'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.
Series one:
'A 12-year-old girl is found chest deep in the freezing waters of a South Island lake. She's five months pregnant and when asked who the father is she insists: "No one". Then she disappears. Detective Robin Griffin's obsessive search for Tui unravels both Robin and the compromised town of Laketop.' (Source: Screen Australia. Sighted: 13/6/2013)
Series two:
'Top of the Lake Season Two: China Girl is a crime mystery story concerning the unidentified body of an Asian girl that washes up on to Sydney's Bondi Beach. The case seems hopeless, until detective Robin Griffin discovers that China Girl didn't die alone.' (Source: Daily Life. Sighted: 24/3/2016)
Series One of East West 101 focuses on two men whose destinies are irrevocably intertwined. Malik is driven by a hunger for justice. He was twelve when a masked gunman held up the family shop. Malik refused to hand over the money and his father was subsequently shot and injured. He later joined the police force and has been looking for the shadowy figure who pulled the trigger. When he finally finds him, Malik's belief in the justice system is challenged by a powerful desire for revenge. As he hunts down the truth, it is revealed that one of his colleagues, Crowley, had a part to play in the original investigation. Crowley is a man whose vision has been blighted by pain and prejudice. His son, Paul, was found dead of an overdose on drugs sold to him by a Lebanese dealer. When the drug dealer who sold Paul the heroin is found murdered, Internal Affairs come asking questions.
In Season Two, East West 101 expands to seven episodes as the Major Crime Squad investigate crime and murder in all quarters of multicultural Sydney. But overarching all is the quest for Detective Zane Malik to find the truth behind a car bomb attack which kills two men. The Major Crime Squad form a joint task force with the NSO (National Security Organisation) to deal with the crime. There is paranoia in the city and fallout on the Muslim community. Malik knows that in order to stop the circle of hate, he must solve the crime. Was the bomb really an act of extremists, as the media suggest, or a sophisticated killing by a career criminal? Malik doggedly pursues the truth until he, too, becomes a target. Inspector Patricia Wright questions his motives but her vision is clouded by personal issues that she wants to keep hidden from the squad. Crime has touched her own family.
Season Three : The Hero's Journey. 'In [this] third season of East West 101, the Major Crime Squad investigates a 36 million dollar robbery in Australia and its connections to the murder of 17 people in Afghanistan. Is the robbery to fund an act of terror by military trained radicals, or the work of sophisticated criminals? For Detective Zane Malik the case has savage personal and professional ramifications. Malik is obstructed in his quest to find those responsible by the interference of newcomer Detective Neil Travis. Travis has fought in Iraq and his attitude and approach to the investigation cause conflict with Malik. In the hunt for an elusive foe, ultimately both men are forced to confront what makes a man a hero, or a coward...'
(Source: East West 101, SBS website)
For Season Two.Miniseries exploring the gangland wars of Melbourne. Before Victorian Police finally intercepted plans for two contract killings in 2004, leading to multiple arrests, the death toll stood at thirty three, making it one of the bloodiest crime wars in the Western world.
'In the life of all Prime Ministers, comes the moment that tests the mettle of the man. In the life of every nation, comes the moment that tests the mettle of its people.
'For John Curtin and Australia those two moments meet in 1941. This is where our story begins.
'As Leader of the Opposition, Curtin (William McInnes) seems poised to reach out and claim his rightful destiny - the Prime Ministership of Australia. But he refuses to make a desperate grab for power. He waits for the government to self destruct. With the war against Hitler intensifying, the last thing the public wants is a weak and bickering government.
'Curtin is the only man deemed fit for the job. Power becomes his. Curtin no sooner moves offices when the Pacific erupts. Pearl Harbour is bombed. For the first time, Australia lives in fear of invasion. The Japanese are working their way down through Asia with alarming ferocity. Australia is completely unprepared.
'Blow by blow, we follow Curtin - our guide, our confidante, through a chilling and tumultuous ride over six months behind the walls of power. We pick up and run to get our footage, pry through half open doors, eavesdrop in the corridors - whatever it takes to keep our subject in focus.
'Curtin lives and breathes his work and is forced to endure the deluge alone, while his wife Elsie, (Noni Hazlehurst) attends to her ailing mother back home. Then, Darwin is bombed. Australian defences are crushed.
'Curtin battles via cables with the Empire's heavyweight, Churchill, to reroute Australian troops to defend home soil. It quickly becomes a monumental battle of wills with Curtin fighting both Churchill and members of his own government. Curtin's health deteriorates rapidly as he desperately seeks support.
'This is a raw and intimate story of a driven and inspirational leader - a man who struggles to battle his own personal demons while serving and protecting a country at war.'
Source: ABC Television website, program guide:
Sighted: 24/04/2007
A dramatised (and fictionalised) account of the arrest, transportation, and subsequent escape of Mary Bryant, one of the convicts transported to Australia on the First Fleet.
Adaptation of Jill Ker Conway's The Road from Coorain, focusing on her childhood at a remote sheep station and her secondary and tertiary education in Sydney.
'A six-part miniseries which follows six young Australians who go to war, full of confidence and bravado. They land in Singapore in 1942, just in time for surrender. With 15,000 others, they are marched off to Changi prison camp. Together, the six boys survive three and a half years of incarceration. Along the way they see many mates disappear to various work camps and while Gordon loses a toe, Curley nearly his mind, Eddie his faith, Bill his ability to trust, David his memory and Tom his soul, they never lose their central dependence on each other. Almost sixty years later, the six prepare to get together for what may be their last hurrah.'
Source: Australian Television Information Archive. (Sighted: 17/3/2014)
'When Jane Halifax is asked to provide a psychiatric assessment of laconic ex-cop Laurie Downes for a bail hearing in connection with a manslaughter change against him, Jane finds her professionalism tested to the utmost with the lives of the innocent people depending on her judgement and skills. As Jane becomes more involved with Laurie, he eventually reveals to her the secret obsession that has been behind his vigilante behaviour.'
Source: Australian Television Information Archive. (Sighted: 8/2/2013)
An adult drama set in an inner-city crisis centre and police station, Wildside focuses on a group of people who deal with the endless array of problems, crimes, and triumphs that tumble onto the streets of a city bursting with life. In addition to the police, other characters include those who work in a crisis centre in the tough red-light district of the city.
'The story of two remarkable children who were victims of the connivance and cruelty of the governments and organisations involved in the mass transportation of deprived and homeless children throughout the British Empire in the 1950s.'
Source: Screen Australia.
Brides of Christ is set in the mid-1960s, a time when the Catholic Church and its followers were struggling with the changing face of the Church, including the death of the Pope and the controversial issues of abortion and contraception. Told in six parts, the narrative follows Diane, a young woman who has walked away from her fiancé to join a convent after being sure she has a calling to the faith. Diane is forced to face her own demons, however, and eventually has to decide whether she can teach what the Church preaches, or if it's simply impossible for her to reconcile all the contradictions of the faith and uphold her vow of obedience.