AustLit

Devils Dust is a two-part telemovie that deals with asbestos victim Bernie Banton and his courageous fight against James Hardie Industries.

'Anouk leaves the BBQ more appalled by seeing Hector flirting with Connie than Harry slapping Hugo. Her life is full of pressure - her mother is ill, a young writer at work has his sights set on her job - and the slap is the last thing on her mind. Feeling ill from what she assumes is stress, Anouk visits a doctor, where she discovers to her shock, that she is pregnant with her much younger boyfriend's child. She tries to talk to Aisha, but can't bring herself to. Her confusion is compounded when Rhys proposes they quit their jobs to travel around the world together. She is torn by her feelings for him, his kindness, and commitment to her, and the fear of tying him down and holding him back.

'The next day, Anouk gets into a heated argument with her boss, and quits. Still reeling, she catches up with Aisha and Rosie for a drink that night. When the conversation turns to the slap, and Rosie tells them she and Gary are pressing charges against Harry, Anouk doesn't hold back in telling them how she feels. Rosie and Aisha are stung at Anouk's reaction, and she storms out feeling estranged from her two closest friends.

'Feeling guilty, Anouk visits Rosie's house the next day to apologise, and inadvertently confesses that she is pregnant. Saying it out loud, and trying to persuade herself that it is a chance for renewal, Anouk realises she doesn't want to have the child. The morning after her abortion, Anouk wakes to find Rhys cooking her breakfast. Unaware of her decision to terminate, but having worked out she was pregnant, Rhys is overcome with excitement at the idea of having a baby. But when Anouk tells him there is no baby, Rhys is devastated. Furious at not giving him the choice, he leaves her.'

Source: ABC TV website, http://www.abc.net.au/tv/theslap/
Sighted: 18/10/2011

'On any single day, Cleaver Greene is described as many things. Whilst his ex-wife may call him 'unreliable", his son will call him "a mate". To his learned friends at the bar table he is "a real wag", to his jurors he is "hilarious", and to most judges he is "an outrage". To the Tax Office, he is "a defendant", to a certain brothel owner "a legend", and to his former cocaine dealer "a tragic loss".

'The clients he loves the most - the cases that thrill him - are those that appear to be utterly hopeless. There's something about being on the wrong side of conventional wisdom that feels right to him, be it at the bar table or the dinner table.

'He will do whatever it takes to defend and save life's truly lost souls. The big sinners. Its drug lords. Its cannibals. Its bestialites. And at the same time, he will struggle to save himself, to stop himself falling back into the abyss that has characterised most of his self-destructive adult life thus far.

'Despite his own hopelessness, his wit and charm have won him hordes of companions over the years. Most nights of the week, there is no shortage of invitations: dinner with a judge at the RMC (His Honour pays), or with some drug dealers in Chinatown (Manos pays), or with some of his copper mates at the Matador (no one pays).

'Any gaps in his diary will inevitably be filled by either all night sessions in chambers preparing for court or similarly lengthy sessions at his favourite brothel, simply referred to by those in the know as "the Club" (here, Cleaver is more than happy to open his own wallet). He tends to wake up bruised. Physically. Emotionally. Spiritually. Usually it's a combination thereof. He spends a nano-second wondering how his life came to this - living in a studio above a café in the Cross, without his wife and son, in love with a prostitute, defending hopeless cases. Then he gets up, puts on his dressing gown and a pair of brogues and goes downstairs for a coffee. Then it's out into the world - onto the battleground that is Cleaver Greene's day.'

Source: ABC Television website, http://www.abc.net.au/tv/
Sighted: 1 November 2010.

'Suzy faces the unpalatable reality of life with a ghostly stepson, Apollo, who has transformed into a filthy mouthed, badly behaved, overgrown baby, quickly making The Elysium uninhabitable for the residents. But it's when he lures Elvis and Verity into the ghostly realm and great danger that Suzy and Henry are forced to find a way to make him leave. They work together to find a solution while also battling their own demons.Meanwhile Suzy has to contend with a love-struck Jonquil, full to the brim with the first flush of her romance with Zac, and the jealousy of Steve, who learns from their kids of the existence of a mysterious man in Suzy's life called Henry. All comes together in a hilarious, terrifying and surreal climax, involving a power outage, Apollo's banishing, the return of Charlotte, Henry's long-lost first love, and Steve's accidental electrocution.'

Source: The Australian Television Information Archive (http://www.australiantelevision.net/spirited/series1.html). (Sighted: 19/10/2012)

'Uptight dentist Suzy Darling leaves her egotistical husband Steve and moves her children Elvis and Verity into a beautiful penthouse apartment to start a new life. She soon finds that the home is already occupied: by Henry, a strangely attired British man who has lost his memory. To make matters more mysterious, it soon becomes apparent that no one but Suzy can see him. Has the stress of her marriage breakdown caused Suzy to lose her mind? Or is there something more magical going on here?'

Source: 'Man Who Fell to Earth,' Australian Television Information Archive.

'Spirited is a romantic look at life and love after death with a rock 'n' roll twist. From the producers of Love My Way, Spirited is a blackly funny exploration of love, death and life seen through the lives of a group of people who are extreme, complicated and unique. The eight episode, escapist and romantic drama series will take richly drawn characters through situations and storylines that are anything but predictable. This is a show with a lightness of touch and yet it also encompasses the absurdity of modern dentistry, explores the curious world of parenting, celebrates the punk aesthetic and depicts a unique vision of the spirit world' (Spirited website).

Tangle is 'about two generations of two families - sometimes connecting, sometimes colliding, sometimes at cross-purposes - as they navigate their way around the maze of love, sex, money and politics.' (Showcase website.)

'Season 3 of this revelatory drama will pull apart and look at just how the generations separate from one another and how the ties of family are stretched.' Source: http://showtime.com.au/ (Sighted 23/03/2012).

'Tim Williams has a happy marriage, a good relationship with his teenage son Max and the respect of his peers. Everything about his working and personal future is looking quite bright. The problem though: 15 years ago, Tim had a brief affair with the drug-loving Nat Manning. The affair ended in Nat finding out she was pregnant. After admitting this to his wife Christine, they patched up their marriage and fought hard for custody of the child. Nat moved to London and has hardly been heard from since. But now, 10 years later, Nat is back in their lives. This time for good.'

Source: tv.com Australia, http://www.tv.com/
Sighted: 07/04/2010

'My Place, the much loved Australian children's classic, tells the story of the children who live in one place over 130 years. In Volume One, meet Laura who's struggling to own up to her actions. It's 2008 and the Prime Minister is trying to do the same with her mob. Mohammed is into cricket, when he can't join the boys' team he ends up on the girls' side and they're a force to be reckoned with. ' (Source: TROVE)

'In the life of all Prime Ministers, comes the moment that tests the mettle of the man. In the life of every nation, comes the moment that tests the mettle of its people.

'For John Curtin and Australia those two moments meet in 1941. This is where our story begins.

'As Leader of the Opposition, Curtin (William McInnes) seems poised to reach out and claim his rightful destiny - the Prime Ministership of Australia. But he refuses to make a desperate grab for power. He waits for the government to self destruct. With the war against Hitler intensifying, the last thing the public wants is a weak and bickering government.

'Curtin is the only man deemed fit for the job. Power becomes his. Curtin no sooner moves offices when the Pacific erupts. Pearl Harbour is bombed. For the first time, Australia lives in fear of invasion. The Japanese are working their way down through Asia with alarming ferocity. Australia is completely unprepared.

'Blow by blow, we follow Curtin - our guide, our confidante, through a chilling and tumultuous ride over six months behind the walls of power. We pick up and run to get our footage, pry through half open doors, eavesdrop in the corridors - whatever it takes to keep our subject in focus.

'Curtin lives and breathes his work and is forced to endure the deluge alone, while his wife Elsie, (Noni Hazlehurst) attends to her ailing mother back home. Then, Darwin is bombed. Australian defences are crushed.

'Curtin battles via cables with the Empire's heavyweight, Churchill, to reroute Australian troops to defend home soil. It quickly becomes a monumental battle of wills with Curtin fighting both Churchill and members of his own government. Curtin's health deteriorates rapidly as he desperately seeks support.

'This is a raw and intimate story of a driven and inspirational leader - a man who struggles to battle his own personal demons while serving and protecting a country at war.'

Source: ABC Television website, program guide:
Sighted: 24/04/2007

'Frankie and Charlie are deep in their own worlds of pain. She finds solace in dreams while Charlie pushes away those trying to help him and turns to work, drink and nicotine to numb his grief. He won't open up and Julia is left to grieve alone.'

Source: The Australian Television Information Archive (http://www.australiantelevision.net/lovemyway/series1.html). (Sighted: 19/10/2012)

'Set in a small country town, FIREFLIES centres on the townspeople and its rural bushfire brigade. You can measure a township by the commitment of its people. Most of them are volunteers, from the fire brigade to the CWA. Whether you're new in town, or here for generations, when you're facing the driest hottest summer in decades, it pays to belong.'

Source: Screen Australia. (Sighted: 3/12/2013)

The first Australian drama series to be made specifically for pay television, Love My Way follows the lives of a group of thirty-somethings who explore issues of friendship, step-parenting, divorce, and relationships. It deals with the randomness of life and the need many of us have to carve out a place in the world.

Central to the series is Frankie Paige, who attempts to negotiate the web of contemporary relationships, juggle the priorities of family obligations, and be both successful at love and fulfilled professionally, while hoping that 'happiness' might occur if all the other things fall into place. She lives with Tom, a once-successful chef who now cooks at the local rehabilitation hospital. Just down the road in a much nicer house lives her ex-husband (and Tom's brother), Charlie. An emotionally stunted architect/surfer now married to Julia, he and Frankie still have a relationship through their daughter, Lou. Throughout the series, these principal characters are pulled and strained by desires and contradictions that appear to be part and parcel of modern life.

A short-lived television series about idealistic young police officers in an inner-city Sydney area, Young Lions did not rate well, and was not renewed for a second season.

'They've each been given a $20,000 head start but there's still time for you to catch up with Loc Minh, Clare and Patrick Gormley, Basia Lem, Seth Wallace, Kyle Richter and Katherine Ingram as they take off in pursuit of their dreams. Shepherded by company representative Garret Quinn, a reformed maverick trying to redeem his reputation in the eyes of his multi-national banker bosses, seven young adults try to make their mark on the world with their own dynamic and innovative ideas. Will they accomplish their cherished objectives or go with their failed ambitions like lambs to the slaughter?'

Source: Australian Television Information Archive. (Sighted: 22/10/2012)