australian television information archive

Backlands

Debut: 1999
Produced by Crawfords Australia and Bavaria Films GMBH
Executive Producers: Bruce Gordon, Tom Parkinson, Ueith von Furstenberg
Producers: Margot McDonald, Mike Bauml
Director: Martin Buchhorn
Writer: John Reeves

Julia Brandt, a German graduate, travels to Australia looking for adventure without telling her mother, only to find herself embroiled in drug smuggling and murder in the Outback. (90 min)

Starring: Denise Zich as Julia Brandt, Craig McLachlan as Det. Const. Steve McNamara, Sophie Heathcote as Sandy O'Brian, Susanne Lothar as Hanne Brandt, Nicholas Bell as Archie Wilson, Mark Mitchell as Chief Inspector Peck, Dieter Laser as Uncle Max, Brett Tucker as Mark Penhalligan, Oscar Redding as Tim Wilson, Bernard Curry as Jerome Delaunay

Note: German title is "Abschied in den Tod"

Close Contact

Debut: Friday, October 1, 1999 (Seven)
Executive Producer: Des Monaghan
Producer: Ian Bradley
Director: Scott Hartford Davis
Writers: Ian Bradley, Anne Lucas

Liz Price (Amanda Douge) is young, beautiful, successful and ambitious, a financial consultant who runs her life her way… or so she thought. Because one day her business partner—and married lover—Dave Wyatt (Daniel Roberts), is gunned down outside his front door, and suddenly Liz's life is no longer under her control—she's a marked woman.

On the other side of town, ex-SAS member Mike Heyns (Grant Bowler) is trying to make a living as a professional bodyguard, until he puts a bouncer in hospital and faces the loss of his security licence if he can't come up with money to settle the damages payment. Mike's lawyer is one Chris Price (Brett Climo)—Liz's ex-husband. Chris suggests that Mike become Liz's bodyguard—that way she's protected and Mike gets to keep his licence. But things are never that simple…

Liz does some checking through the company files and discovers that a million dollars in trust funds is missing—and it belongs to Tom McManus (William Gluth), currently serving a sentence for murder in Sydney's notorious Long Bay Prison. Liz concludes that Dave's killer was after the money. But he—or she—is not the only one, because Tom's gorgeous young wife, Cheryl (Kimberley Davies), is also keen on the cash…

Liz has to find the money—and it's Mike's job to protect her while she's doing it. But as they dig deeper into Wyatt's life things only get murkier, and Liz's own life is increasingly at risk.

The race is on to find the money and stay alive. Thrown together in a dangerous situation, Liz and Mike come to depend on each other more than they planned—but will they be able to keep each other alive? (100 min)

Starring: Amanda Douge, Grant Bowler, Kimberley Davies, Valerie Bader, Robert Grubb, Brett Climo, Angeline Neville, Marin Mimica, Paul Pantano, Abbie Cornish, Bogdan Koca, William Gluth, Gary Who, Anne Lucas, Daniel Roberts, Kim Lewis

Secret Men's Business

Debut: 1999 (ABC)
Executive Producer: Sue Masters
Producer: Sandra Levy
Director: Ken Cameron
Writers: Nicholas Hammond and Christopher Lee

A group of five school friends are brought together by the death of their old teacher and, although the men have seen each other over the years, they have never before dealt with the unfinished business of their youth, and the secrets and unsaid truths that were easier left unspoken. (90 min)

Cast: Ben Mendelsohn, Marcus Graham, Simon Baker, Jeremy Sims, Jeremy Callaghan; Maya Stange, Tara Jakszewicz, Kate Agnesw, Ann Burbrook, Rhondda Findleton, Joel Edgerton

Time and Tides

Debut: 1999 (ABC)
Executive Producers: Sue Masters, Don Reynolds
Producer: Bruce Best
Director: Michael Carson
Writers: Ro Hume, Bruce Best

A voyage back to their home town of 50 years ago proves to be a new beginning. (96 min)

Cast: June Salter, Dinah Shearing, Ron Graham, John Bluthal, Rel Hunt

Tribe

Debut: 1999 (Seven)
Executive Producers: Bruce Gordon, David Rouse, Tom Parkinson
Producer: Jock Blair
Director: George Miller
Writer: Jock Blair

A small group of tourists board an old sailing boat, The Sea Tramp, for a tropical island-hopping cruise through a largely overlooked corner of Micronesia. It should have been the holiday of a lifetime but five days from port they rescue Minh-Tam, a young Vietnamese woman from her sinking fishing trawler. As they attempt to outrun Minh-Tam's attackers, a fire breaks out and the boat sinks. Only a handful of the crew and passengers survive the twin perils of pirates and a fire to reach an uninhabited island that is too dangerous to live on and too dangerous to leave. (2 x 120 min)

Cast: Antonio Sabato Jnr, Craig McLachlan, Joanna Cassidy, Rachel Blakely, Nadine Garner, Ling-Hsueh Tang, Paul Leyden, Beverley Dunn, Thaao Penghlis, Tayler Kane