<i>INXS: Never Tear Us Apart</i> has renewed interest in the Australian rock band.

INXS: Never Tear Us Apart has renewed interest in the Australian rock band. Photo: Supplied

On Sunday night the concluding episode of Channel Seven's INXS: Never Tear Us Apart drew a vast national audience of about 2.6 million viewers. On Monday morning it was confirmed that INXS's Very Best Of was atop the national album charts, a mere 24 years after their last number one.

If you noticed network difficulties yesterday afternoon while trying to use your mobile phone it might have been because of the volume of calls between television network executives, band managers and ageing Australian musicians.

So who will be next? Here – with apologies to Uncanny X-Men devotees – are five miniseries candidates.

AC/DC: It's a Long Way to the Top

Pros: Formed in Sydney, they became one of the biggest bands in the history of popular music, selling more than 200 million albums (INXS, in comparison, achieved sales of 40 million). They continued as a hard rock institution despite the death of frontman Bon Scott in 1980. It would be one famous guitar riff after another.

Cons: AC/DC – specifically sibling guitarists Malcolm and Angus Young – are renowned for saying no to nearly everything (they kept their music off iTunes until 2012) and maintaining their privacy. What does anyone know about Angus Young except that he performs in a schoolboy's uniform?

Cold Chisel: Forever Now

Pros: It's the definitive Australian pub rock band, complete with readily identifiable personalities, from wild-man lead singer Jimmy Barnes to philosophical chief songwriter and keyboardist Don Walker. They fought a radio ban for Khe Sanh, Countdown and sometimes each other, splitting at the height of their powers in 1983 before subsequently reforming.

Cons: They are still, less deceased drummer Steve Prestwich, a going concern, so may be unwilling to see actors portraying youthful versions of themselves. Younger audiences may also find it hard to believe the kamikaze lifestyle Barnes lived during the group's heyday. Never cracked it internationally.

Reckless: The Australian Crawl Story

Pros: It would be a drama-filled story: seventies band from Melbourne's Mornington Peninsula became chart-toppers, headlining vast outdoor shows in the early eighties before rhythm guitarist and songwriter Guy McDonough died from viral pneumonia at the age of just 28 in 1984. The band was bankrupted by an expensive album that stiffed (1985's Between a Rock and a Hard Place), and frontman James Reyne infamously detoured into acting with the 1983 mini-series Return to Eden.

Cons: They were hugely popular for a few years, but the group's legacy hasn't fully endured despite Reckless becoming a Triple M mainstay. Band co-operation would be zero, as guitarist Simon Binks has long been vitriolic about Reyne.

You're the Voice: John Farnham

Pros: The most successful male solo artist in Australian popular music, Farnham is known to multiple generations. After being a clean-cut pop star in the 1960s and 1970s, Farnham and manager Glenn Wheatley had to struggle to relaunch his career with 1986's Whispering Jack, an album that went on to sell a staggering 1.7 million copies in Australia. Since then he's been ubiquitous, and your mum loves him. Wheatley would be a juicy role, too.

Cons: Quite possibly too nice for a four-hour drama and, as INXS: Never Tear Us Apart demonstrated, topless women in hotel rooms are now required historical fact. Also, where to end? Farnham has done many a final tour.

Midnight Oil: The Power and the Passion

Pros: The most revered Australian rock'n'roll band, furiously intense live and makers of innovative records, Midnight Oil had a renegade manager, Garry Morris (seen in INXS: Never Tear Us Apart), and a political stance that tied them to modern Australian social history. They broke the States and had a singer who stood as a Senate candidate for the Nuclear Disarmament Party.

Cons: Good luck finding a charismatic bald beanpole who can capture Peter Garrett's barbed humour and intensity, let alone dance like him.