Filming has wrapped on The Blake Mysteries: Ghost Stories, a telemovie due to air later this year on Channel Seven.
The cast gathered on set at Port Melbourne to reflect on the next instalment of the series, which was axed by the ABC early last year citing budget restraints, and which once starred Craig McLachlan as Dr Lucien Blake.
The mystery-crime-drama, set in the 1950s, premiered on the ABC in 2013 and garnered a strong audience over its five seasons. After its shock axing in March last year, fans petitioned the ABC to resume production - to no avail, until Channel Seven picked up the rights last October.
Production was suspended after a police investigation was launched into sexual assault allegations directed at McLachlan. Then, in April, it was announced that a telemovie would be made, with Nadine Garner's character Jean Blake, the doctor's new bride, taking on the central role.
The telemovie, set several years later than the TV series, in 1963, has Mrs Blake drawn into the investigation of two murders while she deals with the trauma of her husband, Dr Blake, being missing and presumed dead.
It took 13 days to film the telemovie and it will introduce a new character in newspaper editor Martin Carver, played by Tom Wren. Chief superintendent Matthew Lawson (played by Joel Tobeck) and newly-appointed police surgeon Dr Alice Harvey (Belinda McLory) will both return.
Speaking about the loss of Dr Blake, Garner acknowledged, "I know for fans there'll be a great sense of loss not seeing him, the Lucien character, on screen. I miss the Lucien character."
"Craig created a really beautiful character, and we shouldn't forget that and we very much see Jean actively grieving. Hopefully fans can go through that grieving process with Jean."
"We're just doing the best we can without him," she said.
Co-creator George Adams said, "The murder-mystery element hasn't changed. All those things that people loved about it haven't changed, barring one obvious thing which has changed, but, you know, that's life."