IF THERE IS a period drama-shaped hole in your heart, get ready for a new series that looks like it’ll be one of the hits of the year: My Brilliant Career.

The Australian drama landed on Netflix on Thursday, and is being called a “horny, bonkers” take on an Australian classic. 

But what is the series all about? Here’s what you need to know.

Is it a new story?

Kate Mulvany and Phillipa Northeast Ian Routledge / Netflix Ian Routledge / Netflix / Netflix

No – mostly (see further down for more on that). It’s based on the book My Brilliant Career, written in 1901 by Australian author Miles Franklin. Franklin was just a teenager when she wrote the romance novel, apparently to entertain her friends. 

It’s about a young woman called Sybylla Melvyn, who dreams of becoming a writer. She’s living in rural Australia and her father’s drinking habits have a terrible impact on her family’s fortunes. She’s sent to live with her grandmother, but as she’s trying to figure out how to live her dream of writing, her parents are trying to marry her off. Sybylla gets entangled with a local man, Harry Beecham – but will they marry?

The book explores gender and misogyny (Sybylla faces many a glass ceiling) as well as romance, so there’s tons here for a TV adaptation to explore.

Intriguingly, because people believed at the time of the book’s publication that it was based on Franklin’s own life, she stopped it from being published until 10 years after her death. But it went on to become an Aussie classic.

Is this the first adaptation of the book?

Nope – you might have seen the 1979 film starring the late Sam Neill and Judy Davis, and there have also been stage adaptations.

What else do we know about this new series?

My Brilliant Career

Here’s the Netflix synopsis:

Sybylla is a shockingly modern young woman with one searing ambition – to be a writer, while her family is determined to marry her off. With an irrepressible taste for fun, Sybylla breaks every convention of 1900 Australia as she searches for a story that will allow her to write her way to independence. For her, the choice between adventure or marriage seems easy, until she falls in love. Will Sybylla marry, or will she risk it all for a creative life?

Here’s the cast:

• Philippa Northeast (Territory, The Newsreader) as Sybylla
• Christopher Chung (Slow Horses, Blitz) as Harry
• Jake Dunn (Renegade Nell) as Frank
• Anna Chancellor (My Lady Jane, Outrageous) as Mrs Bossier 
• Genevieve O’Reilly (Andor, The Dry) as Helen
• Kate Mulvany (Hunters, Elvis) as Augusta, Harry’s grandmother
• Miah Madden (Paper Dolls, The Clearing) as Betty, a First Nations woman

What has the cast said about it?

“It’s bonkers,” Philippa Northeast told The Guardian. “You really see this world through a teenage lens – which is true to Sybylla’s spirit and Miles’ age at the time she wrote the book … it reads like a teenager’s diary entry, pretty much.”

Meanwhile, associate producer Shari Sebbens told ABC: 

“It’s about women today still being okay to want something and want it out loud and want it with all their heart and being met with resistance at so many points in their life.”

Sounds like this story still has resonance 125 years on.

Have they made many changes to the story?

Christopher Chung as Harry Ian Routledge / Netflix Ian Routledge / Netflix / Netflix

There are some changes. Screenwriter Liz Doran has aimed to represent a more diverse Australia in the show. So for example, Harry Beecham, Sybylla’s love interest, is now Chinese-Australian and is played by Australian actor Christopher Chung – yes, Roddy Ho from Slow Horses. (In real life, Chung’s mother is Irish and his father is Malaysian-Chinese).

There are also First Nations characters added into the story, and gay subplots too.

The series will feature contemporary music by female-fronted bands like Wet Leg, and there’s an all-female team of writers, producers and directors behind it. 

When can we watch it?

Luckily for you, it’s streaming on Netflix now.