EXCLUSIVE: Australian streamer Stan and CBS Productions have teamed for The F Ward, a six-part drama about medical interns who are on their last chance.
Co-created by Dan Edwards (Bump, Romper Stomper) and Kelsey Munro (Bump) and produced by John Edwards, Dan Edwards and Kelsey Munro for Roadshow Rough Diamond, the series will International Emmy Award-winner Anna Friel (Pushing Daisies, Marcella), Ioane Saula (Bump, The Fall Guy), Lola Bond (Last Days of the Space Age, Upright), Dan Wyllie (Love My Way), Alex Fitzalan (Prosper, Chevalier), Emily Barclay (Babyteeth, Suburban Mayhem), Annie Boyle (Colin From Accounts) and Rishab Kern.
The series is brilliant, flawed interns whose careers are on life support after several screw ups. Sent to the under-funded Pines Hospital in Sydney for a final chance, they have to overcome insecurities, their past and their own expectations, in a hot house environment where the stakes are life and death.
Nine Entertainment’s Executive Director, Entertainment Content Commissioning, Michael Healy said: “From the incredible team behind Bump, we’re thrilled to bring our first Stan Original medical drama to the slate. The F Ward is fresh, original and at its core is about an incredible cast of characters – brilliant and driven, but also incredibly flawed – and the life-or-death world they operate in.
“Featuring a powerhouse ensemble of brilliant Australian actors and prominent internationally renowned talent at the helm, this high-stakes, uniquely Australian drama is set to resonate globally. We cannot wait to share this with viewers soon.”
Co-creators Dan Edwards and Kelsey Munro said in statement: “These young doctors are at this wild crossroads where they’ve messed up, they’re on their last chance, they’re in a crumbling pressure cooker of a hospital making life-or-death decisions—but they’re also still figuring out who they are, what they believe, whether they’re good people, who they are in love with. They can diagnose a pulmonary embolism, but they can’t diagnose their own blind spots or personality flaws. That contradiction felt like the perfect place to tell true, funny, heartbreaking stories about the people who take care of the rest of us.”
The show is today in production with Munro, Jessica Tuckwell, Shanti Gudgeon, Nick Coyle and Jack Yabsley is writers and Natalie Bailey (Down Cemetery Road) and Neil Sharma (Critical Incident) the directors. Executive producers are Andy Ryan and Alicia Brown.
oadshow Rough Diamond and CBS Studios Production are co-producing with “major” production investment from Stan and Screen Australia. Financed with support from Screen NSW’s Made in NSW – TV Drama Fund.
Paramount Global Content Distribution, which is currently in Cannes for MIPCOM, has rights outside of Australia.
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