The Secret Life of Us

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The Secret Life Of Us

Genre	Drama
Running time	60 Minutes
Creator(s)	John Edwards Amanda Higgs
Starring	Claudia Karvan Samuel Johnson Deborah Mailman Abi Tucker Joel Edgerton Sibylla Budd David Tredinnick
Country of origin	Australia
Original channel	Network Ten
Original run	July 16, 2001–November 30, 2005
No. of episodes	86
IMDb profile

The Secret Life of Us was a 2001 - 2005 television drama series set in the beachside suburb of St Kilda, Melbourne, Australia. The series screened in Australia on Network Ten and on Channel 4 in the UK, initially being co-funded by the two networks (Channel 4 pulled out after the third series; the fourth series remains unaired in the UK), and produced by Southern Star. In other countries, it has been shown on New Zealand's TV3, the Ireland's RTÉ Two, Canada's PrideVision, the Netherlands's Yorin, France's Canal Plus and Norway's NRK.

The show revolves around a group of friends in their mid twenties to early thirties who live in a St Kilda apartment block (the actual block is Belvedere Flats on the Esplanade). Their interaction with one another, relationships with other friends and romantic interests, along with their personal and career development, are examined by the series.

Initially, the series was immensely popular in Australia, and had a devoted cult following in the UK. The show's ratings began to dwindle following the departure of several main characters and the introduction of new characters. The third series featured a particularly high character turnover with many original characters leaving the show during this period while their replacements failed to last out the series. The fourth series concluded with only two of the original characters - barkeeper Simon (Trednick) and uni-student Kelly (Mailman) - still on board, after the key character of writer Evan (Johnson) departed early in that season.

Production ended abruptly in 2004 after the fourth series had been completed. The show was cancelled after the first two episodes of the fourth series had aired in Australia to disastrously low ratings. The program was removed from its prime-time timeslot and the final, unscreened, episodes from that season were broadcast with little publicity in late 2005.

All four series of the show are available on DVD in Australia; the first is also available, in two parts, in the UK.

The title music is Death Defy by Melbourne band Motor Ace.