AustLit

Six years after the end of Packed to the Rafters, Dave and Julie have settled down in the country with baby Ruby, while the Rafter children and Grandpa Ted face new challenges.

'In The Secret She Keeps, Meghan doesn’t know Agatha, but Agatha knows Meghan. Two women from vastly different backgrounds have one thing in common: explosive secrets that could destroy everything they hold dear.

'Two women have a chance encounter in a supermarket, in an affluent Sydney suburb. They are the same age, both heavily pregnant and due at the same time. Meghan (Jessica De Gouw) is a glamorous influencer on the rise, with an ambitious television sports reporter husband Jack (Michael Dorman), while Agatha (Laura Carmichael) works in the supermarket as a shelf stacker.

'Although they live near each other, the two women’s lives could not be more different…

'Agatha is a loner and barely above the poverty line. She’s ecstatic to be pregnant, pinning all her hopes and dreams on this much longed-for miracle baby. Yet the father of her child, Hayden (Michael Sheasby), a sailor on active duty, remains oblivious to her condition.

'Meghan is a sophisticated mother-of two who uses social media to reframe her imperfect life into a glossier, more aspirational existence. Despite posting enthusiastically about her pregnancy to her avid followers, including Agatha, behind closed doors this third baby is putting pressure on an already strained marriage.

'Both women have secrets. And both will risk everything to conceal the truth. But their worlds are about to collide in one shocking act that cannot be undone.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Ioan Gruffudd stars as brilliant forensic pathologist Dr Daniel Harrow in this major new 10-part Australian crime drama. He investigates the apparent suicide of a young woman whose grieving father suspects she was murdered.' (Production summary)

'When he is knocked off his pedestal and on to the Impaired Registrants Program, prodigal Sydney surgeon and party boy Hugh Knight must return to his family home in rural Whyhope where he might learn to swallow his pride and mend his ways – or not.'

Source: Production blurb.

A re-boot of Prisoner, Wentworth takes place in an earlier time for Bea Smith: top dog in Prisoner, she is here a new inmate, trying to consolidate her position in prison.

For a full list of episodes and authors, see Film Details.

'There's a new wireless in the Fisher household — but there's murder on the airwaves when Dot's new favourite show is interrupted by an on air panic. The radio station's bookkeeper and budding announcer is found choked to death but when Phryne gets involved, she finds Jack already undercover as the newsreader. Dot suffers the realisation that she doesn't want to relinquish working for Miss Fisher when she marries.'

Source: Australian Television Information Archive. (Sighted: 26/2/2014)

'When Phryne arrives at an idyllic vineyard in the countryside to investigate a suspicious death in the past, she lands in the middle of an annual Wine Festival and the recent murder of her own 'client'. Hostile townsfolk do everything they can to drive her out of town, and Hugh prepares for a perfect proposal.'

Source: Australian Television Information Archive. (Sighted: 26/2/2014)

'[This] series centres on four young families with one thing in common: the men are in charge of raising the kids.

'It's the beginning of a new school year and recently retired Lewis (Gary Sweet) finds himself in the unfamiliar role of stay-at-home dad to Tilda, his daughter with nurse Gemma (Julia Morris).

'Gemma works at the hospital with her best friend Abi (Natalie Saleeba) whose husband Mark (Rhys Muldoon) is juggling a return to part-time work and looking after five-year-old Poppy.

'Mark's brother-in-law Kane (Gyton Grantley) is in a relationship with Tom (Tim Campbell), raising Tom's orphaned niece Stella.

'When dropping their daughters off on the first day of school, the three men meet Justin (Firass Dirani), a former AFL star who, thanks to his bad boy ways, has seen his career and family walk out the door. He is now facing the fight of his life to win custody of his twin boys Zac and Jacob and eight-month-old daughter Angie.

'Finding themselves severely outnumbered by all the mothers at the school drop-off zone, the four men band together and help each other along as they face the challenges of raising a young family.'

Source: Channel Nine website (http://channelnine.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8469113) (Sighted: 17/10/2012)

'13 episode series about a family that runs a debt collection business.

Warm, funny and moving, Tricky Business looks at the lengths people go to get themselves out of trouble - financial trouble, emotional trouble, growing up trouble, relationship trouble... things we all have to deal with at some time or other. Nine's exciting new Aussie family drama looks at the lengths people go to get themselves out of trouble.'

(Source: Channel Nine website)

'Based on the novels of Australian author Kerry Greenwood. Our lady sleuth sashays through the back lanes and jazz clubs of late 1920s Melbourne, fighting injustice with her pearl handled pistol and her dagger-sharp wit. Leaving a trail of admirers in her wake, our thoroughly modern heroine makes sure she enjoys every moment of her lucky life.'

Source: Inside Film and Television website

Based on the original tele-movie, The Alice follows the adventures of a group of people who, drawn to Alice Springs through a series of fateful encounters, find they still have more to do in the town.

The program was cancelled after a single series due to poor viewing figures.

'Based on the popular books by Rose Impey, this comedy-drama series features five 12-year-old girls on their quest for identity, individuality, belonging, family, friendship and how to have the most fun while trying to deny the existence of boys.'

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

BeastMaster was a Canadian and Australian co-production, largely scripted by Canadian and American script-writers, but with a number of Australian actors and with Australian directors. It followed the adventures of Dar, a warrior with a telepathic link to animals, and his companions Tao, Arina, and Kyra, as they dealt with a violent world in which tribal ties and magic were slowly giving way against the increasing power of technology.

Australian star Daniel Goddard contributed six scripts to the program, some sole authored and some written in collaboration with American script-writers. See note below for details.

Farscape was an Australian/American co-production, a science-fiction television program combining puppetry and live actors to follow the trevails of American astronaut John Crichton, flung into the far reaches of the galaxy during the maiden flight of his experimental craft.

Farscape made use of puppetry to circumvent the problem of having to present alien life-forms as roughly humanoid in size and shape. However, despite the use of Jim Henson's puppet studios, the program was distinctly adult in tone and content.

Unlike other programs filmed in Australian studios (for example, Terra Nova), Farscape was very strongly a co-production, employing a high number of Australian actors and directors. Over a third of the scripts (thirty of the eighty-eight episodes in the original four seasons) were written by Australian script-writers (see below for details). In addition, two Australian script-writers (Lily Taylor and Grant McAloon) served as script/story editors and another (Justin Monjo) acted as creative consultant.

After its abrupt cancellation, Farscape was succeeded by a number of ancillary texts (including a mini-series, graphic novels, and a role-playing game), but these works were American productions rather than Australian/American co-productions.

Conceived as a telemovie, Without Warning is a story of sexual pursuit and intimidation that almost destroys a marriage and eventually leads to extreme violence and murder. When successful film producer Megan Turner and her director husband David are flagged down by an over-zelaous highway patrol, everything appears normal. Although he lets David off with a warning, the Turners' lives soon spiral out of control as he stalks and psychologically intimidates Megan over a sustained period. As the threats increase and the violence worsens, the Turners vow not to succumb.

'Jackie starts to see ghosts after being struck by lightning. She is then befriended by a legendary crime reporter who was killed in mysterious circumstances more than 40 years ago'.

Source: Screen Australia. (Sighted: 6/7/2012)

Peter and Julie find their dream home: a terrace house in Sydney, run down but still mysteriously affordable. As they begin their renovations, the house reveals its secrets. The living-room wallpaper conceals iron plates attached to the walls, but when they remove these, a dark stain begins to grow on the wall: a stain that looks like a man climbing slowly up from beneath the house. They paint over it; it returns, every time. Will the events that took place in the house a century before cost Peter his sanity or both of them their lives?

One of Australia's highest rating dramas, All Saints is a Logie Award-winning Australian medical drama set in the fictional All Saints Western General Hospital in suburban Sydney. The stories originally focused on the nursing staff of Ward 17 run by Nursing Unit Manager Terri Sullivan. It was sometimes referred to as the 'garbage ward' because it took the overflow of patients.

In 2004 Network Seven producers overhauled the series in an effort to increase the show's gradually dwindling audience. They achieved this by closing down Ward 17 and transferring some of the staff to the Emergency Department managed by Frank Campion. Several other new lead characters were also introduced. The changes also saw the storylines begin to focus more on the lives of the doctors and nurses.

Another significant change to the series came in early 2009 when the producers introduced the Medical Response Unit. Central to this development was the helicopter which took doctors to rescue situations outside the hopsital and which in turn brought patients to the All Saints Emergency Department. The show's name was also changed at this time to All Saints: Medical Response Unit. The increased production costs created by having scenes shot on location played a part, however, in the series being cancelled mid-year. The series ended with the Emergency Department and Medical Response Unit teams having a dinner to farewell the last remaining original character, Von Ryan on her final day at All Saints.

All Saints was popular in many countries including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium and Iran.

While holidaying in Asia, two Australian backpackers, Joanne and Richard, are hauled off a train and taken hostage by Cambodian rebels. A ransom demand is made to the Australian Government for their release. The government refuses to pay. Also kidnapped is French couple Louise and Pierre, who are confident that the French mining company for whom Pierre works will pay the ransom. When Richard and Pierre are executed, Joanne and Louise know their days are numbered and plan their escape.