A missing bag, an expiring flight and a chance encounter at Melbourne Airport have inspired The Airport Chaplain, a new SBS drama starring Hugo Weaving and Shabana Azeez.
The eight-part series, which premiered on SBS and SBS On Demand on 26 August 2026, follows Tobias Wallace, an airport chaplain who acts as an unofficial fixer for passengers and staff while clashing with his new boss, terminal manager Mira Ansari-Cole.
Its origins can be traced to August 2023, when producer Jude Troy left an Uber after attending a screening of her series Mother and Son at Melbourne’s ACMI. The car drove away with her bag, laptop and phone still inside.
Unable to contact the driver easily, Troy borrowed telephones from strangers and sought help from a federal police officer at the airport. The officer introduced her to Martyn Scrimshaw, Melbourne Airport’s chaplain.
Scrimshaw then guided Troy through restricted areas of the airport while trying to recover her belongings. During the two-hour search, he described the extraordinary range of people who turned to him for support, from distressed travellers and airport workers to those facing mental health crises or family emergencies.
“Story after story – the absurd, the ridiculous, the emotional,” Troy recalled. She became fascinated by the chaplain’s role as a confidant and problem-solver for almost every part of the airport community.
By the time Troy boarded her flight to Sydney, Scrimshaw had helped retrieve her bag and arranged an upgrade. The following morning, she told writer Elise McCredie what had happened.
McCredie’s response was immediate: they should turn the encounter into a television series.
The Airport Chaplain brings an airport’s hidden world to television
Rather than filming at Melbourne Airport, the production recreated the terminals on purpose-built sets at Flemington Racecourse. The setting allows the drama to move between check-in desks, security areas, staff rooms and the less visible corners of airport life.
Weaving plays Tobias as a well-meaning but intrusive figure who believes there is no problem he cannot solve. His approach brings him into conflict with Mira, a corporate-minded terminal manager determined to impose order and protect the airport’s finances.
Azeez, who rose to international prominence through the medical drama The Pitt, plays Mira as a single mother and outsider trying to establish herself in a senior role. Her character arrives to find the airport already in crisis and quickly decides that Tobias is more liability than asset.
For Azeez, Mira’s lack of obvious charm is central to the character. She is trying to succeed through competence and authority rather than relying on the qualities traditionally expected of women in positions of power.
“Nobody likes her because she’s not trading on likeability or beauty,” Azeez said. “She’s trading on competence.”
The series uses the airport’s constant movement to generate individual stories, from passengers in distress to workers struggling with pressure, grief and uncertainty. Those short dramas sit alongside the continuing battle between Tobias and Mira.
McCredie spent several days observing the real Scrimshaw at work, wearing a high-visibility vest and accompanying him through the airport. She said the role combined practical problem-solving with moments of humour, compassion and darkness.
Scrimshaw remains involved in the production as a story consultant, while Troy and McCredie serve as co-creators. The writing team also includes Sarah Bassiuoni, Mithila Gupta and Vidya Rajan.
For Troy, the series offers a way into the lives of the people who keep an airport functioning but rarely appear in stories about air travel. The drama’s central figure is not a pilot or executive, but someone whose work depends on listening to everyone from passengers to cleaners, security officers and senior managers.
What began with a lost bag has therefore become a workplace drama about an unusually busy community – and the chaplain trying to hold it together.
