Set and filmed on the Coal Coast, the new six-part series One Night tells the story of three women whose bond was all but destroyed by the traumatic events of one night.

Now twenty years later, one of the friends has written a book – the one story she could never get out of her mind. But it soon becomes apparent that the devastating story the book tells doesn’t exclusively belong to her.

Featuring an exceptional ensemble cast including Bulli actor Yael Stone, Jodie Whittaker, Nicole da Silva and Kat Stewart, One Night is a harrowing tale of friendship, impacted by trauma and grief, fact and fiction. We spoke to Yael about the series, and the perks of working close in home.

One Night has an incredible female-led cast including Jodie Whittaker (Broadchurch, Dr Who) and Nicole da Silva (Wentworth, Doctor Doctor). What do you love about their performances, and the dynamic between your characters?

I think the performances from Jodie and Nicole are just heartbreakingly beautiful, raw and embodied and very authentic. I feel like there’s not a lot of hiding going on. It’s sort of right there. It’s shared, but it’s not pushed, and it’s kind of a sort of symphony of friendship and how complex and difficult that can be and how things are hardest sometimes with the people.

We are most close to the people who share our oldest memories that people who know the houses we grew up in as children, the people know our parents from when we were at high school, trying to get permission to go to parties and doing all kinds of things before we’ve established ourselves as adults, all the messy period before then. It’s sort of a tribute to that closeness.

What drew you to One Night?

It is such a good story set in this beautiful place that I call home and just feeling really connected to it.  I didn’t know who was going to be in it, so it would be a lie to say it was a cast, but the fact that it’s at home and that I feel so connected to that place, and the script was just so good… I had to say yes!

Our youngest child was only three months old when we shot this. It was a short, sharp production of two and a half months and we had her onset every day. It wasn’t exactly cruisy, but it was kind of one of those jobs you can’t really say no to.

How are memories – and different interpretations of those memories – featured in One Night?

I do think there’s that beautiful element of the show. I love the backdrop of the ocean, and there’s this beautiful cinematography of these wide, expansive ocean shots that sort of remind me of that quality of memory. It’s always shifting, it’s always changing, and it always depends where you are looking from. It will move and you can’t quite catch memory and you can’t quite catch the ocean, and I love that element of the show. I definitely have a thing with my sister where our memories have smooshed together and I’m like, ‘That wasn’t you. That was me’.

The Coal Coast is a key part of the story and the sense of place…

We are very, very lucky to be on Dharawal country. It’s so beautiful. The story was set here from the beginning, and everything’s written to the place. The creator of the show, Emily Ballou, used to live in Thirroul so it is not an afterthought or some kind of fly by night, ‘oh, we’ll just set it in this place’. It’s deeply authentic.

The local area has become incredibly important to me, and I spend a lot of my time working on [not-for-profit] Hi Neighbour. I’m very passionate about the history and about respecting the past so that we can move forward into the future, and I think that’s in this show as well.

There was one scene I shot parked right next to the ocean pool, looking out to the container ships, and it was just a scene where I sat and watched and [the character] Hat, had a flood of emotions that kind of rode through her as she listened to a song from the past. But for me sitting there, I was sitting with Hat, but also with Yael. Our children have grown up in that playground. There is history there, and while I’m not many generations back, I feel connected to the place I care about it. I want to be part of it. I want to foster the best parts of the community, and it did have levels of depth to be able to work in the place that you live and love.

Are you hoping to see more productions based locally?

I would love there to be more filming locally. It would be terribly convenient for me! On a more serious note, I think it is quite good for the local economy. Hopefully it’s not inconvenient for locals, but I see that there is a real sense of local pride and a real sense of place.

We had some local folks employed on crew and in the cast, and I think that’s really cool. It’s always great to bring jobs to the area. It’s always great to boost the local economy. Our unit base was at Thirroul playground. Remember that day when the rain was so nuts and that car went into the ocean? Some of our crew members’ cars were totally submerged, so they were there for thick and thin!

Locals will notice some familiar spots in the show – Scarborough Pub, Wombarra Bowlo – it felt a little bit like Coal Coast bingo…

We should do that. We should watch and play Coal Coast Bingo! <laughs>

Catch One Night on Paramount+ from 1 September, in conjunction with Screen Illawarra and Easy Tiger Productions.