Issue Details: First known date: 2008... 2008 Southern Stars and Secret Lives : International Exchange in Australian Television
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The Secret Life of Us is a 'high end' television drama series, defined by 'adult themes, sexual references and low-level coarse language', first screened in Australia and the United Kingdom in mid-2001, and surviving for four seasons until late 2005. Developed by Southern Star, with the Ten Network, and Optus Television (a US-based pay TV service), it was the first Australian drama series to be commissioned by the United Kingdom's Channel 4. Eighty-six episodes were screened prior to cancellation. At the peak of its popularity, the series had been sold into a dozen or so (mostly European) territories, and against the usual odds, secured airtime in the United States, where it was picked up by Trio, a small west-coast cable network. It gained positive critical recognition, and fared well at television markets worldwide. Back in Australia, commentators linked the show with the return of the Ten Network to 'credible' drama after a hiatus of two decades (Sams 2001, 37), and with the emergence of a 'sophisticated and quirky' youth sub-genre (Idato 2000, 2), before enthusiasm cooled around series two and three, and series four drew the by now largely neglected narrative to its almost unnoticed conclusion. The project offers a suggestive case study of momentary trends in domestic drama production, within material received as confidently articulating Australia's globalizing television culture at the millennium, inviting exploration of what John Hartley (1992, 102) has seen as the fundamental 'impurity' of national television, and the productivity of its identification as a 'fundamental criterion for cultural studies'.' (Author's introduction p. 51)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Last amended 25 May 2011 10:41:41
51-67 Southern Stars and Secret Lives : International Exchange in Australian Televisionsmall AustLit logo Continuum : Journal of Media & Cultural Studies
Subjects:
  • The Secret Life of Us Judi McCrossin , Christopher Lee , 2001 single work film/TV
  • The Four Minute Mile David Williamson , 1988 single work film/TV
  • Blue Heelers Tony Morphett , Ysabelle Dean , Howard Griffiths , Ted Roberts , Greg Haddrick , Graeme Koetsveld , Anne Brooksbank , John Upton , Peter A. Kinloch , Tim Gooding , Ray Harding , Everett de Roche , Judith Colquhoun , Patrick Edgeworth , Justin Glockerla , Stephen Measday , Sue Hore , Alan Hopgood , John Lord , Rachel Lewis , John Coulter , Hugh Stuckey , Peter Gawler , David Allen , Cassandra Carter , Michaeley O'Brien , Fred Clarke , Margaret Plumb , John Wood , Leon Saunders , Wal Saunders , Russell Hagg , Ruth Field , Shane Brennan , Max Singer , Michael Winter , David Phillips , John Banas , Jennifer Rowe , David William Boutland , Annie Beach , David Worthington , Peter Dick , Robert Harris , Louise Crane , Chris Phillips , David Marsh , Jenny Lewis , Rick Held , Kathie Armstrong , Emma Honey , Bill Garner , Beverley Evans , Anthony Ellis , Mary McCormick , David Anthony , Carol Williams , Matthew Williams , Paul Davies , Craig Wilkins , Roger Dunn , Mary Graham , Harry Jordan , Geraldine Pilkington , Caroline Stanton , Grace Morris , Piers Hobson , Lyn Ogilvy , Deborah Parsons , Bob Cameron , Brian Bell , Kelly Lefever , Karin Altmann , Coral Drouyn , Jon Stephens , Marieke Hardy , Michael Brindley , Harriet Smith , Jo Merle , Chris Corbett , Tom Hegarty , Abe Pogos , Petra Graf , Anne Melville , Julie O'Brien , Peter Hepworth , Rob George , Jane Allen , Noel Maloney , Michael Voigt , Maureen Sherlock , Alison Nisselle , Elizabeth Coleman , John Ridley , Stuart Page , Jeff Truman , Rohan Trollope , Vicki Madden , Forrest Redlich , Jo Kasch , James Dunbar , Kylie Needham , Samantha Winston , 1994 series - publisher film/TV
  • Water Rats Anne Brooksbank , Peter Gawler , Denise Morgan , Sue Hore , Michael Miller , David Worthington , Michaeley O'Brien , Philip Dalkin , Peter Neale , David Phillips , Serge Lazareff , Ted Roberts , Kristen Dunphy , Deborah Parsons , Ray Harding , Tony Morphett , David Allen , Russell Hagg , Margaret Wilson , Ellie Beaumont , Chris Hawkshaw , Christine McCourt , Andrew Kelly , Grant McAloon , Elizabeth Packett , Bill Searle , Tim Pye , Adam Todd , Alexa Wyatt , John Banas , Graeme Koetsveld , Grant Fraser , Louise Crane , Tim Gooding , John O'Brien , Sam De Brito , Vicki Madden , Amanda Higgs , James Cohen , Rhett Gable , Brian Campbell , Margaret Morgan , 1996 series - publisher film/TV
  • Love My Way Jacquelin Perske , Tony McNamara , Marissa Cooke , Brendan Cowell , Louise Fox , Fiona Seres , Blake Ayshford , Sarah Lambert , 2004 series - publisher film/TV
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X