My mothers native land, has never looked so decidedly beautiful. Indeed, I have been before and for all the barren land and hours of outback you get in reality, here we get stunning Australian foliage and steamy tropic fauna from North Queensland to slavate over. Co-written and starring award-winning Tim Minchin, UPRIGHT is more than just a tourism brochure for the international crowd however. Here in the complete Series 1 and 2 boxset, it is a journey through two people on the way up and down. Minchin is Lucky Flynn, who is less than his name suggests. He learns his estranged mother is dying and decides a road trip across Australia is in order. He wants to be there for the end.Along for the ride is his upright piano and after a bit of a ta do, a runaway teenager called Meg (Milly Alcock). Who is not exactly living the high life. An unlikely friendship builds and it is not without a sense of worry at what lies ahead and ehat is left behind. Three years to the day later. Season Two sees Lucky, now actually living to his name sake. He is a successful musician and happy until Meg returns. She is now 17-year-old and all but orders him to take her to North Queensland in search of her long-lost mother. Lucky agrees but not happily. Now they are swapping the desert for the steamy tropics of Far North Queensland and the nightmare of each other again!

Frankly the success of UPRIGHT is clear for many. An odd couple drama comedy is always popular. So one that has a lot of heart strings pulled on and a few laughs sprinkled in it, is always nice to see. But again it comes down to that odd couple and their chemistry. This is why UPRIGHT works really well. Its not superbly written to be honest. Its not skillfully directed by much of a measure. It all though comes together with Minchin and Alcock pulling things together delightfully. This is not to disparge anyone else and their work, it is more to say that the series lives and dies off of the two and they really are very good at making it connect. The first series is fresher and the pair seem to zip around and bounce off each other. The second is more grounded and emotionally heavier. But it is both them and them alone that you watch it for. They both deliver a variety of joys that really deserve an audience coming back again.