Celia Pacquola still amazed when Utopia predicts real-life bureaucratic absurdities (2024)

A few weeks ago when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced funding for a "multipurpose stadium" in Hobart, a clip from the TV show Utopia began circulating online.

An episode from 2014 had featured a proposal for a "multipurpose stadium" in Tasmania that no-one really wanted.

Some people claimed the satirical show about government bureaucracy had predicted the future.

Utopia star Celia Pacquola laughs when the topic is brought up. She says it reminds her of another episode from the first season of Utopia in 2014 about a very fast train.

"Every time they've tried to do a very fast trainthey announced it —because it's really announceable — and they do these reports and they put all this money into it, and they find out it can't be done," Pacquola says.

Then there was last year's real-life scandal when the Coalition was still in government about the logo for the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet's Women's Network. The logo was dropped after it was pointed out it looked too, er, phallic.

"We had kind of done that," Pacquola says, referencing a season one episode about public sculptures being installed alongside a new freeway.

"There was one [sculpture] that was called 'Gun' that looked like a penis. And we had a scene where I had to go [meet the artist] — and that would absolutely be the case, where government officials had to go and have a meeting with the artists and be like, 'You need to make some changes because coming down the freeway at a certain speed, this just looks like a penis.'

"That absolutely is so funny knowing when that happened, just the meeting on a Monday morning. Like, how many people would have seen that logo and OK'd it? And then just the email going, 'You are joking me, oh my God. What are we going to do? Pretend like we meant it.'"

Pacquola recalls another episode in season one where developers of a new skyscraper wanted to add extra floors above what was allowed, and the only way they could do it was to "make the design interesting and shape it like a leaf".

"Now, whenever I see really tall buildings that are a bit sort of weird, I wonder if they've just gone, 'Nah, it's contributing to the landscape,' so that they can get a couple of extra floors," she says.

'Like catching magic in a bottle'

The fifth season of Utopia premieres on the ABC next week.

Pacquola admits she didn't think the show would return after season four, which aired in 2019.

"None of us thought it was going to come back, just because of the break, because the first four seasons were back to back," she says.

"We just thought that they've moved on."

The "they" she refers to are Working Dog Productions which, as well as Utopia, has made the TV shows Frontline, The Panel, The Hollowmen, The Cheap Seats, Have You Been Paying Attention? and iconic films The Castle and The Dish.

Pacquola says most of the old Utopia team returned for season five, "which speaks to how much everyone loves working on this project". And it was filmed on the same set with the same wardrobe.

"That was a fun conversation when lovely Sandy from wardrobe department called me and was like, 'Just got to check if your measurements have changed.' And I was like, 'Well Sandy, in the last four years I have had a baby, so I'm going to say yes.'"

Pacquola says filming Utopia is like nothing else she's ever worked on.

"We film an episode in three days. So quick. It's almost like a play. You just have to know your stuff inside out," she says.

"Everyone sort of slipped back into their characters straight away and it was just like we never left."

Asked why they film so quickly, Pacquola says it's "like catching magic in a bottle when you've got it".

"I feel like if you over-rehearse it, it flattens the comedy. So there's something about it that feels real. It just sort of works."

'Everyone wants to be Nat'

Pacquola plays Nat in Utopia, the chief operating officer of the fictional National Building Authority and one of the few competent people working there.

She says at the beginning she wouldn't have minded playing one of the sillier characters.

"When we started I was like, 'Oh no, I'm the straight guy.' But actually it's really enjoyable and in the real world everyone wants to be you," she says.

"I have people coming up to me being like, 'Oh my god, I'm Nat in my office.'

"And also because I've got so many other places in my life to be very silly, it's very fun pretending to be so capable."

She says she can't believe someone like Nat would still be working in such a frustrating workplace after all these years.

"But that's what you've got to hope for right? That people like Nat and Tony (Rob Sitch), who are smart and capable and try to make good decisions for the country, that they're in there fighting the good fight."

Watch Utopia Wednesdays at 8pm on ABC TV and ABC iview.