Action! Total Control, starring Deborah Mailman and Rachel Griffiths films final season at Parliament House

The ABC political drama starring Rachel Griffiths and Deborah Mailman took over Parliament House this week, to bring the third and final series to life.

Filming on location meant that when Daniela Farinacci took to her office as the show's speaker of the house Phillipa Bailey, she was actually sitting in the real speaker Milton Dick's office.

When shots were filmed outside of the prime minister's office on Friday, they had to work around Anthony Albanese's press conference announcing Michele Bullock as the Reserve Bank Governor.

And when Arts Minister Tony Burke did a television cross last week from the senate courtyard, he told reporters he was coming to them live from the set of Total Control.

"What you see with the change of government, is that our access to filming in Parliament House has been increased around what we can do here. Which I think speaks volumes to the current government," producer Darren Dale said.

"Just the way that we've been able to work with the presiding officers to get into Parliament House has dynamically changed to the previous government."

And while the real politicians are welcoming to their on-screen counterparts, it also adds immensely to production value.

While international productions may have budgets to recreate their homes of parliament, the reality is that without access to these locations, television shows such as Total Control would not exist.

Instead of having to recreate Parliament House - of which the corridors alone would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to replicate - they can simply move into offices such as that of Mr Dick and remove any personal effects to film in.

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"Yes it adds to the authenticity but I think it also adds great production value," Mr Dale said.

"Things that we could never have been able to afford on Australian budgets, like this building is at such a large scale, and the finishes and the marble and the wood and the shine and the polish.

"It is certainly one of the best - and I would say the best - looked-after buildings in Australia. So like having that scale, it just gives us great production value."

The third and final season of the show, once again follows outsider turned kingmaker, Alex Irving (played by Deborah Mailman), who is now completely at home in the nation's capital.

Meanwhile, Rachel Anderson (played by Rachel Griffiths), now an occasional ally and former prime minister, is threatening to upend the entire system by establishing her own political party.

Directed by Wayne Blair and Jub Clerc, Total Control season three is filming in Canberra, the regional New South Wales town of Trangie and Sydney.

Total Control is set to air on ABC next year.

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