AustLit

'George Ogilive tells 'the story of a boy growing up in provincial Australia who wanted to be an actor so badly he endured hunger, pain and desperation to achieve it. It begins with a penniless teenager joining the last melodrama company in England and ends with a standing ovation at the Sydney Opera House.

'It is also a personal record of the false dawn of an Australian theatre in the 1950s through the rise of our State theatre companies to an illustrious career as director and teacher. Artists like Joan Sutherland, Leo McKern, Googie Withers, Warren Mitchell, Dennis Olsen, John Hargreaves, Mel Gibson and Russell Crowe are remembered with affection.

'In between is the story of the son of a Scottish immigrant family with a strict Presbyterian work ethic who resolutely taught himself his craft and who found solace at a time of crisis in Siddha Yoga, and pilgrimages to Israel and Taizé. It is a joyful book in which he confesses his fears and errors, and defines his work methods with disarming candour. But beneath the simple gifts is a rigorous, self-motivated spiritual search for the meaning of life which imbues his mature work with the joy of small things.' (Publisher's blurb)

'In February 1967, Ronald Ryan was hanged for the murder of Prison Warder George Hodson, shot while Ryan was attempting to escape from Pentridge Prison. The jury found Ryan guilty after a controversial trial, despite Philip Opas QC passionately arguing his client's innocence. The mandatory penalty for murder was death, but since the previous 35 death penalties had been routinely commuted, no one believed Ryan would hang. The Premier, Henry Bolte, saw the case as a contest of wills and brushed aside all appeals and petitions, including one signed by seven of the jurors who sat on the Ryan case. Based on meticulous research, The Last Of The Ryans tells the true story of Ronald Ryan - about his wife Dorothy, and their three young daughters; his friendship with Prison Governor Ian Grindlay, the man who had to hang him; and his conversion by Father Brosnan who so convinced Ryan that redemption was real that Ryan went to the gallows in expectation.'

Source: Australian Television Information Archive. (Sighted: 26/6/2013)

'In the night club world of drugs, sex and cocktails, the boundaries of decency become blurred and one never knows who to trust. Working under cover for The Feds, Jo's colleague is murdered before she can pass on information about a massive drug shipment arranged by the club's owner. Jo poses as a law student to infiltrate his organisation but soon discovers more than she anticipated. Meanwhile Dave investigates a suspected leak which may threaten Jo's survival.'

Source: Australian Television Information Archive. (Sighted: 17/6/2013)

A character-based television drama series about the lives of police officers in the fictitious Australian country town of Mt Thomas, this series began with the arrival of Constable Maggie Doyle (Lisa McCune) to the Mt Thomas station in the episode 'A Woman's Place'. Doyle and avuncular station boss Senior Sergeant Tom Croydon (John Wood) were the core characters of the series until the departure of Lisa McCune.

Immensely popular for a decade, Blue Heelers was cancelled in 2006 after thirteen seasons. The announcement was front-page news in Australia's major newspapers including The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney's Daily Telegraph, The Herald Sun and The Age in Melbourne, and Brisbane's Courier Mail.

On June 8, 2006 Ross Warneke wrote in The Age:

'It's over and, to be perfectly blunt, there's no use lamenting the demise of Blue Heelers any more. When the final movie-length episode aired on Channel Seven on Sunday night, 1.5 million Australians tuned in, a figure that was big enough to give the show a win in its timeslot but nowhere near big enough to pay the sort of tribute that this writer believes Heelers deserved after more than 500 episodes.It is unlikely there will be anything like it again. At almost $500,000 an hour, shows such as Blue Heelers are quickly becoming the dinosaurs of Australian TV.'

'The Australian wife of a notorious Colombian drug dealer wants to return home and testify against her husband. It is up to Dave Griffin and Jo Moody to get Brandy Blanco out of Mexico, back to Australia and into the witness box. The drug dealer will go to any lengths to keep his wife out of court.'

Source: Australian Television Information Archive. (Sighted: 17/6/2013)

This 1988 mini-series is based on the novel by D'Arcy Niland, and follows the successful 1957 feature film adaptation, starring Peter Finch (made by Ealing Studios, but filmed in Australia).

The narrative follows Macauley, who tramps through outback Australia looking for work. At first, he's content to leave his daughter Buster with her mother in the city, but when he discovers his wife's infidelity, he takes Buster with him (as the 'shiralee' or 'burden' of the title). As the taciturn Macauley tries to bend Buster to his ways, Buster slowly softens her father's often brutal nature.

Moran notes, in his Guide to Australian TV Series, 'the series was the hit of 1989. It had excellent ratings of 38 nationally and peaked in Adelaide at 45. On BBC2 it had an audience of fourteen million over two nights.'

On her fourteenth birthday, Kate feels that her life is perfect, until she discovers that she is adopted. Kate becomes obsessed with discovering the identity of her real parents. She eventually meets her mother and her half-siblings; the latter know nothing of Kate's existence. In her quest, however, Kate has been oblivious to her adoptive parents' feelings. Their concerns make her realise how important they are to her.

(Source: LibrariesAustralia)

'An aboriginal man, Stuart Wilkins (David Kennedy) is arrested for taking part in a land rights demonstration, after the death of his father. His white wife Alison (Susan Leith) leaves him and takes their son Tommy (Jamie Agius). Seven years later, Stuart returns to Sydney, determined to re-establish contact with his son. When his ex-wife and her father (Ray Meagher) will not allow it, Stuart goes to court to get access.'

Source: Australian Screen (http://aso.gov.au/titles/features/short-changed/notes/). (Sighted: 15/10/2014)

Some fifteen years after the events of Mad Max 2, when civilisation has been all but destroyed by the nuclear war, former policeman Max continues to roam the Australian desert, this time in a camel-drawn vehicle. When father-and-son thieves Jebediah Senior and Junior use their jury-rigged airplane to steal his possessions and his means of transportation, Max makes his way to Bartertown. A cesspool of post-apocalyptic capitalism powered by methane-rich pig manure, Bartertown is ruled by two competing overlords: Aunty Entity and Master (who rides around on the back of his hulking underling, Blaster). Seeking to re-equip himself, Max strikes a deal with the haughty Aunty to kill Blaster in ritualised combat inside Thunderdome, a giant jungle gym where Bartertown's conflicts are played out in a postmodern update of bread and circuses. Although Max manages to fell the mighty Blaster, he refuses to kill him after realising Blaster has a developmental disability. Aunty's henchmen murder Blaster anyway, and then punish Max for violating the law of Thunderdome: 'two men enter, one man leaves.' Lashed to the back of a hapless pack animal and sent out into a sandstorm to die, Max is rescued by a band of tribal children and teens. The descendants of the victims of an airplane crash, the kids inhabit a lush valley and wait for the day when Captain Walker, the plane's pilot, will return to lead them back to civilisation. Some of the children refuse to believe that the glorious cities of their mythology no longer exist, and set off in search of civilisation on their own. Max and three tribe members subsequently set out to rescue them from Bartertown and Aunty Entity.

Dramatisation of the 1932-1933 Ashes tour of Australia, otherwise known as the 'bodyline' series, after the controversial fast leg theory bowling ('bodyline') practised by the English cricket team in an attempt to counter Don Bradman's skill as a batsman.

Albert Moran, in his Guide to Australian TV Series, links the mini-series to the earlier Kennedy Miller production The Dismissal, arguing that 'Although ostensibly a change in subject matter (from politics to sport)', Bodyline is 'a further fascinating portrait in tyranny'. Moran also argues that the use of archival footage 'authenticated the series, augmenting its claims to truth, while the material shot for the series narrativised and dramatised the original footage'.

The series was shown over four successive weeks, and produced excellent ratings for Channel Ten.

Dramatisation of the political events leading up to the dismissal of the Whitlam government on November 11th 1975.