australian television information archive

Balmain Boys

Saturday, November 12, 2005 (Ten)
Executive Producers: Hal McElroy, Di McElroy
Producer: Rocky Bester
Director: Raymond Quint
Writers: Tony Morphett, Dave Warner

After an injury ends his law-enforcement career, a cop forms a detective agency with his lawyer brother. (100 min)

Starring: Jeremy Sims, Paul Gleeson, Fiona Press, Lara Cox, Mark Furze, Jeff Truman, Pippa Grandison, Imelda Corcoran, William Zappa, Natalia Novikova

Note: although produced in 2001, Balmain Boys did not air until 2005

Changi

Year: 2001
Produced by Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Executive Producer: Tim Pye
Producer: Bill Hughes
Director: Kate Woods
Writer: John Doyle

Australians survived as Japanese prisoners of war in disproportionately high numbers. Perhaps because their mateship turned humour into an art form - a force as palpable and powerful as any can of condensed milk or smear of strawberry jam, in the battle to keep body and soul together. Changi is the story of how humour won the battle for six young men.

Cast: Matthew Newton, Charles 'Bud' Tingwell, Stephen Curry, Bill Kerr, Anthony Hayes, Frank Wilson, Leon Ford, Terry Norris, Mark Priestly, Slim De Grey, Matthew Whittet, Desmond Kelly, Geoff Morrell

Do or Die

Australia: July 08 and 09, 2001 (Seven)
Canada: September 02 and 03, 2002 (Showcase)
An Australia/UK co-production
Produced by Warner Sisters Film & TV, Southern Star Entertainment
Producers: John Edwards, Lavinia Warner
Writers: Christopher Lee, John Collee
Director: Rowan Woods

Sam (Kate Ashfield) and Claire (Patsy Palmer) are two attractive British backpackers who hit Australia looking for adventure and excitement, and they certainly find what they're looking for as they live life to the full throughout their trip. When Sam meets Joey (Tom Long) she conveniently forgets about her long-term boyfriend back home and falls madly in love with the handsome Australian. But her Antipodean idyll is shattered following a dawn raid by the police, when she discovers that the man of her dreams is not who he appears to be. He is in fact a notorious bank robber, real name Michael Tyler, whose shady past throws him and Sam into the path of the obsessive Detective Quint (William McInnes).

Sam immediately returns to the UK and marries her boyfriend Nicholas (Hugo Speer) but six years later, she must return to Australia to deal with the startling consequences of her past. With a life at stake, she finds herself sucked into Sydney's criminal underworld, where there is no turning back as Sam, Michael, Nicholas and Quint must each face their demons.

Starring: Patsy Palmer, Kate Ashfield, Tom Long, William McInnes, Martin Sacks, Hugo Speer

Finding Hope

Sunday, May 06, 2001 (Ten)
Executive Producers: Mikael Borglund and Phillip Bowman
Produced by Simone North
Writer: Tony Cavanaugh
Director: Geoffrey Nottage

Hope McIntyre (Rebecca Gibney) is happy in her adopted home of Glasgow. It's a far cry—and a long way—from Box Tree, the Australian outback town where she grew up. Together with her husband Callum, Hope is rearing two teenagers and a youngster who's "into everything". Then out of the blue she receives a phone call from her estranged father back home. He rarely calls so she knows this must be serious. Horses are dying and nobody knows why. Box Tree is in desperate need of a vet and Hope promises to return. Hope has been away a long time. She doesn't know what she'll find and she doesn't know she'll be finding hope.

Starring: Rebecca Gibney, Gilbert Martin, Jane Hall, Steve Vidler, and Grant Bowler

Halifax fp: The Scorpion's Kiss

Year: 2001
Produced by Beyond Simpson Le Mesurier Productions Pty Ltd
Executive Producers: Kris Noble, Mikael Borglund
Producers: Roger Simpson, Steve Jodrell, Roger Le Mesurier
Director: Paul Moloney
Writer: Peter Gawler

Could it be that Jane Halifax has finally got it wrong? It would seem so when she is asked to deliver a pre-sentencing report on a stalker who has been harassing a woman in her early 30s.

Cast: Rebecca Gibney, William McInnes, Richard Cawthorne, Jeremy Callaghan, Rhondda Findleton

Halifax fp: Playing God

Year: 2001
Produced by Beyond Simpson Le Mesurier Productions Pty Ltd
Executive Producers: Kris Noble, Mikael Borglund
Producers: Roger Simpson, Steve Jodrell, Roger Le Mesurier
Director: Lynn Hegarty
Writer: Mac Gudgeon

When a young girl of 13 commits a brutal and seemingly unprovoked murder, it traumatises the school and stuns the wider community.

Cast: Rebecca Gibney, Emily Browning, Nell Feeney, Catherine Wilkin, Stephen Whittaker

Hard Knox

2001
Produced by Southern Star John Edwards in association with Coote/Hayes, New Line Television
Executive Producer: Jeffrey M. Hayes
Producer: John Edwards
Director: Peter Bloomfield
Writer: Steve Worland

Kicks butt in the martial arts comedy genre. Niki Knox is a blonde bombshell and one time Jeet Kune do World Champion, ready to explode. This embodiment of new millennium 'Girl Power' parlayed her martial arts fame into opening Knox Investigations, a successful private investigation and security company. Her new partner is a wise-cracking guy exuding charm in a scruffy kind of way. It's his butt she'd often like to kick first.

Starring: Kim-Maree Penn, Lee Majors, Thomas Calabro, Natalie Mendoza, Gary Sweet, Jeremy Callaghan, Simone Kessell, Jason Chong

Heroes' Mountain - The Thredbo Story

Sunday, March 10, 2002 (Ten)
Executive Producer: Fran McConnell
Producer: Anthony Buckley
Director: Peter Andrikidis
Writer: John Misto

On July 30th 1997, four thousand tons of earth crashed down upon two ski lodges on a mountainside in Thredbo Village killing 18 people. In the mayhem that followed, both rescuers and locals were faced with a catastrophic situation. Heroes' Mountain is the story of the incredible rescue of Sturart Diver, the sole survivor, who was buried underground for 65 hours in freezing temperatures. This is the story of the incredible rescue-ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, as they desperately battled to save Diver's life. The whole of Australia was held spellbound as it watched this miracle unfold. (95 min)

Starring: Craig McLachlan, Tom Long, Jodie Dry, Anthony Hayes, Nadine Garner, Jo Manning

The Road from Coorain

Australia: March 03, 2002 (ABC)
USA: May 13, 2002 (PBS)
Executive Producers: Tim Pye, Rebecca Eaton
Producer: Penny Chapman
Director: Brendan Maher
Writer: Sue Smith

Jill Ker Conway (Katherine Slattery) is born in the 1930s on Coorain, a place pressed into the earth by the weight of an enormous sky. Her mother, Eve (Juliet Stevenson), is a striking, potent woman, unyielding as the red earth, and woe betide any man who stands in her way. She is contained by only two things: the vast desolation of the western plains and the love of one man, Jillºs father Bill (Richard Roxburgh).

Bill Ker is charismatic and passionate. A soldier settler, he has secured the sprawling, remote pastoral station of Coorain. With Eve, he is determined to make a kingdom.

Jill is a bright loner who loves the bush. Too far from civilisation to go to school, the only people she knows are her adored older brothers and the eccentric men who work for her parents.

When her brothers leave for boarding school, Jill at the age of eight, becomes her father's helping hand. From her mother she discovers a passion for books. And from both parents, she learns the abiding rule—you never cry, ever.

The Road from Coorain explores what makes an exile, the sense of loss and liberation that makes a young woman leave her homeland. It follows the life of the curious, shy and bright Jill, including her difficult but enjoyable life on the land to her discovery of men, friendships, schooling and life in the city. (112 min)

Starring: Katherine Slattery, Juliet Stevenson, Richard Roxburgh, Tim Guinee, Bernard Curry, Sean Hall, John Howard

Southern Cross

2001 (Nine)
Executive Producer:
Producers:
Director: Mark Defriest
Writer:

Story about two young refugee children who are on the run in outback Australia and rely on the generosity of strangers to find somewhere they can call home.

Starring: Heath Bergersen, Laura Black, Jeremy Callaghan, Crispian Chan, Faith Clayton, Eileen Colocott, Vito de Francesco, Mike Frencham, John Goldsmith, Kate Hall, Luke Hewitt, Jack Hunt, Kirsty Kelly, Geoff Kelso, Bill Kerr, Michael Loney, Mark McAullay, Bill McCluskey, Geoff Miethe, Michael Muntz, Lynette Narkle, Raegan-Louise Perreau, Yeung-Ming Tan, Nigel Wilkes, Christopher Wilson