Cirrus@Austlit

'Frances is an artist in her forties living a quiet life in a remote mountain town in NSW, far away from the glittering lights and famous personalities of the Sydney art world she once knew. When an invitation arrives from a former lover to attend his exhibition at a state gallery, Frances is plunged back into the past, where a single irrevocable act changed the course of her story.

'Told across two time periods, Frances's story wrestles with themes of power and privilege, womanhood and motherhood, artistic doubt, the male gaze upon the female body, and the commodification of art. It looks at the fraught relationships between artists and their muses, the sacrifices of a life devoted to art, and asks if it is ever really possible for two ambitious artists to thrive in one relationship.' (Publication summary) 

'Fighting Season is a timely and emotionally resonant series that follows the lives of a group of Australian soldiers, and their families, returned home suddenly after their commander is killed in suspicious circumstances in Afghanistan. Part mystery thriller, part relationship drama, it asks us to examine the human costs of war.'

Source: Screen Australia.

'Delving into the extraordinary world of the Office of the Department of Public Prosecution and its young eager lawyers, who know the law backwards, but who have a lot to learn about life, Crownies, is a 22 x 1 hour drama, produced by Screentime Australia for ABC TV.

Crownies follows five young solicitors, fresh out of law school, as they face the pressures and endearing madness of modern single life - in a fast-paced workplace that highlights the moral dilemmas and big issues facing an apparently civilised society.

In a world that exists solely to see 'wrong-doers' brought to justice, and where the average age of the solicitors is 27, there is a big divide between these young solicitors and the barristers at the top. Yet they are the initial point of contact with the police, and it is they who do most of the liaising with the victims and the witnesses - and recommend what goes to court. They are hungry, committed, idealistic and hard-working, but their lives away from the office are riddled with aspirations, explorations, fragile relationships and partying.'

Source: ABC website

'Born out of the telemovie of the same name, Offspring is a contemporary drama series about Nina Proudman, a thirtysomething obstetrician and her fabulously messy family. Following the Proudman family's adventures searching for love, fulfillment and balance in the chaos of modern life, Offspring is about the life forces that drive us all: love, sex, babies, food and music. Stylistically fresh and visually exciting, Offspring mixes conventional narrative drama with flashbacks, graphic animation and fantasy sequences, showcasing the vibrant world of Fitzroy, Melbourne, where Nina and the extended Proudman family go about their unpredictable daily lives.'

Source: Australian Television Information Archive.

'... 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)

'Follows the events surrounding the disappearance of Margaret Wales-King and her husband Paul King. Seen through the eyes of her five children, highlighting their intense and private feelings of grief and shock as they seek the truth about that fateful evening.'

Source: Screen Australia. (Sighted: 5/4/2013)

'Ella and Happy face a hard fight defending a doctor who trusted a pathology report and thus missed a cancer in a nine-year-old boy. The biopsy slides and the pathologist are missing. Richard becomes emotionally involved with the terminally ill boy, and is shaken to discover that the parents absolutely refuse to tell their son he’s dying.

'With the trial fast tracked, Ella enlists unpredictable surgeon Simon Lloyd as an expert witness. His care and passion for the case and the mediation provide unexpected results and a violent response from Richard, when Simon breaks the rules and confronts the grieving parents. When the elusive pathologist shows up, she confesses she got it wrong and Ella is devastated.

'At Kato & Pittman, Caitlin is reminded of her junior status when Richard has her drawing up wills. But she discovers her client’s husband could well have a very large med-neg claim against their GP, who failed to diagnose kidney failure which has lead to him loosing his sight. It should be an easy and big win for Caitlin, so she is very disappointed when her client refuses to go to court and accepts the settlement offered by Amanda and Jamie—a mere $1.2 million.'

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)

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.'