australian television information archive

Coral Island

A school reunion brings together four men in their late thirties. In an atmosphere where the tender experiences of youth are present and childhood attachments and betrayals still cause pain, they are forced to acknowledge that the institution which has taught them to compete in a rational world hasn’t given them the means to express their emotions to those closest to them. As events unfold, an inability to deal with present crises suggests an incompleteness in their education which have grave and lasting consequences.

The Fisherman’s Wake

A young man returns to his childhood home to bury has father, a ritual act in his own rite of passage towards manhood. The father who taught his son about courage and love is the same man who taught him a sense of fear and how to hate. And the man the son idolized is also the man he depised. A deeply personal account of one man’s ambivalent relationship with his father seen in the context of his own childhood and his new role as a parent.

Note: nominated for a 1996 AFI Award for Best Miniseries and co-winner of an ATOM Award for Best Televison Drama

Blind-Side Breakaway

A boy watches his father—the captain of the rugby union team, the Dirty Reds—grapple with defeat. Despite new training methods from motivation camps to yoga, the club has posted ninety-seven consceutive losses. For a man supposedly in charge, does losing mean emasculation, or can there be leadership where it seems there may never be victories? What makes and unmakes a hero? How and why do ordinary men seek dignity and power through team sport?

Ghost Story

Tom is a fourteen year old Chinese boy who is confronted with the death of his mother. Tom returns to school, seeking normalcy, but is disturbed by recurring dreams of his mother that begin to fill his waking life. Ultimately, Tom is forced to deal with his denial of both anger and grief. The story explores the complex relationship between a boy and his mother. It is about the resentment he feels towards his mother’s dependency, and the longing he feels for his mother’s protective embrace.

A Fallen Woman

Leonard sublets his house to Phil and Jessica, a young couple who spend most nights surrendering to the abandonment of love-making. Leonard and Phil are seemingly unalike but each has a deep, almost chromosomal need to dominate and control their relationships with women. When Jessica becomes pregnant and Leonard meets a woman with an unknown past both men find themselves wanting to exert their power in a way which is no longer appropriate.

Cross Turning Over

Hughie, a writer in his late forties, is married with three children and living in the country. Through an uncontrollable desire to step outside himself, to recapture the naturalness of feeling of his childhood, to seek renewal Hughie leaves his family for the outback. What began as a tentative adventure has the power to change his ways which are unforseen, profound and ultimately irrevocable.

Note: an adaptation of Roger McDonald’s book Shearers’ motel