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Summer Heights High
Beat | August 29, 2007

Teachers are going to hate Chris Lilley for his new TV series Summer Heights High, and he knows it. The creator of the ABC hit We Can Be Heroes is back with another mockumentary, one that tackles the school world in way that is shocking and hilarious in equal parts. Like the award-winning We Can Be Heroes, this new eight-part series is shot in a painfully realistic way, following the three main characters, all played by Lilley.

He's brought back two of his well-known characters: bratty private schoolgirl Ja'mie and effeminate drama teacher Mr G. And a new character has been created for the series, Jonah, a rebellious, foul-mouthed 13-year-old Tongan boy.

The series is set to raise a few eyebrows, with some material making it to the wrong side of funny. Think Borat, the way he can make you both cringe and laugh with a joke, but you don't know which one to do first. Rape, the intellectually disabled and Asians are the punchline to some Summer Heights High jokes, but Lilley stresses the joke is usually on the characters he plays, not the people or issues the joke is about, and it is not designed to offend for the sake of offending. “I like to do stuff which does push the boundaries and is a bit shocking. I just find that kind of thing interesting and entertaining, but it's certainly not designed to just offend people for the sake of it. It’s not meant to be hurtful, it’s just a bit more challenging that most shows, I guess," Lilley says.

Lilley not only created the series and plays all three main characters he is also the writer and producer. “Some people probably say I’m a control freak behind my back, but I like it this way. I kind of wish I could do more," Lilley says. "I had this vision for the show, It’s not like a formula show, it’s something new, so you have to kind of see it through. You’re pioneering I guess. It’s important for me to be able to be across everything, otherwise things get out of hand."

The school world is well-known to Lilley, who studied teaching at university, but ultimately didn't follow on with it. “I studied primary school teaching for couple of years, and just hated it. I spent a bit of time in schools and just thought this is stupid.”

But he stresses the series is based on his research in high schools rather than his teaching experience. Lilley visited high schools with a camera, interviewing staff and students to learn the language and mannerisms of his characters. It was through this research where he met many Ja'mies, Mr Gs and Jonahs - albeit less extreme versions.

Jonah is a conglomeration of the school boys Lilley met in his research. “I met lots of boys in that age group and found them hilarious. Jonah represents the naughty kid thing,” Lilley says. "I Like the idea of this physically overgrown kid whose actually 13, but physically threatening to teachers.” A foul-mouthed bully and an underachiever, Jonah is on the verge of expulsion from Summer Heights High. “Jonah’s story is more about the way the school treats him and how they tip-toe around him and try and do all these things to get him through school and not get him expelled, they try so hard to help him, but it’s pointless, he's just having fun."

The female flip-side to Jonah is Ja'mie (Lilley's character from We Can Be Heroes). This series sees her going to the public school in an exchange program from her prestigious (expensive) private school. “I really wanted to take her to another level and make her a fish out of water and put her in an environment she’s not used to,” Lilley says. “She’s an exaggeration of what’s out there, but some girls come pretty close, particularly the way they talk to their parents.”

But the hardest of the three characters for Lilley to play is Mr G. "I felt the most pressure with Mr G because I’ve done him so many different ways. I've done him as a stand up character, as a sketch character and this time round he had to have more depth. It was hard to reinvent him," Lilley says.

"I love them all for different reasons, but I really enjoyed Jonah this time. He was definitely the most fun to shoot and the most relaxing to play. It was something really new for me."

Like We Can Be Heroes, much of Summer Heights High is adlibbed. "Depending on the actors, we'd throw the scripts away and start again with the main ideas that have to come out of the scene,” Lilley says. This suited some actors. "The Tongan boys just did not want to learn their lines. They’d turn up with no idea what they were doing, which actually really helped. With the girls too, there’d be five lines of script but we’d keep going for 25 minutes, talking rubbish. It’s often those bits you end up using."

Because of this continual filming, Lilley says there will be over two-and-a-half hours of outtakes included on the DVD. These are some of the adlibbed scenes too wrong for TV. “Especially with Ja’mie, she tends to go off in very wrong directions,” Lilley said.

Although this is a series about school students, this is definitely not a show for kids and as such has been given a M rating. “We’ve put it on at 9.30 so it will be the rebellious kids who stay up who watch it,” Lilley says.

He's anticipating a few would-be Jonah's out there will take on some of Jonah's cheeky antics at school.

“Hopefully there’ll be a few Jonah copycats, that would amuse me,” Lilley says. “I think teachers are going to hate me after this series for making fun of them and making their life hell."

Summer Heights High premiers Wednesday September 5 at 9.30pm on the ABC.

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