorn TV

Cocktail star Bryan Brown and War & Peace’s Greta Scacchi are to play two strangers trekking on the road in the Australian outback in a new Australian drama series.

Acorn TV has ordered Darby and Joan and will air the eight-part series, which comes from My Life Is Murder producer CJZ, in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Latin America, Australia, Spain and Portugal.

Brown plays a retired Australian policeman with a dog as his only company and Scacchi, who also featured in AMC’s The Terror, as a widowed English nurse. The pair meet each other and embark together on an epic odyssey in the outback of northern Australia.

The series, which has received major production investment from Screen Australia in association with Screen Queensland, will air in 2022.

Darby and Joan shines a light on isolated and often unseen areas of regional Australia, and a myriad of characters moving through a world where everyone seems to be searching for something – or trying to escape it.

Retired Australian detective Jack Darby (Brown) is fleeing his past mistakes, while English widow Joan Kirkhope (Scacchi) is attempting to outrun her grief. Their worlds collide on a remote backroad. They couldn’t be more different: the directionless, blunt Aussie and the sharp-tongued Englishwoman. But thrown together and drawn into the intriguing mysteries lurking in the isolated, tropical corners of a vast continent, it quickly becomes clear the most fascinating mystery they face is each other. Thus begins an epic love story; a non-stop road movie; a mystery series; an Outback odyssey. Darby and Joan asks: can you find yourself in the middle of nowhere?

Darby and Joan is executive produced by Claire Tonkin, David Hannam, Matt Campbell, Bea Tammer and Catherine Mackin, with series producer Pino Amenta. Created by Glenys Rowe and Phillip Gwynne, the series’ writers include Hannam, Beck Cole, Andrew Anastasios, Giula Sandler, Ainslie Clouston, Adam Zwar and Paul Bennett. David Caesar directs.

Catherine Mackin, Managing Director of Acorn Media Enterprises, said, “Acorn TV is thrilled to work with CJZ on this rollicking road trip adventure series featuring an unlikely pair solving crimes in the Outback. We feel the series’ mix of intrigue, adventure and mystery will greatly resonate with our viewers, and the characters’ pursuit of love is a universal touchstone for all ages.”

Matt Campbell, CEO of CJZ, added, “From its embryonic state some 10 years ago we always believed Darby and Joan would become a favourite crime solving couple. We are so pleased Acorn could see what we were trying to say with the series and have backed it every inch of the way since the pitch. We couldn’t want for a better partner. Also Screen Australia and Screen Queensland for their invaluable support as always.”

Greta Scacchi is repped by APA, Framework Entertainment, and Conway van Gelder.