australian television information archive

Becca

Year: 1989
Produced by S4C International
Executive Producer: Ross Dimsey, Dilwyn Jones
Producers: Richard Meyrick, Terry Ohlsson
Writers: Howard Griffiths, Daffyd Rowlands
Director: Paul Turner

A tale based on the real life story of a Welsh minister who travelled to Australia in the 1840s, preached the first sermon in Welsh in Australia, made a fortune out of property in the goldfields, and started a newspaper which eventually merged with the Age group.

Cast: Lynette Curran, Beth Roberts, Dafydd Hywell, Gary Sweet

Bodysurfer

Year: 1989
Produced by Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Executive Producer: John Sexton
Producer: Ross Matthews, Sandra Levy, John Sexton
Writesr: Suzanne Hawley, Christopher Lee, Denis Whitburn
Director: Ian Barry

Bodysurfer charts the odyssey of David Lang. Searching beyond mid-life crisis, David finds unanswered questions of his childhood can lead him toward a state of maturity. He realises it is his last hope for reconstructing his fractured family. Adapted from Robert Drewe's best-selling collection of short stories. (2 x 100min)

Cast: Peter Kowitz, Linda Cropper, Patrick Ward, Joy Smithers, Penne Hackforth-Jones, Abigail, Felix Nobis, Tim Robertson, Mary Lou Stewart

Cassidy

Charles Parnell Cassidy is the Premier of NSW. An Irish-Australian Catholic. His pride and joy is his daughter Charlie. The unmarried Charlie falls pregnant and, suffering Cassidy's wrath, exiles herself to London where she establishes herself as a capable young lawyer. Then years later Cassidy comes to London and Charlie reunites with her father but then she receives a phone call to tell her Cassidy is dead. Caught in an elaborate web, which of her father's footsteps is she to follow?

Cast: Bill Hunter, Caroline Goodall, Martin Shaw, Denis Quilley, Philip Quast

Fields of Fire III

Aired: July 16 & 17, 1989 (Nine)
Executive Producer: Kim Williams
Producers: David Elfick, Irene Korol
Writer: Patricia Johnson
Directors: David Elfick

The third and final installment in the saga inspired by Robert Marchand's novel Cane. Returning to the fold were Todd Boyce as British expatriate Bluey and Melissa Docker as Aussie lass Dusty, whose romance and marriage had dominated the proceedings in Fields of Fire (set in the late '30s-early '40s) and Fields of Fire II (set in the immediate post-WWII era). Now it was 1951, and the emphasis was on Italian refugee Gina (Peta Toppano), newly widowed after the death of her black-marketeer husband. Returning to her roots, Gina set up a cane field with her brother Paolo, experiencing the usual trials and tribulation of small-business entrepreneurs in the uncertain years following the War. (2 x 120min)

Cast: Todd Boyce, Gosia Dobrowolska, Michele Fawdon, Ollie Hall, Harold Hopkins, John Jarratt, Brian McDermott, Kris McQuade, Martin Sacks, Peta Toppano, Patrick Ward, Melissa Docker, Noni Hazlehurst, Danny Ruggiero, Roselba Paris

Grim Pickings

In the great tradition of Agatha Christie... family and friends gather each spring at Aunt Alice's farm for a weekend of good company, sunshine and apple picking. When Damien arrives uninvited, followed closely by murder, the weekend turns sour... the pickings grim indeed. The stage is set for a riveting finale as the killer tries to remove anyone who poses a threat, and the innocent as well, in one devastating blow. Based on the novel by Jennifer Rowe. (2 x 2hr)

Cast: Liddy Clark, Brian Vriends, Max Cullen, Lynda Gibson, Lorraine Bayly, Tony Harvey

The Heroes

In the last months of WWII, a group of 14 intrepid British and Aussie soldiers combined forces for a daring and dangerous mission. "Operation Jaywick" was designed to cripple the Japanese naval fleet in Singapore harbor. With only a few rickety wooden boats, a handful of weapons, and a surplus of guts at their disposal, the title characters set about to complete their mission and return home in one piece. Based on the novel by Ronald McKie. (4 x 60 min)

Cast: Paul Rhys, John Bach, John Hargreaves, Bill Kerr, Christopher Morsley, Tim Robertson, John Ewart, Timothy Lyn, Jason Donovan, Cameron Daddo, Jeff Truman, Briony Behets, Gus Mercurio, Wayne Scott Kermond, Mark McAskill, Wayne Scott-Kermond, David Wenham

Home Brew

Year: 1989
Executive Producer: William Fitzwater
Producer: Kip Porteous
Writer: Barry Donnelly
Director: Sienna Brown

A drama set around the lives of the Daleys, a typical middle-class Australian family, who set off for their cottage to spend the annual Father's Day weekend with family and friends.

Cast: Simon Chilvers, Maggie Dence, Lorraine Bayly, Tony Barry, Toni Scanlan, Alan Lock

The Magistrate [Il Magistrato]

November 15, 1989 (ABC)
Producers: Kim Dalton, Chris Warner
Writer: Chris Warner
Director: Kathy Mueller

Italian magistrate Paolo Pizzi (Franco Nero) has devoted his life to justice. With an inflexible sense of honour and duty, he has stood up to the crime bosses, the corrupt judges and the politicians. One day, Paolo's public zeal leads to a private loss; his wife is killed and his son disappears. As he follows a potential Mafia connection to Australia, his search for his son turns into an obsessive pursuit but in an ominous landscape of political and police corruption, business fraud, media intrigue, drugs smuggling and illegal arms dealing, the hunter soon becomes the hunted. (6x60min)

Cast: Franco Nero as Paolo Pizzi, Catherine Wilkin as Claire Boyd, Dennis Miller as Roger Davies, Julia Blake as Jean Shaw, Steve Bastoni as Robbie Shaw, Victoria Rowland as Nicole Davidson, Joe Petruzzi as Leonardo Pizzi, Paul Sonkkila as Hannaford, Andy Anderson as Tony, Caroline Gillmer as Sandy, Rod Mullinar as Ian Walters, Anthony Hawkins as Douglas Shaw, Jon Fabian as Francesco Pinneri

This Man… This Woman

Scratch beneath the surface of many a "successful" marriage and you'll discover rumblings, deep fissures and violent eruptions just being held in check. Neil and Marion Clarke seem to have it all, and basically they are a well suited pair. But problems that can be capped off for many years have a way of blowing up when other pressures get too great. And when they blow, everybody gets burned, everybody is forever changed. This Man… This Woman is the story of one such time. (4 x 60 min)

Cast: Robert Coleby, Catherine Wilkin, Tina Bursill, Ben Mendelsohn, Rachael Beck, Andrew Ferguson, Lucy Bayler, Max Phipps, Ruth Yaffe, Gabriella Clark, Helen Francis, Suzanne Warner, John Gregg, Warwick Moss, Patsy Martin, Janet Andrewartha, Ernie Grey, Alethea Mcgrath, Irini Pappas, Richard Moss, Andrew Spence

Police State

Police State is the story of the development of corruption in the Queensland police force and body politic as revealed during the Royal Commission conducted by Tony Fitzgerald, QC in 1987/88. Police State opens with the dramatic early days of the Commission hearings and the evidence of Assistant Commissioner Graeme Parker. Parker was the first senior officer to admit his corruption and seek an indemnity from prosecution. His evidence exposed the testimony of earlier witnesses and implicated those at "the top and higher". (120min)

Cast: Bill Hunter, Nick Tate, Gerry Connolly, Max Phipps