Troppo: behind the scenes

Producer Lisa Duff discusses recreating Far North Queensland on the Gold Coast for the new drama series Troppo.

Based on the best-selling book Crimson Lake by Candice Fox, Troppo is a new eight-part drama adaptation set in the tropics of Far North Queensland. However, when it came time to start production, producer Lisa Duff was convinced by her art department team that they could film the series on the Gold Coast and recreate the lush landscape.

For Duff, her involvement with the production was supposed to be as a supervising executive producer. But her three-day set visit quickly changed.

“I was going to come every fortnight and check on Troppo… but the borders shut. I got sent into isolation for fourteen days and then I thought, ‘I can’t leave. I might not get back in.’ …So I stayed for five months,” Duff says.

In this behind-the-scenes video, Duff outlines the challenges the production faced filming during COVID and why creator Yolanda Ramke was the perfect choice to adapt the novel for the screen.

Watch all episodes of Troppo on ABC iview now.