The time has come to farewell the Chalmers-Davis family – with the upcoming fifth season of Stan’s award-winning drama Bump bringing their story to a conclusion.
For Claudia Karvan, who created the series with Kelsey Munro and stars as matriarch Angie, it’s a bittersweet moment. While it’s been a wild ride and one she won’t ever forget, the end has been in sight since the dramedy was conceived – pun intended!
“We always had an ending in mind from the moment we first started developing the show, and so that moment came in Season 5,” she tells WHO. “We really wanted to end it elegantly, so it’s sort of a bookend to Episode 1. And we wanted to end on a high, while everyone still loved each other.”
As we’ve come to expect from Bump, this season is jam-packed with emotion. Oly (Nathalie Morris) and Santi (Carlos Sanson Jr) are questioning the timing of their second pregnancy, Angie’s (Karvan) cancer returns with a vengeance, and Dom (Angus Sampson) and Tim’s (Ryan Johnson) new work venture is threatened by the breaking of the bro code – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Sitting down with WHO for a candid chat, Karvan opens up about farewelling the series and what the future holds.
Congrats on five seasons of Bump – how does it feel to have wrapped it up?
Very proud, very happy. We had a beautiful celebration the other night, it was heaven. It was really warmly received, so I’m feeling great. I can’t wait for people to see it.
It must be bittersweet, though, as co-creator and producer?
Yeah, it is bittersweet. It’s hard work putting it out, so I sort of felt a little bit relieved. But then, a couple of days after we finished, you feel quite empty. Suddenly, the rest of your life opens up and there’s sort of tumbleweeds. It was sadder than I thought, but it took a little while to feel that.
What can you tease about what’s in store?
I think every episode is wildly different. We really had fun with this season because we knew it was our last, so we were creatively really inventive. There are tough medical storylines, there are funny storylines that are on quite controversial topics, there’s
a cool record store episode – I love
that episode. There’s a great bromance with Dom and Tim. Rosa [Paula Garcia] goes ham with the baby shower and takes over, as she often does. And there’s a hilarious love story between Steph Tisdell and Dylan Alcott’s characters [Shauna and Marcus].
It’s a particularly emotional season for your character, Angie, as she faces the return of her cancer.
There probably aren’t too many people that don’t know loved ones who have struggled with or died from cancer – it’s sort of the age where that starts rearing its ugly head. So we thought it was a great opportunity to confront that head-on and have very Bump-like conversations about it and talk very honestly. But it’s sort of dark comedy about mortality.
Bump is known as such a family show, but you’ve made sure it doesn’t gloss over heavy, important topics.
No, it doesn’t. I know, it’s interesting – so many people go, “Oh, Bump, it’s so sweet. It’s just a family show. It’s so warm, it’s so lovely.” And yet we’re constantly dealing with menstruation, feminism, environmentalism, death. It’s unflinching. It’s really lovely that people take away from subjects like that. That’s what we set out to do and it’s what we’re very proud of.
After starting chemo, an initially stoic Angie breaks down and asks Edith (Anita Hegh) why she hasn’t asked how she’s doing. It’s such a vulnerable moment and feels like a turning point in their relationship. Did you feel the same?
I guess it’s that thing of she’s trying to be brave and then, of course, there are days where she just can’t do it. She wants to be the best version of herself. But we all have to surrender sometimes to the fear. I like the fact that moment came from Santi. I find that scene so moving. Carlos was so incredible in that scene where Santi’s thinking about his mother, because he lost his mum when he was really young. I think that was just one step too far for Angie, to have to observe a child still grieving.
There’s been a wedding, a baby and another on the way. We’re not going to get a funeral as well, are we?
I can guarantee you we are not having a funeral.
Thank goodness! I don’t think the family or the audience could take it.
And neither could we! There is no funeral. Yep, you’re allowed to say that – you can quote me.
Nathalie Morris makes her writing debut this season. How was that?
Yes, we’re very proud. She’s always had literary ambition. She’s really smart and has great story instinct, so she’s really valuable in the story room. She could be very objective about all the characters and she wrote beautiful material for all of her fellow cast members. It was very special.
You’ve been a staple on our screens for decades, but you’re also an accomplished creator and producer. Do you enjoy one role over the other?
I love acting, I could never give up acting. But I love them all. They’re all great and I love doing them in tandem. I’m greedy!
Is there still enough variety keeping you in Australia? Presumably you have the luxury of creating your own roles if not.
That’s the idea. And I love working with writers here. I love this industry. One of the beauties of the job is finding people that you really believe in their talents and then you can empower them and give them opportunities. That’s probably the most enjoyable part of my job.
(Bump S5 premieres on Thu., Dec. 26 on Stan)
