Cirrus@Austlit

'... a contemporary action drama series set in a critical incident police unit, providing an insider's view of police under pressure. Our heroes are a mobile squad trained to be smarter, tactically superior and technologically advantaged.'

Source: Australian Television website, www.australiantelevision.net (sighted 08/09/2009)

'Set in the homicide squad of a large metropolitan city, this is a punchy one hour drama series about murder mystery and a group of young committed cops, focused on justice for the deceased. Jennifer Mapplethorpe, ambitious and intelligent; Simon Joyner, keen, cool, self-assured; Duncan Freeman, living high, ready to fall; and Matt Ryan, intense and driven. In Homicide, it's not always crooks and low-lives, most murders are committed by ordinary people - a moment of madness, a failure of communication, a desperate act. These Detectives follow a profession that makes blood, grief and drama just part of their normal day. Their day begins when your day ends.'

Source: Australian Television Information Archive.

Mortified follows the trevails of eleven-year-old Taylor Fry, as she copes with the general embarrassment of having parents, as well as being annoyed by her sister, jealous of her neighbour, and completely oblivious to her best friend's crush on her. The program inserts some fantasy elements into the otherwise straight comedy-drama by having Taylor speak directly to the camera, using elaborate fantasy sequences to explore her daydreams, and showing her over-active imagination as bringing seemingly inanimate objects to life.

Mortified was the last major work of television producer and screenwriter Angela Webber before her early death in 2007.

'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)

'Inspired by true events, Stingers reveals the shadowy and ambiguous world of undercover cops — people with covert lives and constantly changing identities. They are police who defeat crime from within the criminal world — always without a badge and frequently without protection. The series follows the lives of the operatives as they befriend and betray those on the other side of the law. For these select few, it is a deadly way of life.The undercover cops of Stingers are a unique breed. They must juggle their own lives — love, laughter, family and humanity — with the tension of the criminal personas they adopt in their passion for justice.'

Source: Australian Television Information Archive. (Sighted: 7/6/2013)

An American/Australian co-production, this series was a revival of the original 1964 - 1967 series Flipper.

The show's production is sharply divided between seasons one and two on one side and seasons three and four on the other.

Seasons one and two aired in first-run syndication in the US, as American television networks turned away from funding comparatively expensive one-hour dramas in the late 1980s and 1990s. These two seasons were made in Australia and took advantage of local directors and other crew, but, notably, the script-writers were exclusively American (as far as they have been traced).

For seasons three and four, Flipper left first-run syndication and aired in the US on the new network PAX TV (now Ion Television). These two seasons were also made in Australia and directed by Australians, but for the first time, they also used Australian script-writers: of the writers who have been traced for seasons three and four, all of the season three writers and the majority of the season four writers are Australian.

For full information on the script-writers, see the list of episodes on the film details page of this record.

'Dave Griffin has a one-night stand with a beautiful young woman who is later found brutally murdered. Homicide detectives believe Superintendent Griffin is the prime suspect and he is suspended from duty despite protesting his innocence. He faces a race against time to find the real killer, not only to clear his name but to save the lives of others on the killer's hit list.'

Source: Australian Television Information Archive. (Sighted: 17/6/2013)

'When two young Australian children disappear during an access visit with their Indonesian father he becomes the prime suspect in the Federal Police investigation. Detective Sergeant Jo Moody isn't quite so sure and has trouble convincing her colleagues they could be looking in the wrong direction.'

Source: Australian Television Information Archive. (Sighted: 17/6/2013)

'June 1964. Madness! Music! Emotion! Five teenagers trapped in the giant basement of the hotel where the Beatles are staying during their Australian tour. As the night unfolds they slowly start to reveal their deepest secrets, their hopes, their dreams. SECRETS features some of the most famous music ever written.'

Source: Screen Australia. (Sighted: 10/4/2014)

Wendy Walters yearns for the passion she finds between the pages of the romance novels that she reads religiously. Her life isn't bad, just boring. When her husband Ronnie forgets their wedding anniversary, Wendy stumbles into an affair with rich and handsome Jake. But all fairy tales must come to an end. Even though Wendy learns that Jake's not quite the Prince Charming she thought he was, hers still has an unexpectedly happy ending.

An Australian television series which deals with the New South Wales Police Rescue Squad and its work attending to various incidents from road accidents to train crashes.

Harvey Denton is a movie cameraman who is plunged into a bewildering series of events after his flat is ransacked. Someone is after something. But what? When the body of his father is discovered buried in a thirty-year-old plane wreck (wreckage that is radioactive), Harvey sets out to discover the truth about how his father died. In the course of his investigation, he stumbles onto an element of mystery and intrigue that, if revealed, will not only shake Australia's establishment to its very foundations but shock the world.

Thirteen-year-old Susan has just moved to a new part of town. She's practising her skills at the local roller-skating rink when Buzz, the prince of the rink, spots the talented newcomer and moves in on her. Susan joins Buzz and his gang but doesn't know what she is letting herself in for. Meanwhile, her family are distracted with their own worries: her dad has lost his job, her mother is an exhausted working mum, and her older teenage sister is pregnant. Susan has to work her way through the difficult process of making new friends in a tough environment. Buzz wants to be more than just friends and Susan has to decide what she is prepared to accept and what is important to her. (Source: Australian Screen).

In her memoir Bloodbath: A Memoir of Australian Television (Melbourne: Melbourne UP, 2006), Patricia Edgar recalls that

Jan [Sardi] wanted to speak to the audience with an authentic voice, using the language of the western suburbs where the film was set. This time I was not on the writer's side. I believed the language would draw attention away from the content of the story and ultimately prevent the film from being seen by the children it was intended for. While I agreed in principle with Sardi's view, I felt it would not work in practice. I insisted that swearing was not acceptable.

The script had only a provisional C classification from the tribunal, where all final drafts were being scrutinised carefully. Smoking had to be kept to a level essential to the plot. (Too much smoking could also jeopardise an overseas sale.) Violence had to be kept in context, within acceptable limits. The party punchbowl scene, which was essential, should only have one character, Maggs, showing any signs of intoxication. The shoplifting scene should be directed to show that the film was not condoning stealing. The 'lip twister kiss', so described in the script, should be directed carefully. The film should promote a sense of children being responsible for one another. The characters must look like twelve to fourteen year olds. All these issues required sensitive direction. (p.168)

'Vinnie is an errand boy for the local mafia. He wants to be a professional boxer like his dead father but his temper and aggression too often get the better of his natural skill.'

Source: Screen Australia. (Sighted: 10/2/2014)

'Depicts two turbulent weeks in the life of an adolescent migrant Italian boy in Melbourne's inner suburbs. The film traces the boy's gradual acceptance of his rich cultural background.'

Source: Screen Australia. (Sighted: 10/2/2014)