When Mother and Son first aired on the ABC in January 1984, it quickly found its way into the nation’s living rooms and its cultural memory. Over six seasons, until 1994, Ruth Cracknell and Garry McDonald created characters so indelible that repeats still draw audiences decades later.
So when the ABC announced a reimagining of the series in 2023, it was always going to be a delicate task. At its centre was a question: who could possibly take on the role of Maggie Beare, a character so bound up with Cracknell’s name?
Enter Denise Scott.
The Melbourne-born comedian, known for her wry stand-up, theatre work and TV appearances, admits she hesitated before stepping into such loaded territory. “I knew the legacy, everyone did,” she has said in interviews. “But what drew me in was that we weren’t trying to recreate Ruth and Garry – we were trying to capture the heart of that mother-son push-and-pull in a way that feels real today.”
Opposite Scott is Matt Okine, who not only stars as Arthur but was the driving force behind the reboot. Okine has been open about wanting to honour the original series while shaping a show that reflects contemporary Australia. The pair’s chemistry, by most accounts, grounds the new version.
A career-defining challenge
For Scott, the timing was brutal. Just as filming began on season one, she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer. She decided to continue with treatment and filming simultaneously – sometimes relying on body doubles, sometimes conserving her energy, always leaning into humour as ballast.
“This production meant a lot to me,” she told The Australian Women’s Weekly. “It became an escape.”
Her candour has been striking. In interviews, Scott has spoken of moments of vulnerability on set – even one notorious first-day mishap involving fainting in the heat – but also of the ways in which the role gave her focus and purpose.
Reimagining Maggie
Scott’s Maggie is both a nod to the original and her own creation. Where Cracknell’s Maggie was manipulative, Scott leans into mischief and boldness: a septuagenarian determined not to fade quietly into the background. Season two, now streaming, finds Maggie chaining herself to a bird-lice-ridden fig tree, dodging hearing tests, and outwitting potential suitors at a resort bar.
For Arthur, meanwhile, life is unravelling. More than a year after moving back in with his mother, he’s stuck in freelance journalism, dabbling in disastrous self-improvement schemes and nursing a midlife crisis. It is a formula that has proved enduring: the generational tug-of-war played with affection and exasperation in equal measure.
Recognition, at last
The risks Scott took have been met with acclaim. She was nominated for a Logie for her performance, a recognition many critics described as overdue for a comedian who has been a fixture of Australian entertainment for decades.
Critics, too, have largely welcomed the reboot. While some purists remain attached to the original, the consensus has been that Okine and Scott have found a way to honour the spirit of Mother and Son without being beholden to it.
A role that lingers
Looking back, Scott says the show is more than just a credit on her CV. It has been both a professional triumph and a personal anchor. “Comedy has always been medicine,” she reflected recently. “Playing Maggie, even when life was tough, reminded me why I love doing this.”
For audiences, that love shows. Four decades after Maggie Beare first bustled onto screens, Mother and Son has found a new voice – one shaped by grief, grit and Denise Scott’s unmistakable comic touch.
The new season of Mother and Son is now streaming on ABC iview.
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