Cirrus@Austlit

The story of Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke during one of the most difficult period of his political life, when his position as leader came under threat from Treasurer, Paul Keating. The narrative also explores the Hawke legend from his early days as a hard-drinking, womanising, but brilliant trade union president through his transformation into a polished, egalitarian, and visionary world leader and up to his second term in office. Having largely sacrificed his family for political ambition, Hawke must rely on his friendships and allegiances as he attempts to defeat his challenger and remain in power.

Series One of East West 101 focuses on two men whose destinies are irrevocably intertwined. Malik is driven by a hunger for justice. He was twelve when a masked gunman held up the family shop. Malik refused to hand over the money and his father was subsequently shot and injured. He later joined the police force and has been looking for the shadowy figure who pulled the trigger. When he finally finds him, Malik's belief in the justice system is challenged by a powerful desire for revenge. As he hunts down the truth, it is revealed that one of his colleagues, Crowley, had a part to play in the original investigation. Crowley is a man whose vision has been blighted by pain and prejudice. His son, Paul, was found dead of an overdose on drugs sold to him by a Lebanese dealer. When the drug dealer who sold Paul the heroin is found murdered, Internal Affairs come asking questions.

In Season Two, East West 101 expands to seven episodes as the Major Crime Squad investigate crime and murder in all quarters of multicultural Sydney. But overarching all is the quest for Detective Zane Malik to find the truth behind a car bomb attack which kills two men. The Major Crime Squad form a joint task force with the NSO (National Security Organisation) to deal with the crime. There is paranoia in the city and fallout on the Muslim community. Malik knows that in order to stop the circle of hate, he must solve the crime. Was the bomb really an act of extremists, as the media suggest, or a sophisticated killing by a career criminal? Malik doggedly pursues the truth until he, too, becomes a target. Inspector Patricia Wright questions his motives but her vision is clouded by personal issues that she wants to keep hidden from the squad. Crime has touched her own family.

Season Three : The Hero's Journey. 'In [this] third season of East West 101, the Major Crime Squad investigates a 36 million dollar robbery in Australia and its connections to the murder of 17 people in Afghanistan. Is the robbery to fund an act of terror by military trained radicals, or the work of sophisticated criminals? For Detective Zane Malik the case has savage personal and professional ramifications. Malik is obstructed in his quest to find those responsible by the interference of newcomer Detective Neil Travis. Travis has fought in Iraq and his attitude and approach to the investigation cause conflict with Malik. In the hunt for an elusive foe, ultimately both men are forced to confront what makes a man a hero, or a coward...'

(Source: East West 101, SBS website)

'Helen Tremaine returns to a remote island in Australia's far north Torres Strait where she had previously worked as the Remote Area Nurse (aka RAN). Helen has a talent for breaking rules and taking on the bureaucracy. That, along with local politics, love affairs and a savage outbreak of Dengue Fever, RAN draws you into the world of a woman who yearns to belong, and a community who love her but want her gone.'

Source: Australian Television Information Archive. (Sighted: 12/6/2013)

A dramatised (and fictionalised) account of the arrest, transportation, and subsequent escape of Mary Bryant, one of the convicts transported to Australia on the First Fleet.

'The story of a father who is suffering from Alzheimer's and his three estranged sons who reluctantly draw together to find institutional care for him. The father wrestles with the demons of the past as buried memories of World War II percolate disturbingly through the mundane reality of his daily care. Woven through this are the stories of the sons as they struggle to come to terms with the roles they have played as brothers, sons and men.'

Source: Screen Australia.