australian television information archive

Come in Spinner

Year: 1990 (ABC)
Executive Producer: Sandra Levy
Producer: Jan Chapman
Director: Rob Marchand
Screenplay by: Nick Enright, Lissa Benyon

Sydney in 1944, the tide is turning in the Pacific War and American forces have made Sydney a gaudy, hectic garrison town. The gamblers and "good time charlies" converge on the South Pacific Hotel, one of Sydney's finest.

The heart of the hotel is the bustling beauty salon run by the cool professional Claire who hides a guilty secret; Deb who has a pre-war marriage and a wartime alternative and Guinea whose 'good war' is not what it seems.

Come in Spinner is the story of one week in their lives, as they play the game of chance for the highest stakes... survival, security and the opportunity for happiness and love. (4 x 55 min)

Cast: Lisa Harrow as Claire, Kerry Armstrong as Deb, Rebecca Gibney as Guinea

Flair

Aired: August 01 & 08, 1990 (Seven)
Produced by Flair Television Productions Pty Ltd
Creators: Paul Davies and Gayle Hopgood
Producer: Paul F Davies
Director: Henri Safran
Screenplay by: Alan Hopgood

Fashion designer Tessa Clarke returns home from America intent on becoming a major player in the Australian fashion industry. Her success leads to bitter jealousy amongst her rivals and problems when a one-time employee manages to win a court case claiming back her designs. (2 x 120min)

Cast: Heather Thomas as Tessa Clarke, Andrew Clarke as Philip Harmon, James Healey as Chris Drake, Rowena Wallace as Pamela Winter-Smith, Joseph Bottoms as Matt Lee, Imogen Annesley as Sally Clarke, Charles 'Bud' Tingwell as Bert Clarke, David Reyne as Mark Tupper, Elaine Smith as Megan, Briony Behets as Samantha Harmon

The Great Air Race

Year: 1990
Produced by Dimsey Grigsby Pty Ltd
Executive Producers: Ross Dimsey, Penny Chapman, Jill Robb
Producers: Howard Grigsby, Ross Dimsey
Director: Marcus Cole
Writers: Michael Brindley, Ross Dimsey

An air race from London to Melbourne is announced. The prizes are rich but the risks are high. From Europe, Australia and the United States fliers battle to find a plane and to raise the cash to compete. Those who win through this first test gather on a cold October dawn in England to race to Australia - half a world away. (4 x 50min)

Cast: Gary Day, Gosia Dobrowolska, Jonathan Hyde, Caroline Goodall, Helen Slater, Barry Bostwick, Tim Hughes, Burt Cooper, Tony Hawkins, Josephine Byrnes

Jackaroo

Year: 1991
Produced by Crawford Productions
Executive Producer: Terry Ohlsson
Producer: Bill Hughes
Screenplay: John Cundill
Director: Michael Carson

Jack Simmonds is a Jackaroo. He is the son of a part-Aboriginal itinerent worker, but his good looks and fiery spirit have earned him a reputation as a brawler and a ladies man. Fate brings Jack to Glen Ayre, a huge cattle station run by the wealthy and powerful Logan Family. Two sisters have inherited the Logan fortune, one a spinster (who runs the property), the other married to a Perth tycoon with a teenage daughter, Clare. Jack learns that Hamish Logan, co-founder of the empire, took an Aboriginal wife, and was later murdered by her tribe. Jack Simmonds, the Jackaroo is a descendant of that union. If not legally, then certainly by blood and Aboriginal law, he is part of the Logan family. The conflicts of race and heritage begin... Jack falls in love with Clare and she becomes pregnant. Clare goes into hiding and the baby will be adopted. And so begins Jack's struggle to claim his inheritance, the woman he loves and the child he has never seen. Set against the backdrop of the Australian Outback, and the white man's grab for mineral wealth, Jackaroo is a story of love, jealousy, greed and revenge. (4 x 60min)

Cast: David McCubbin, Annie Jones, Warren Mitchell, Tina Bursill, Dot Collard

The Last Crop

Year: 1990
Executive Producer: Chris Oliver
Producer: Margaret Matheson
Director: Sue Clayton
Writers: Michael O'Hanlan, Richard Burridge

Seen through the eyes of a teenage girl, The Last Crop follows the adventures of a fatherless family whose linchpin is an ingenious mother. The mother is a cleaning lady in luxury apartments. She devises highly creative schemes to turn the burden of her dead father's barren farm, which she inherits, into her fortune.

Cast: Kerry Walker, Noah Taylor, Sarah Hooper, John Pangelis

The Phantom Horseman

Year: 1990
Producers: Philip East, Roger Mirams
Director: Howard Rubie
Writer: David Phillips

THE PHANTOM HORSEMEN is an adventure set in early Sydney. A mysterious masked horseman is the only defence the colonists have against corrupt officials and marauding soldiery at the time of the rum rebellion.

Cast: Beth Buchanan, Brian Rooney, Bryan Marshall, James Coate

Pirate's Island

Year: 1990
Producers: Philip East, Roger Mirams
Director: Viktors Ritelis
Writer: Rick Maier

A group of children are swept away in a hot air balloon and land on an island out of time—an island where a group of Spanish pirates have been marooned for a hundred years or more. (100 min)

Cast: Beth Buchanan, Brian Rooney

Police Crop: The Winchester Conspiracy

Year: 1990
An ABC co-production with Southern Star Sullivan
Writer: Ian David
Director: Ken Cameron

The story of Operation Seville has no rival in the history of Australian policing. Over several years the Australian Federal and New South Wales Forces worked with the Mafia in growing and distributing marijuana. Out of it a murder was solved, several arrests were made and $14 miilion worth of drugs hit the streets of Sydney and Melbourne... and a senior police officer was gunned down for his part in it. Police Crop tells this story without fear or favour, exposing the extent of police collusion with the Mafia. (120min)

Cast: Frankie J. Holden, Luciano Catenacci, Terry Gill, Gerard Kennedy, Tim Robertson

The Private War of Lucinda Smith

Year: 1990
Produced by Revcom Television
Executive Producer: Ian Bradley
Producers: Geoffrey Daniels, Ray Alchin
Director: Ray Alchin
Writer: Peter Yeldham

The rivalry between two friends over Lucinda is further complicated when they find themselves on different sides during World War I.

Cast: Linda Cropper, Nigel Havers, Andrew Clark, Vincent Ball

Ratbag Hero

Year: 1990
Executive Producer: Zelda Rosenbaum
Producers: Zelda Rosenbaum, Oscar Whitbread
Director: Oscar Whitbread
Screenplay by: Sonia Borg

Ratbag Hero takes place around the picturesque towns of the Murray River during the 1930s. Set against the colourful background of loggers and bargees, the mini-series revolves around the Kelsall family and a generation not only coming to grips with their environment but of the ties that bind a family. We experience a young man's coming to terms with his father's expectations and his own destiny. (4 x 60 min)

Cast: Cameron Nugent, Marcus Graham, Peter Fisher, Elaine Smith, Marion Edward, Matthew Ketteringham, Reg Evans, George Mallaby, Kate Whitbread, Robert Morgan

Ring Of Scorpio

Year: 1990
Produced by Southern Star
Producer: Errol Sullivan

A gripping story of secrets within secrets, of disloyalty and deception, of passion, murder and revenge. Helen Simmons cannot believe her eyes. There, on the floor of the Sydney Stock Exchange, is a man she thought was dead. Richard Deveraux, the man who once told her he loved her, the man who betrayed her, the man who nearly destroyed her and her friends. Now, it seems Richard is not only alive and well, he is even more dangerous than ever. (4 x 1hr)

Cast: Jack Scalia, Catherine Oxenberg, Caroline Goodall, Linda Cropper, Zaki Alto, David Attrill, Badger Bates, Pat Bishop, Adrian Carbajal, Basil Clarke, Richard Colman, Michael Cook, Lillian Crombie, Damian Cudmore,

The Rogue Stallion

Year: 1990
Executive Producer: Roger Mirams
Producers: Don Reynolds, Philip East
Director: Henri Safran
Written by Ysabelle Dean & Rick Maier

Young Anna and her mother arrive in New Zealand after her father is killed in a tragic accident in Australia. Anna dreams of owning a horse but her mother is afraid to let her as it was a horse that killed her father. A wild brumby terrorises the mean-minded landholder, Garrett, and despite all his attempts to kill the horse, it continually outsmarts him. The horse, declared untameable and possessed, meets young Anna and together they make Garrett realise he cannot be the ruler of everything. (100 min)

Cast: Beth Buchanan, Brian Rooney, Michele Fawdon, Andrew Shephard, Bruno Lawrence, Peter McAllum, Jodie Rimmer, John Walton, Dean O'Gorman, Jose Maria Caffarel

The Saint In Australia

Year: 1990
Producers: John Hanrahan, Sue Milliken
Director: Donald Crombie
Writer: Patricia Johnson

Simon Templar, 'The Saint', arrives in Sydney in search of a missing Asian girl. He bumps into an ex-girlfriend at the airport and becomes involved in an attempt to kill the ex-girlfriend's father in order to own a prime piece of real estate.

Cast: Simon Dutton, Ed Devereaux, Rebecca Gilling, Nikki Coghill

Shadows of the Heart

Year: 1990
Executive Producer: Jock Blair
Producer: Jan Marnell
Director: Rod Hardy
Teleplay: Deborah Cox

Dr. Kate Munro arrives on the remote Gannet Island to take up a medical practice, keen to introduce the marvels of modern medicine to an island untouched by the twentieth century. The islanders lead conservative lives, ruled by the ingrained tradition and doctrines of the Catholic Church. Kate is instantly swept off her feet by Vic Hanlon, a strapping young grazier whose family represents the island''s wealth, but she is continually in confrontation with the island's priest who represents the dogmatic reactionary forces she despises. Yet beneath the philosophical and ideological antagonism there is something stirring: they are irrevocably attracted to each other as man and woman. Their passionate liaison surfaces repressed emotions, enabling Michael to become compassionate and caring as a priest, and a man. (2 x 120min)

Cast: Josephine Byrnes, Marcus Graham, Jerome Ehlers, Jason Donovan, Robyn Nevin, Barry Otto, Harold Hopkins