Cirrus@Austlit

An Australian/New Zealand co-production, The Rainbow Warrior Conspiracy traces the sinking of Greenpeace's flagship in Auckland Harbour in 1985, and the associated death of a photographer who was on board the vessel at the time of the bombing.

Moran notes, in his Guide to Australian TV Series, that 'cast and crew consisted of New Zealanders and Australians. With the exception of Australian actor Peter Carroll in the role of the head of DGSE, the French secret service, the French agents were played by French Canadian actors.'

Like 1986's Cyclone tracy, the mini series uses 'fictional characters to dramatically penetrate the chain of recent and very real events in question', according to Moran, with a particular focus on three characters: a Greenpeace volunteer, a New Zealand government minister, and an American reporter. The four episodes span events from French nuclear testing in the Pacific and the infiltration of Greenpeace by French agents through to the bombing itself and the imprisonment of the agents responsible.

Television mini-series following the events leading up to Australia's 1983 win in the America's Cup under the auspices of Alan Bond.

Moran notes in his Guide to Australian TV Series that

1986 was an apposite year to show the series as Bond's company prepared for the next challenge in early 1988. Once Australia had lost the Cup back to the US in 1988 there was little life left in the series. In addition Bond's business dealings were becoming public and throwing a less than flattering light on this tycoon of industry. In 1988-89 he lost control of the recently purchased Nine Network and by 1992 bankruptcy was only a breath away. The Challenge, especially in its portrait of Bond, was destined then to become a historical curiosity.