The ‘Postcard Bandit’ and the return of an Aussie romcom: Foxtel reveals its 2026 programs

3 days ago 4

Foxtel is staking its immediate future on the end of the world, revealing a new survival reality series set in the end times as one of its major drawcards for 2026. The eight-part reality show Apocalypse was one of the standout offerings at the annual upfront presentation of the pay TV provider and its streaming siblings Binge and Kayo in Sydney on Thursday evening.

A co-production with Britain’s Channel 4, the show promises to put a selection of “ordinary” contestants from Australia and the UK into a ruined cityscape to see who can survive best and longest.

Apocalypse is a new survival reality show from the makers of Alone.

Billed as a “world-first social experiment”, Apocalypse (which was known as Survive the City when a casting call for contestants went out in May) is made by the same team responsible for Alone and Squid Game: The Challenge: UK production company The Garden.

The series is due to start production next month in a ruined-city set built on the site of a “secret military location”, where contestants will seek to survive for 28 days with “no phones, no supplies, no outside contact. Just their instincts, their choices, and each other”.

Foxtel is also backing the story of Brenden Abbott, the so-called “postcard bandit”, with not one but two tellings of his remarkable tale.

Run is a previously announced six-part drama starring former Home and Away actor George Mason. The Postcard Bandit is a two-part documentary from director Stephen McCallum, whose Never Get Busted recently screened at the Melbourne International Film Festival.

Oscar Redding (left) as Reynolds and George Mason as Brenden Abbott in Run.

Abbott was a serial bank robber who twice escaped police custody. In 1989, while serving a sentence in Fremantle Prison, he escaped with another prisoner while dressed in guard uniforms they had sewn in the facility’s clothing workshop. While his accomplice was arrested within weeks, Abbott remained at large until 1995.

In late 1997, he escaped again, this time from a Queensland prison. Six months later he was arrested again. Abbott remains behind bars in Western Australia, but will be eligible for parole next year.

Logie winner Harriet Dyer will be seen in two shows next year. She plays Colette in the American workplace comedy DMV, created by former Friends writer Dana Klein and also starring long-time Saturday Night Live cast member Greg Meadows. And she will also be back again as Ashley, alongside real-life partner Patrick Brammall, as the award-winning and beloved Colin From Accounts returns for a third season.

Also returning is High Country, the crime drama series starring Leah Purcell as a policewoman in a remote town in the Victorian alps.

The international drama line-up includes the NBC-produced All Her Fault, a suburban crime drama starring Sarah Snook as a woman whose daughter goes missing after a play date; Amadeus, a drama series starring Will Sharpe as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Paul Bettany as his arch rival, Antonio Salieri; the star-studded drama The Five-Star Weekend, in which Jennifer Garner plays a high-profile food influencer who invites a group of friends (Regina Hall, Gemma Chan, Chloe Sevigny) for a carefully curated weekend away that goes off the rails; and The Death of Bunny Munro, an adaptation of the Nick Cave novel, starring House of the Dragon’s Matt Smith.

There’s also a new season of quirky feminist crime dramedy Sweetpea, starring Fallout’s Ella Purnell, and returns for Below Deck Mediterranean, Taskmaster and Grand Designs UK.

Kayo, meanwhile, will offer 4k coverage of a huge range of sports, with a slate that includes every game of every round of AFL and NRL, every Formula 1, Supercars and MotoGP race, all four golf majors, and every major cricket event on home soil this summer, including tours by the old enemy England and the biggest cricketing nation on the planet, India.

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