australian television information archive

13 Gantry Row

Year: 1998
Producer: Robert Bruning
Director: Catherine Millar
Writer: Tony Morphett

Peter and Julie, a young yuppie couple, purchase a run-down terrace house, intending to renovate it. However, nothing goes as planned. As they begin their restoration they discover that beneath the layers of wallpaper and paint their living room walls are mysteriously covered with plates. When they remove the iron plates, a strange sepia stain appears. As the stain grows it begins to resemble the shadow of a man climbing from the darkness beneath the house. Each time they paint over it, it returns. Sinister events in the house a century before have left an evil legacy that threatens Peter's sanity and the couple's marriage. Finally, their very lives are threatened by the historic horrors of their dream house. Originally entitled 'Handhold'. (95 min)

Cast: Rebecca Gibney, John Adam, Doris Younane, Erik Thomson, Mark Gerber, Nicholas Hammond, Marshall Napier, Michael Caton

Available on DVD from Amazon.com and chaos.com

Aftershocks

Year: 1998
Producer: Julia Overton
Director: Geoff Burton
Screenplay: Paul Brown

At 10:27am on December 28, 1989, a major earthquake hit the Australian city of Newcastle. It was centred on the Newcastle Workers' Club, in the heart of Newcastle. Twelve people died in the earthquake… nine of whom were in the club. This is the true story of those who survived. It's based on a play of the same name, which in turn was based almost verbatim on interviews conducted with the survivors themselves

Cast: Lorna Lesley, Jeremy Sims, Duncan Wass, Barbara Stephens, Neil Fitzpatrick, Lynette Curran, Tina Bursill, Susie Porter, Geoff Kelso, Ned Manning, Barbara Morton, Jenny Mathews, Julie Pavlou Kirri, Stefo Nantsou, Diane Barrack, Melba Middleby

The Day of the Roses

Debut: October 18 and 19, 1998 (Ten)
Executive Producer: Mikael Borglund
Producer: Tony Cavanaugh, Simone North
Director: Peter Fisk
Writer: John Misto

An award winning minseries revealing the catastrophic events surrounding Sydney's horrific 1977 Granville Train disaster in which a train was derailed and slammed into a bridge causing the bridge to collapse onto the train, killing 83 people. (2 x 120 min)

Cast: Rebecca Gibney, Paul Mercurio, John Bach, Peter O'Brien, Jeremy Sims, Carol Burns, Heather Mitchell, Stephen Curry, Aaron Blabey, Steven Vidler, Bill Young, Helen Dallimore, Cormac Costello, Damian Pike

Available on DVD from chaos.com

A Difficult Woman

Year: 1998 (ABC)
Executive Producer: Sue Masters
Director: Tony Tilse
Writers: Nicholas Hammond and Steven Vidler

Dr Anne Harriman (Caroline Goodall), chief pathologist at a large pharmaceutical company is determined to uncover the truth about the murder of her best friend. (4 x 60 min)

Cast: Caroline Goodall, Peter Feeney, Martin Jacobs, Nicholas Eadie, Victoria Longley, Jim Moriarty, Bill Hunter, Anna Lise Philips

Available on DVD from chaos.com

Kings in Grass Castles

Year: 1998 (Seven)
Canada: September 12 and 13, 2000
Executive Producers: Paul Barron, Joan Peters, Madeleine Warburg
Producers: Paul Barron, Jan Tyrrell, Irene Dobson
Director: John Woods
Writer: Tony Morphett

A young Irishman, Patrick Durack, leaves his native land in order to find a new future for himself in Australia. His friendship with an Aborigine allows him to settle down in the new land and build an empire of cattle-land across great stretches of Australia, but tragedy is around the corner as the Aborigines themselves are removed from their ancestral lands. An epic story of family history and national pride. Based on the best selling novel by Patrick Durack's granddaughter Dame Mary Durack. (2 x 98 min)

Cast: Stephen Dillane, Ernie Dingo, James Fox, Maggie Steed, Susan Lynch, Essie Davis, Max Cullen, Fionnula Flanagan, Des McAleer, Wayne Scott, Scott Kermond, David Ngoombujarra

Never Tell Me Never

Year: 1998
Executive Producer: Jackie O'Sullivan
Producer: David Elfick
Director: David Elfick
Writer: John Cundill

Janine Shepherd is a supreme athlete on the verge of becoming an Olympic ski champion. But her dreams are shattered when, struck down by a car, she is left virtually paraplegic. Now she must face her ultimate challenge—to find a reason to live in a world forever altered - and begin the process of rebuilding her extraordinary life. Based on a true story. (90 min)

Cast: Claudia Karvan, Michael Caton, Diane Craig, John Howard, Paul Bishop, Malcolm Kennard, Robert Mammone, Joel Edgerton, Justine Clarke, Mouche Phillips

Available on DVD from chaos.com

Queen Kate, Carmel & St Jude

Year: 1998
Executive Producer: Sue Masters
Producer: Chris Warner
Director: Moira Moss
Writer: Meaghan Smith

Three young women from the same country town complete their last year of school and move to Melbourne to share an inner city house and start their first year at University. Although they come from the same town, at the start of the year they hardly know each other. By the end of the year, it will be quite a different story.
The three girls couldn't come from more different backgrounds. The only girl amongst the six children of third-generation wool growers, Carmel McCaffery spent her school years commuting to the convent school in the next town. With the wool market in crisis, her family are now struggling to hold onto their modest family farm.
Jude Torres is the only child of a local textile designer and her Chilean doctor husband who "disappeared" in Chile when Jude was two years old.
Katarina Armstrong is the youngest daughter of a prominent country surgeon and his society wife. And while Manella might be home during the holidays, she has spent her school life boarding at an exclusive city girl's school. (4 x 50 min)

Cast: Elissa Elliot, Alicia Gardiner, Ingrid Ruz, Carol Burns, John Sheerin, Ben Mendelsohn, Suzy Cato, Victoria Eagger, Stephen Curry, Simon Bossell, Franko Milosinik, Justin Smith, Leon Teague, Bronwyn Jones

The Sugar Factory

Year: 1998
Producers: Jenny Woods, Anthony Buckley
Director: Robert Carter
Writer: Robert Carter

The story of a seventeen year old boy who is traumatized after a horrific episode in his life. Sent to a "cottage" for troubled adolescents, he discovers what is real in his life and what is not and ultimately finds enough personal courage to confront the truth of his past. (91 min)

Cast: Matt Day, Rhondda Findleton, Tony Hayes, Michela Noonan, Glen Shea, Sam Healy, John Waters

The Violent Earth

Year: 1998
Executive Producers: Christian Charret, Bruce Gordon, Jacques Salles, David Rouse, Kris Noble
Producer: Jock Blair
Director: Michael Offer
Writers: Graeme Farmer, Tony Ayres, Peter Gawler, Jean-Marie Colombani, Daniel Tonachelle, Jean-Pierra Sinapi

The violent earth is New Caledonia, where the settlers and the Kanaks work out their destiny on the shrinking land. This is the saga of the Suttons, a pioneering Australian-Irish family in New Caledonia; and of the Kanaks, who are caught between their own culture and the legacy of French colonialism. A story of greed, passion, courage and death in which the fate of Oceania hangs in the balance. (3 x 120 min)

Cast: Claire Nebout, Laure Killing, Bernard Verley, Claudia Karvan, Andrew McFarlane, Karina Lombard, Bill Hunter, Joe Petruzzi, Peter O'Brien, Jay Laga'aia, Jon Bennett, Jeremy Callaghan