AustLit

'Set in a familiar future, the Stan Original series The Commons is a gripping character-driven relationship drama and a story about motherhood as the ultimate act of faith in humanity.

'Taking us into this world is Eadie (Golden Globe winner Joanne Froggatt) a radical and gifted neuropsychologist who is desperate for a child of her own. Eadie takes us on a ride through a terrifying brave new world of science where she will come face-to-face with the dark heart of intellectual property theft, disaster capitalism and the swampland that is the new eugenics.'

Source: Stan.

'A woman searches for the baby she abandoned 45 years ago and is confronted by what she discovers.'

Source: Screen Australia.

'When tech-nerd and sci-fi fanatic Luke (Kamil Ellis) arrives for his first day at Bremin High all appears to be tiresomely ordinary, but what he doesn't know is that Bremin is located at the convergence of magical ley lines and that someone has been awaiting his arrival to put together a new gang of Nowhere Boys. Three other Nowhere Boys have already been identified; 'bad boy' Heath (Joe Klocek) high achiever and soccer star, Nicco (Luca Sardelis) and musical theatre geek Jesse (Jordie Race-Coldrey).

'Coinciding with Luke's arrival, the people of Bremin start disappearing. Doubly peculiar is that, not only are they disappearing, but they're being wiped from everyone's memory and only the Nowhere Boys have noticed! Eventually Luke, Heath, Nicco and Jesse discover they are the last four people in the world. They find themselves thrust together in an eerily empty wasteland, forced to figure out how to save the town.' (Production summary)

'When two girls mysteriously disappear in identical circumstances in the wilds of Tasmania 15 years apart, Doctor Anna Macy finds herself inexplicably linked to both cases. To clear her name, Anna must delve into her troubled past and face some truths about herself and the otherworldly nature of this gothic land.'

Source: Screen Australia.

'One man's meat is another man's misery. Cleaver is retained for a low rent tawdry sex offence. Royal Commissions that have decimated David's front bench mean that even barrel-bottom Cleaver Greene is getting briefs.'

Source: Australian Television Information Archive. (Sighted: 23/7/2014)

'After a big city detective is posted to a quiet Australian coastal town, a murder of a local philanthropist throws the town into unrest.'

Source: Australian Television Information Archive. (Sighted: 14/6/2013)

'Set among the turquoise waters and lethal wildlife of Australia's Far North Queensland and the Torres Strait, The Straits is an exotic, darkly humorous crime drama.

'The Montebellos are not your average Australian family. Modern day smugglers, their family business is transporting drugs into Australia and guns and exotic wildlife out, making use of ties of blood and loyalty in the Torres Strait Islands.

'When Harry, the head of the family, starts to plan his succession, a power struggle is sparked between brother and brother, wife and daughter. Under attack from ambitious bikies and mercurial PNG Raskols, the family must hold together through torture, assassination and imprisonment.'

Source: ABC1 website, http://www.abc.net.au/tv/thestraits/
Sighted: 30/01/2012

'On any single day, Cleaver Greene is described as many things. Whilst his ex-wife may call him 'unreliable", his son will call him "a mate". To his learned friends at the bar table he is "a real wag", to his jurors he is "hilarious", and to most judges he is "an outrage". To the Tax Office, he is "a defendant", to a certain brothel owner "a legend", and to his former cocaine dealer "a tragic loss".

'The clients he loves the most - the cases that thrill him - are those that appear to be utterly hopeless. There's something about being on the wrong side of conventional wisdom that feels right to him, be it at the bar table or the dinner table.

'He will do whatever it takes to defend and save life's truly lost souls. The big sinners. Its drug lords. Its cannibals. Its bestialites. And at the same time, he will struggle to save himself, to stop himself falling back into the abyss that has characterised most of his self-destructive adult life thus far.

'Despite his own hopelessness, his wit and charm have won him hordes of companions over the years. Most nights of the week, there is no shortage of invitations: dinner with a judge at the RMC (His Honour pays), or with some drug dealers in Chinatown (Manos pays), or with some of his copper mates at the Matador (no one pays).

'Any gaps in his diary will inevitably be filled by either all night sessions in chambers preparing for court or similarly lengthy sessions at his favourite brothel, simply referred to by those in the know as "the Club" (here, Cleaver is more than happy to open his own wallet). He tends to wake up bruised. Physically. Emotionally. Spiritually. Usually it's a combination thereof. He spends a nano-second wondering how his life came to this - living in a studio above a café in the Cross, without his wife and son, in love with a prostitute, defending hopeless cases. Then he gets up, puts on his dressing gown and a pair of brogues and goes downstairs for a coffee. Then it's out into the world - onto the battleground that is Cleaver Greene's day.'

Source: ABC Television website, http://www.abc.net.au/tv/
Sighted: 1 November 2010.

'Spirited is a romantic look at life and love after death with a rock 'n' roll twist. From the producers of Love My Way, Spirited is a blackly funny exploration of love, death and life seen through the lives of a group of people who are extreme, complicated and unique. The eight episode, escapist and romantic drama series will take richly drawn characters through situations and storylines that are anything but predictable. This is a show with a lightness of touch and yet it also encompasses the absurdity of modern dentistry, explores the curious world of parenting, celebrates the punk aesthetic and depicts a unique vision of the spirit world' (Spirited website).

While working on a rabbit-proof fence in 1929, Australia's leading crime writer of the period, Arthur Upfield, began plotting the perfect murder for his 1931 novel The Sands of Windee. A discussion between Upfield and a fellow worker about finding a fool-proof means of disposing of a body to use in the novel was overheard by one of the author's friends, stockman 'Snowy' Rowles. Shortly afterwards Rowles murdered three men and put the scheme into effect. He was later charged by police, however, and the subsequent trial became one of Australia's most sensational during the 1930s.

'How do you learn to love again when the pain of the past won't let you go? Tracy Heart has set herself the humble goal of owning her own business. The return of her ex-boyfriend Jonny, the criminal aspirations of her brother Ray and the emotional draw of ex-footy star Lionel create friction for Tracy, and her bond of trust with her mother Janelle is tested. A story about families. About lies. And about learning to love again.'

Source: Screen Australia. (Sighted: 6/8/2013)

'Set in a small country town, FIREFLIES centres on the townspeople and its rural bushfire brigade. You can measure a township by the commitment of its people. Most of them are volunteers, from the fire brigade to the CWA. Whether you're new in town, or here for generations, when you're facing the driest hottest summer in decades, it pays to belong.'

Source: Screen Australia. (Sighted: 3/12/2013)

'While on a backpacking holiday in Australia, 21-year-old Gemma meets and falls in love with Michael Tyler, a fugitive posing as an undercover cop. Years later it is discovered that her 6-year-old son has leukaemia and must undergo treatment using the blood of a compatible donor. Gemma travels to Australia to find Tyler who has escaped from prison and unbeknown to Gemma the police use her to track him down.'

Source: Screen Australia. (Sighted: 14/6/2013)

'An old woman lies dead, seemingly killed by her own dog. An open and shut case? The killer dog is condemned to death row, but Margaret O'Halloran, the legendary Dogwoman, suspects foul play. Did the dog do it, or were there more sinister circumstances? In a race against time to save the dog's life, Margaret is drawn into a world of secrets and lies, intrigue and conspiracy.'

Source: Screen Australia. (Sighted: 13/6/2013)

Farscape was an Australian/American co-production, a science-fiction television program combining puppetry and live actors to follow the trevails of American astronaut John Crichton, flung into the far reaches of the galaxy during the maiden flight of his experimental craft.

Farscape made use of puppetry to circumvent the problem of having to present alien life-forms as roughly humanoid in size and shape. However, despite the use of Jim Henson's puppet studios, the program was distinctly adult in tone and content.

Unlike other programs filmed in Australian studios (for example, Terra Nova), Farscape was very strongly a co-production, employing a high number of Australian actors and directors. Over a third of the scripts (thirty of the eighty-eight episodes in the original four seasons) were written by Australian script-writers (see below for details). In addition, two Australian script-writers (Lily Taylor and Grant McAloon) served as script/story editors and another (Justin Monjo) acted as creative consultant.

After its abrupt cancellation, Farscape was succeeded by a number of ancillary texts (including a mini-series, graphic novels, and a role-playing game), but these works were American productions rather than Australian/American co-productions.

Inspired in part by Sydney nurse Anita Cobby, who was gang raped, tortured and murdered by five men who kidnapped her as she waited for a bus to take her home late one night, The Boys takes the viewer into the world of a violent and dysfunctional family controlled by the intelligent, malevolent, violent, and manipulative eldest son.

After being released from a twelve-month prison sentence, Brett Sprague returns to his mother's suburban Sydney home and the tension within the family rises almost immediately. His mother tries to keep the peace, only to see her three sons turn on her new boyfriend. The narrative climaxes when after eighteen hours of drinking and fighting, the boys go out and cruise the streets, looking for trouble. It is then that they see a girl waiting for a bus on her own.

'Staff in an emergency department of a large Australian hospital have become addicted to the adrenalin rush they experience while dealing with life and death emergencies.'

Source: Screen Australia.

'Fast-paced series spin-off of the hit feature film. Filmed at an abandoned school in Sydney's Maroubra, this program was about an ethnically diverse group of students attending Hartley High School.'

Source: National Film and Sound Archive record.