australian television information archive

Friday on My Mind

Sun, Nov 26, 2017 (ABC)
Sun, Dec 03, 2017 (ABC)
Producers: Diane Haddon, Sara Richardson
Writer: Christopher Lee
Director: Matthew Saville
Network: ABC

In 1964 when five young newly arrived immigrants met in a Sydney migrant hostel and formed a garage band, little did they know that they would take Australian rock'n'roll to the world. This is the story of The Easybeats.

George Young (William Rush) and Johannes Van Den Berg aka Harry Vanda (Mackenzie Fearnley) find kinship in modern music with fellow migrants Stephen Wright (Christian Byers) and Dingeman Van Der Sluys aka Dick Diamonde (Du Toit Bredenkamp) in the knockabout world of Sydney's Villawood Migrant Hostel. Determined to create their own band, the boys unite with Gordon 'Snowy' Fleet (Arthur McBain), who comes on board as their drummer and form The Easybeats.

The young guys break into the Sydney music scene and gain the attention of budding band manager Mike Vaughan (Alex Williams) and the entrepreneurial music publisher Ted Albert (Ashley Zukerman). Under Ted's stewardship the boys record their first smash hit songs, including Friday On My Mind, and they soon find themselves catapulted to phenomenal Australia-wide success. 'Easy-Fever' takes Australia by storm.

In part two, the band are in London where success hasn't come easily — and when Ted leaves, the boys come adrift. On the verge of collapse, The Easybeats are introduced to smash hit producer, Shel Talmy (Matt Zeremes), and together they put out the monster international hit Friday On My Mind.

After touring Europe to huge acclaim, The Easybeats return to Australia and following a smash hit homecoming tour, Snowy reunites with his wife and daughter and leaves the band. The guys hold together with a new drummer through a tour of America, but the writing is on the wall.

When they return home a second time they know that The Easybeats phenomenon has come to an end.

Starring: William Rush, Mackenzie Fearnley, Du Toit Bredenkamp, Christian Byers, Arthur McBain, Alex Williams, Ashley Zukerman

Hoges: The Paul Hogan Story

Sun, February 12 & 19, 2017 (Seven)
Produced by FremantleMedia
Executive Producer: Jo Porter and Julie McGauran
Producer: Brett Popplewell
Writers: Keith Thompson and Marieke Hardy
Director: Kevin Carlin

HOGES: THE PAUL HOGAN STORY charts the meteoric rise of working-class Australian icon Paul Hogan whose easy, wise-cracking persona took him from the pylons of the Sydney Harbour Bridge to the heights of a Golden Globe win, Oscar-nominated adulation, unprecedented box-office success and international superstardom, meanwhile forging powerful and enduring relationships along the way.

Cast: Josh Lawson as Paul Hogan, Justine Clarke as Noelene Hogan, Ryan Corr as John Cornell, Laura Gordon as Linda Kozlowski, Nikki Osborn as Delvene Delaney, Sean Keenan as Young Paul, Marny Kennedy as Young Noelene

House of Bond

April 24 & 25, 2017 (Nine)
Produced by Cordell Jigsaw Zapruder
Executive Producers: Andy Ryan, Jo Rooney and Michael Cordell
Producer: Paul Bennett
Writer: Sarah Smith

Tells the rags-to-riches-to-rags tale of controversial business tycoon Alan Bond from the 1960s-90s. It is the outrageous story of how a cheeky, knockabout Ten-Pound-Pom fought his way from the back alleys of Fremantle to become the richest man in Australia and one of our greatest sporting heroes. "Bondy" was a man with an insatiable appetite for the excesses of life: women, fame, money, crime and everything between. But Bond's ego, greed and ambition saw him overreach beyond all measure until his empire collapsed, leaving him as the country's greatest villain with the biggest ever bankruptcy. House Of Bond is the extraordinary story of the man who defined the 1980s by dreaming big and rewriting the rulebook. Was he a hero? A villain? Or a little bit of both?

Cast: Ben Mingay as Alan Bond, Rachael Taylor as Diana Bliss, Adrienne Pickering as Eileen Bond, Sam Neill as Roland "Tiny" Rowland, Gyton Grantley, Samantha Jade, Anne Looby, John Howard, Johnny Ruffo, Roy Billing, Paul Gleeson, Jack Campbell