Summer Heights High

Start date: 2007 Country of Origin: Australia Genre: drama, comedy Director: Producer: Writer: Chris Liley Cast: Chris Liley Quirky Quote:

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Summer Heights High is an eight episode satirical comedy that aired on the ABC in September and October 2007. The show is the brainchild of comedian and actor Chris Lilley, who has previously appeared in Network Seven’s Big Bite and the ABC’s We Can Be Heroes, and features characters from each of these shows. Screening in the ABC’s Wednesday 9:30 slot (following The Chaser’s War On Everything), the program was both a critical and commercial success. It has been released on DVD, and its soundtrack is also available over iTunes.

The program is set in a fictional Australian public high school and is shot in a "mockumentary" style similar to programs such as The Office. As he did in We Can Be Heroes, Lilley plays a number of different characters: flamboyant and egocentric drama teacher Mr G, Tongan Year 8 bully Jonah Takalua, and Year 11 student Ja’mie King, who is on exchange from an exclusive private girls’ school. During the course of the series, there are three distinct plots, each focusing on one of Lilley’s characters. The posh Ja’mie struggles to fit in with her fellow students, Jonah has run-ins with the school teachers, and Mr G endeavours to put on a school musical.

The show was exposed to some degree of controversy due to a bizzare coincidence; during the course of the show, a Year 11 Summer Heights High student named Annabelle Dickson dies of a drug overdose. This prompted complaints from the family of Annabell Catt, who died after taking drugs at the 2007 Good Vibrations music festival. However, the program’s creators responded that the original episode was filmed eleven days before the real-life Annabell’s death occurred.