Kath & Kim Star Reflects On The Shows Success Thanks To ‘Gay People And Women’

Peter Rowsthorn who played Brett in Kath & Kim has spoken about the history of the show and how he felt reading that first script.

The actor sat down to chat with comedian Wil Anderson about his life and how the show came to be on his podcast Wilosophy.

Rowsthorn also acknowledged the important role the gay community had in the success of the show.

Peter Rowsthorn reflects on Kath & Kim twenty years later

Peter Rowsthorn became a household name after starring in the hit show Kath & Kim in 2002, however recently he revealed he never quite knew what to expect.

Whilst speaking with Wil Anderson on his Wilosophy podcast Rowsthorn spoke in great detail about his personal and professional life.

Naturally talk turned to Kath & Kim which Rowsthorn described as “A gift from god” for his career.

However when quizzed by Anderson about whether he expected the show to be so successful he was honest.

“Nah, nup” he said before describing the first time he saw the script.

“We’re having a cold read, at ABC in the first read of it” he said.

“I’m reading things like effulent/affluent I’m like umm ahh” revealing he didn’t quite see the humour in it yet.

“Baby cheeses? Oh for fucks sake” he laughed.

“This is not being done in character at all, just read cold and they’re laughing their heads off at their own jokes” Rowsthorn said of Gina Riley and Jane Turner.

He also revealed that it wasn’t all smooth sailing to get the show off the ground with the ABC dragging their feet and the comedy department passing on it.

“It was so hard to make it, ABC wouldn’t make it for a long time” he revealed.

“That’s why the drama department made it, because it’s a narrative, that’s why the comedy department said nope, not funny enough, it’ll never work. So the drama department made it.”

In the end history showed they couldn’t have been more wrong as the show took after season one, but on set the cast had no idea what was ahead of them.

“It was really being taken very seriously, the first series” he said recalling their time filming.

“No-one was giggling and no-one was fucking around and no one was thinking how funny is this? It was just real set characters doing their dialogue” he described.

“So even on set there wasn’t a lot of ‘oh gee that’s funny’. You’re just hoping that that it’s gonna take when it’s released” he said.

“The girls had all the pressure, they’d written it all, they’re producing it all, they’d chosen everyone virtually by hand to make it, so it was all kind of riding on them.”

But when the show launched it really took off with what which Rowsthorn described as the “groovy” people.

“So when it takes off, it took off to the groovy people which is really nice” he said.

But Rowsthorn also acknowledged the core audience that he said drove the success of the show.

“Gay people and women loved Kath & Kim first” he told Andeerson.

“It was like oh we’re in the groovy camp! This is great!

“The groovy people fall off after a couple of series and then the general masses have now caught up and it goes and does it’s thing and the next few seasons were easier to make because you knew what you were doing” he said of the following seasons.

He went to to thank the loyalty of women for also driving the continuing success of the show, which described with the rise of Netflix was now a show that women were passing down to their children to watch and keeping the legacy of the show alive.

You can listen to the full episode with Peter Rowsthorn and Wil Anderson on Wilosophy here.

 

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