Money was raised through the company UAA to make the movie which was mainly shot around Bathurst, New South Wales, in particular at Abercrombie House. The race of the fly Phaeton carriage against time was filmed at Hill End, a gold rush town in the central west of New South Wales. The shoot began October 9, 1985 and went for ten weeks.
It tells the story of Ned Rowlands, a talented stagecoach driver who meets the three creatures he loves best on the same day: a horse team, a woman, and the man who will become his employer, Lord Ironminster.
The Right Hand Man (1986) is adapted from a young adult historical novel by Kathleen Peyton, first published in 1977. The book is set in 1818 in Essex and London, but the film moves that to 1860's Australia. Instead of tuberculosis, the protagonist is diagnosed with diabetes.
Kathleen Peyton's novel had been optioned by actors Steven Grives and Tom Oliver who formed a company, Yarraman, to make the film. Grives had acted in a mini series, Flambards (1979), also based on a novel by Peyton.
A thoughtful drama with meditations on mortality, class, independence and love, it is an atypical journey into the nation's past. Directed and adapted for the screen by an all-female team (director Di Drew and screenwriter Helen Hodgman) a rarity for the era this lavish and ambitious Australian period drama was shot mostly on location in Bathurst, New South Wales.
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