Cirrus@Austlit

The Seven Deadly Sins was pitched to Penny Chapman, then head of drama at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, by script editor Barbara Masel. Her idea was to create a series of stories that would 'let the moral compass spin'. Masel was also interested in encouraging the audience to identify with behaviour they would not normally condone and 'that all of the characters in each of the episodes should manifest the sin'. With Chapman on board and Bob Weis appointed as series producer, Masel then set about finding writers. When both outlines and drafts were completed, the directors were brought on board. PJ Hogan ('Sloth') and Alison Maclean ('Greed') were selected as directors before their international careers had taken off, while Gale Edwards ('Pride') had until then had only ever directed for the theatre. The series was broadcast at 9.30pm because of the language used. In fact, the series rated well, pulling the biggest audience ever at the time for an ABC drama program in that time slot.

[Source: Australian Screen http://australianscreen.com.au/titles/seven-sins-envy]