Rebecca Gibney and Erik Thomson are reuniting on-screen! New Idea hears the pair are in final talks for a top-secret project, which will delight fans who first fell in love with their double act on Packed to the Rafters.
“Bec and Erik are perfect together,” says our source. “Watching them in the [2021] Rafters reboot reminded many producers just how electric their chemistry is.”
WATCH: Rebecca Gibney and Erik Thomson look back at Packed To The Rafters
While details about the new collaboration are being kept hush-hush, the insider thinks one possibility might involve Erik, 55, joining Rebecca, 58, in her current TV series, Under the Vines.
The New Zealand- filmed production, which co-stars Downton Abbey’s Charles Edward, has been a hit locally and abroad. It follows two city slickers inheriting a failing vineyard in rural New Zealand, with Season 2 premiering in February.
“If a new season gets green-lit it would be a no-brainer to have Erik join the cast. He and Rebecca have such strong ties to New Zealand,” adds the insider. “It would be very special to see them in something that takes place there.”
Raised in Wellington, Rebecca currently lives in Dunedin with husband, Richard Bell.
Meanwhile, Erik spent his teenage years in Wellington after emigrating from Scotland with his family when he was 7. Now based in South Australia with his wife Caitlin McDougall, he has admitted: “I will always see New Zealand as my home.”
After Packed to the Rafters ended its original run in 2013, Erik even went on to star in the New Zealand-set series 800 Words.
“Bec and Erik will always jump at the chance to work with one another,” continues the insider.
Indeed, when the pair reunited for the Back to the Rafters revival, Bec gushed that she had been longing to work with Erik again.
WATCH: The Back To The Rafters cast get emotional reflecting on the show
Describing their relationship as easy and wonderful, she said at the time: “Every time I go on another show, and they go, ‘we need a hot guy’ and I say Erik, they’re like ‘as if’. But why not?!”
Erik added: “One day, someone will go, ‘that’s actually a really good idea’. I think people would go on a journey with us.”
Speaking about their chemistry as Julie and Dave Rafter, Erik, who’s about to be back on our screens in Channel Seven’s The Claremont Murders, also says it was “rare” for him and Bec to connect as easily and as intimately as they did.
“We [have] the shorthand, the energy, the history,” he says.
WATCH: Back To The Rafters reboot trailer
“Erik and I are the best of friends,” adds Rebecca. “He has an acting style that suits my style.”
For more, pick up the latest issue of New Idea!
