When the trailer for SBS’s new drama The Airport Chaplain was released, it looked too good to be true: national treasure Hugo Weaving, rising star Shabana Azeez, and an endearing conceptual combination of The Terminal meets Border Security.

Fortunately, the series is even better than I’d hoped.

The role of airport chaplain

Weaving’s Tobias Wallace is the titular chaplain. He is “not an inquisitor or a priest” – more “a social worker in a fluoro vest” than a man of God. His job is to provide support for all faiths passing through Melbourne Airport and, in practice, he works as something of a fixer of myriad daily crises.

Among other examples, this manifests in: a mad, security protocol-defying dash to return a lost stuffed animal; digging through a passenger’s checked luggage to find an engagement ring for a Valentines Day proposal; trying to win the trust of a distressed unknown woman who has holed up in the airport’s prayer room for several days; and attempting to deescalate a panicked passenger with a........

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