ABC, HBO, BBC catch up with Jonah

Australian pubcaster ABC, HBO in the US and the UK’s BBC3 have commissioned another series from Angry Boys and We Can Be Heroes creator Chris Lilley.

Laura Waters’ prodco Princess Pictures and Australian comedic actor, writer and producer Lilley are working on Jonah (6×30’), which follows the further adventures of the bored Tongan teenage delinquent from another Lilley series, Summer Heights High.

Lilley’s Jonah character was expelled from the school at the end of the mockumentary series, which also aired on ABC and BBC3, and sent to live with his father in Tonga. The latest series follows his life there.

The series forms part of ABC’s 2014 schedule, which includes a batch of local comedies, dramas, factual shows and children’s programming.

The broadcaster will also launch a pay-per-view service on its catch-up platform iview in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Next year, iview will premiere the first two shows created specifically for the online service: sketch comedy Fresh Blood and Wastelander Panda, billed as an epic story of loyalty and betrayal in an environment where no-one can survive alone.

For the linear channel, Matchbox Pictures is producing Maximum Choppage (6×30’), a kung fu comedy series about three unlikely heroes in Sydney’s western suburbs who learn martial arts to save their favourite comic bookstore and to win their hearts’ desires.

Working Dog is making Utopia (8×30’), a satirical comedy about the absurdity of government-sponsored schemes, set in the offices of the fictional Nation Building Authority.

YouTube stars The Bondi Hipsters (Christiaan Van Vuuren and Nick Boshier) will make their TV debut with Soul Mates (6×30’), the tale of two friends who find themselves bound together throughout the course of human history.

The drama slate includes Anzac Girls, The Code and Matchbox Pictures’ Old School (8×60’), which stars Bryan Brown and Sam Neill as a retired criminal and an ex-cop who solve crimes and unravel scams while avoiding the wrath of the police and the underworld.

ABC also confirmed a second season of dramas The Doctor Blake Mysteries and The Time of Our Lives and comedies Upper Middle Bogan and Please Like Me.

Its factual slate includes Essential Media’s Afghanistan: The Australian War (3×60’), the story of Australia’s longest war from the viewpoints of those who fought it.

Brilliant Creatures (2×60’) retraces the footsteps of Germaine Greer, Barry Humphries, Clive James and Robert Hughes as they left Australia for the world stage, written and presented by Booker Prize winner Howard Jacobson and produced by Mint Pictures & Serendipity.

The children’s line-up includes Essential Media’s MY24 (13×24’), an interview-based series that profiles young people whose lives have been profoundly transformed by a single event that happened within the space of one day.

The previously announced Hoopla Doopla and Blue Zoo are also scheduled to air next year.