Cirrus@Austlit

'Peter Corris, the ‘Godfather of Australian crime fiction’, died in his sleep on 30 August 2018. His Godfather columns have been part of the Newtown Review of Books from the beginning, and we feel his loss keenly.' 

'Adam Cass's marvellous 'La Mama', which celebrates the theatre's half-century, is an opportunity to look at several books, a documentary film and a website that try to describe La Mama and its belligerent offspring the Pram Factory, home of the Australian Performing Group (APG). Excepting Gabrielle Wolf in her scholarly study, 'Make It Australian: The Australian Performing Group, the Pram Factory and New Wave Theatre' (2008), the makers of these chronicles reflect the collaborative nature of both theatres, releasing many voices instead of channelling their stories into a summary overview.'  (Publication abstract)

'The Future Australian Race' 'explores the relationship between Ned Kelly's hanging judge Redmond Barry and the bohemian writer of For the Term of his Natural Life, Marcus Clarke. The two face off among the books from opposite sides of a divide that still haunts Australia'.

Source: State Library of Victoria website, http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/
Sighted: 19/05/2008

'The press takes an interest as Happy and Amanda gear up for an appeal hearing in the Supreme Court. On the plaintiff’s side, Caitlin is doing all the work and Richard is taking all the credit—as usual.

'Simon is put on the spot, and clashes with Happy, when an old mate, orthopaedic surgeon Cameron Foster, is sued for negligence by a media personality who can no longer wear stilettos after having her toes shortened. Happy and Amanda insist that MDA won’t represent the surgeon who has refused to pay his dues and is participating in a lawsuit against MDA.'

Source: Australian Television Information Archive. (Sighted: 11/6/2013)

'Enter the world of Medical Defence Australia, a medico-legal organisation that exists to defend doctors and where necessary compensate patients. All cases at MDA combine elements of law and medicine so each case is managed by a doctor and a lawyer who agree on how to proceed. It's a unique organisation that delves into morally complex and emotion filled relationships between doctors and patients.'

Source: Australian Television Information Archive (http://www.australiantelevision.net/mda/mda.html). (Sighted: 22/2/2013)

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.

'A fast-paced television drama set within the fascinating environment of a State Coroner's office complex. Each day a team of highly trained professionals deal with the questions of deaths, murders, accidents, suicides, fires, drownings and even the odd natural cause. We see their battles with grieving families, slow or meddling authorities and organized crime, from the initial inquiry through to the courtroom appearances and the Coroner's final verdict and recommendations for trial or reform.'

Source: Australian Television Information Archive (http://www.australiantelevision.net/statecoroner/statecoroner.html). (Sighted: 8/3/2013)

An edgy and off-beat crime series that relies heavily on humour, contemporary music, and a touch of the bizarre, centring on the character of Elvis Maginnis. An ex-cop from the wrong side of the tracks, Maginnis now runs his own dry-cleaning business but still finds himself drawn into the shady side of life.

'Set in a newspaper, MERCURY looks at the lives of journalists and their relationships with the paper and each other.'

Source: Screen Australia.

A character-based television drama series about the lives of police officers in the fictitious Australian country town of Mt Thomas, this series began with the arrival of Constable Maggie Doyle (Lisa McCune) to the Mt Thomas station in the episode 'A Woman's Place'. Doyle and avuncular station boss Senior Sergeant Tom Croydon (John Wood) were the core characters of the series until the departure of Lisa McCune.

Immensely popular for a decade, Blue Heelers was cancelled in 2006 after thirteen seasons. The announcement was front-page news in Australia's major newspapers including The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney's Daily Telegraph, The Herald Sun and The Age in Melbourne, and Brisbane's Courier Mail.

On June 8, 2006 Ross Warneke wrote in The Age:

'It's over and, to be perfectly blunt, there's no use lamenting the demise of Blue Heelers any more. When the final movie-length episode aired on Channel Seven on Sunday night, 1.5 million Australians tuned in, a figure that was big enough to give the show a win in its timeslot but nowhere near big enough to pay the sort of tribute that this writer believes Heelers deserved after more than 500 episodes. It is unlikely there will be anything like it again. At almost $500,000 an hour, shows such as Blue Heelers are quickly becoming the dinosaurs of Australian TV.'

Produced by the same television production company responsible for the successful medical drama G.P., Law of the Land moved away from the inner-city urbanity of G.P. Set in the fictional small town of Merringanee, series one involves the arrival in town of young magistrate Peter Lawrence, who (thanks to a stolen car and a long-buried body) learns that the locals have their own way of enforcing the law.

Series two involved a different character, Kate Chalmers, unravelling the truth behind Peter Lawrence's death.

The program ran to a total of four thirteen-episode series, yet it is obscure enough today that little information about it is readily available.

Cinematographer Brendan Lavelle did, however, contribute an article to Metro Magazine ('A Day in the Life: The Work of a Cinematographer', issue 99) while he was working on the series.

'An insight into the private and working lives of barristers.'

Source: Screen Australia.