The actress is only 41 and the parent of a two-year-old child but the Tripping Over crew used a bit of television magic to create a character for Gibney that could pass for the mother of a 20-something son.

Gibney plays Lydia, the no-nonsense alter ego and mother of MacPherson's Ned in Tripping Over, premiering on Channel 10 tonight.

"They didn't use any tricks to glam Lydia up, they didn't use any filter or backlighting, so you do see all the lines around my eyes," she says.

"I am 42 in December so I am only a couple of years younger than what I would be if I was really his mother."

Gibney and MacPherson weren't the only famous faces to sign up for Tripping Over, with Abe Forsythe, Nicholas Bell, Brooke Satchwell and Lisa McCune some of the other notables.

"I feel very fortunate to have been put in that cast, working with Nicholas Bell, Lisa McCune and Paul McGann," Gibney says.

"The younger cast and the English actors were just wonderful. I just felt great to work with them all and, at the end of the day, I think we have done a great job."

The last time television audiences got to see a story about the Australian coming-of-age tradition of making the journey to the UK was Kangaroo Palace in 1997. Gibney also filled one of the lead roles in that production.

"That was set in the 1960s so was completely different, it was not as contemporary as this and nowhere as relevant," she says.

"This story jumps out at you, especially the incident that happens half way through the first episode, it comes from nowhere and is such a shock.

"You want to find out what was going to happen to all of the characters, not just one of them, how their stories are going to work out.

"It would be great if we could go into a second season of Tripping Over and they haven't tied it up at all, there's a conclusion to some of the stories but not all of them.

"Tripping Over was filmed in some beautiful locations – Sydney, London and Bangkok – so I think the world is our oyster for the second season."