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Best Single Drama or Mini Series
Subcategory of Logie Awards
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Latest Winners / Recipients

Year: 1985

winner form y separately published work icon Waterfront Mac Gudgeon , Network Ten (publisher), ( dir. Chris Thomson ) Australia : Generation Films Network Ten , 1984 Z1294303 1984 series - publisher film/TV

Set in the late 1920s, Waterfront begins with the Waterside Workers' Union refusing to abide by the award conditions handed down with the Court of Conciliation and Arbitration. The waterfronts of all major cities are subsequently shut down, forcing Nationalist Party Prime Minister Stanley Bruce to authorise legislation that permits the employment of non-union labour on the wharves. When the shipping companies take advantage of this law and hire newly arrived Italian immigrants desperate for work, the 'scabs' face bitter resentment from the union as well as shameful and overt racial intimidation and abuse. The ruse of 'free labourers' ultimately works in all the capital cities except Melbourne, where the union executive is strong and determined. Not only are the bosses determined to ride the storm out, but the union comes under increasing hostility from other sections of the community: the strike's consequences extend into neighbouring industries, which, starved of raw materials and export passages, are forced to make redundancies.

The mini-series delves deeply into the issues of eviction, poverty, and racism, while also exploring the political fall-out, where the Victorian State Labor Government (which has a paper-thin majority) is put in the unenviable position of having to support the unions, its political base. Taking advantage of this dilemma, the opposition party eventually introduces a motion of no-confidence in the government and courts the patrician Governor-General. This ultimately leads to the dismissal of the incumbent government.

Year: 1984

winner form y separately published work icon The Dismissal Terry Hayes , Ron Blair , Network Ten (publisher), ( dir. George Miller et. al. )agent Sydney Australia : Kennedy Miller Entertainment Network Ten , 1982 Z1323669 1982 series - publisher film/TV historical fiction

Dramatisation of the political events leading up to the dismissal of the Whitlam government on November 11th 1975.

Year: 1983

winner form y separately published work icon 1915 Soldiers of the King Peter Yeldham , ABC Television (publisher), 1981 (Manuscript version)x402113 Z1684190 1981 series - publisher film/TV Two country boys enlist in the army and ship out to fight in World War I.

Year: 1982

winner form y separately published work icon A Town Like Alice Nevil Shute's A Town Like Alice Tom Hegarty , Rosemary Anne Sisson , ( dir. David Stevens ) Australia : Seven Network Alice Productions , 1981 Z1743377 1981 series - publisher film/TV romance

Set during and immediately after World War II, A Town Like Alice is both a love story and a war story. It spans two decades and three continents. The story begins with the capture of a group of civilian women by the Japanese and follows the nightmare of their captivity in the jungles of Malaya. It is during this time that one of the women, Englishwoman Jean Paget, meets a cheerful and laconic Australian prisoner of war, Joe Harman, who hails from Alice Springs. When he is tortured for a simple act of kindness, she believes that he has died. Later, after the war has ended, she discovers that he didn't die, and sets out to find him in Australia. Meanwhile, he travels to England to find her. The two are eventually reunited in the rugged outback of Australia.

Source: Moran's Guide to Australian TV Series

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