Brace yourself, Julia Anastasopoulos (aka SuzelleDIY) is back to tickle the funnybone in “Tali’s Joburg Diary”.
This is the third instalment of the Safta award-winning comedy series.
In the first instalment, as the title suggests, “Tali’s Wedding Diary”, it revolved around Tali (Anastasopoulos) planning an OTT wedding.
She wanted every single aspect to be perfect but the bride-to-be soon finds that it is an objective laden with challenges and challenging individuals.
In the second season, ‘Tali’s Baby Diary”, our hilarious protagonist navigates the cutthroat social media space of momfluencers. Of course, her competitive streak doesn’t fail her once again.
In the upcoming season, much has changed in Tali’s world, which homes in on the drawbacks of Covid-19. This is something almost everyone can relate to on some level, especially when it comes to financial woes and job satisfaction.
The series sees the return of familiar faces - Kate Normington, Glen Biderman-Pam, Anton Taylor and Kate Pinchuck - with Ndoni Kanyile and Sharon Spiegel Wagner among the newcomers.
With her credit cards exhausted, Tali has no choice but to move back to Jozi. This time, much to her horror, it is via economy class.
This franchise is the brainchild of Anastasopoulos and her husband Ari Kruger, who bagged Best Director for the first two seasons of the show, and they draw inspiration from their daily life.
In a press statement to media, Anastasopoulos said: “There are so many funny dynamics at play at preschools, from the idea of a class mom to the class WhatsApp group, from art auctions to parent-teacher meetings. We’ve definitely tapped into that.”
Troy Davy plays Tali’s son Jayden while Khanyile is cast as Barbara Bhembe, the principal of Little Angels Hyde Park and Spiegel Wagner is Monique the Beak, the queen bee class mom.
Biderman-Pam, who plays Rael Rosen, added: “None of my family have kids. I don’t have kids. So I’ve not spent this much time with children in my life. But it’s been so fun working with kids because they have no idea what's going on.
“They don’t even know when we're rolling.
“They don’t know what they’re really doing.
“It’s been fascinating improvising with them because literally, they will say anything.”
Pinchuck is now Rael’s new real estate business partner now that GoldProp is no longer.
Other engaging characters include Tali’s assistant Ashley (Lucienne Bestall, Tali’s father les (Guy de Lancey) and Tali’s sister Michaela (played by her real-life sister Stephanie).
Coconut Kelz contributes to the humour by attempting to give Tali a “Joburg makeover”.
“Tali’s Joburg Diary” premières on Showmax on November 18, with new episodes dropping every Friday.