Rebecca learns her lesson
There is an irony that Rebecca Gibney (pictured) is playing the part of a schoolteacher in Nine‘s new drama series Snowy. The youngest of six brothers and sisters, Gibney dropped out of school at 15 and dismissed study as a waste of time. “I regret now, to a certain extent, that I dropped out of school so early,” she told TV Week. “It’s hard to know exactly how much I missed out on.” Although her character Lilian is a schoolteacher she is also the town rebel. “Lilian is extremely liberal and forthright and is looked upon quite badly by the town,” she said. “She rubs people the wrong way. She gets plenty of disapproving looks from people when she’s having a beer and cigarette in the bar. She’s gone from living in a big city to a small town and finds a lot of the people very bigoted.”
‘I feel like I’ve lost a mate, not just a child’
Producer Vince Lovegrove, whose award-winning documentary Suzi’s Story told of his wife Suzi‘s battle with AIDS, has now lost his son Troy, 7, of the same disease. Troy had contracted the disease from his mother while in the womb. “I feel like I’ve lost a mate, not just a child, but a mate,” Vince told TV Week. “The thing I’ve got of Troy is his spirit and his zest for life.” Last year Troy decided he wanted to share what time he had remaining with a film crew — the result of which is the documentary A Kid Called Troy, to screen on ABC.
Quantum goes beyond 300
ABC‘s science and technology series Quantum is celebrating its 300th episode. Host Karina Kelly, who came to Quantum after working with the Seven Network and SBS, has been with the show for eight of its nine years on air. “I regard my association with Quantum as an enormous privilege,” she told TV Week. “I’m very happy and feel I’ve found my niche in television.” But she also admits that the show comes with its share of stress as well. “The volume of material that comes through our unit is increasing all the time. Science is moving so fast and it is increasingly difficult to keep pace with it. Thankfully, we have a great team of researchers who scan all the science journals. Some of our researchers have been with the show since the beginning, so the research base we have is very solid.”
Briefly…
- Two episodes have been written for the second series of Nine‘s Law Of The Land. Producers are waiting until they have four scripts written before they look to re-cast. There are plans for four new characters to join the series, including a love interest for Lisa Hensley‘s character.
- Former E Street star Lorry D’Ercole has had to pull out of the Melbourne production of Cats after rupturing his Achilles tendon. The injury happened while rehearsing the show’s major dance routine. He is confident of re-joining the production when it moves to Hong Kong and Singapore.
- Apparently there is a black market for advance Home And Away scripts! British media have been secretly buying copies of advance scripts up to months ahead — but the source has apparently since dried up.
Our House presenter and former Skyhooks frontman Graeme ‘Shirley’ Strachan (pictured near right) will be a guest host of Hey Hey It’s Saturday this week while Daryl Somers is away filming commercials for Northern Territory tourism. The job reunites Strachan with his former Skyhooks sidekick Red Symons (pictured far right). “I’ve probably got more dirt on Symons than anyone, so that should keep him quiet!,” he told TV Week.- This week sees TV program classifications change. From 5 September the PG and M classifications will replace the old PGR and AO classifications. And a new classification, MA, will be for programs for mature adults only and not to be screened before 9.00pm.
Lawrie Masterson: The View From Here
“Australian television stations now broadcast something like 3500 hours of sport each year, so the last thing we need right now is another sports program, right? Wrong, according to the Seven Network, because that’s exactly what we are about to get … for the next eight Thursday nights at 9.30, anyway. That is the timeslot — unusual for a sports program — allocated for Seasons but, then again, it doesn’t look like just any sports program. In fact, Seven’s guff on Seasons goes to pains to claim that it is not a sports show but “a program about interesting people with great stories… these people just happen to be sports people”.”
Program Highlights (Melbourne, September 5-11):
Sunday: The Minor Preliminary Semi-Final of the Rugby League Winfield Cup is telecast live (3pm, Nine), while the start of the finals series of AFL has a highlights package (4.45pm, Seven). Sunday night movies are Internal Affairs (Seven), Bugsy (Nine) and Miami Blues (Ten).
Monday: US reality show Rescue 911 replaces reruns of Australia’s Funniest Home Video Show (5.30pm, Nine). In A Country Practice (7.30pm, Seven), Esme (Joyce Jacobs) announces she is leaving Wandin Valley. In the lead-up to the debut of drama series Snowy, Nine presents a half-hour special, The Making Of Snowy (11pm).
Tuesday: In GP (8.30pm, ABC), William (Michael Craig) and Ian (Tony Llewellyn-Jones) both try to treat a homeless man suffering from psychogenic fugue.
Wednesday: In Neighbours (6.30pm, Ten), Lou (Tom Oliver) is reeling after a marriage proposal from Cheryl (Caroline Gillmer). Nine screens the two-hour telemovie pilot for its historical series Snowy (8.30pm), setting the scene for the telling the story of the development of the hydro-electric scheme planned for the Snowy Mountains. The one-hour special A Kid Called Troy (8.30pm, ABC) tells the story of seven-year-old Troy Lovegrove and his lifelong battle with AIDS.
Thursday: In the series final of Police Rescue (8.30pm, ABC), relationships in the squad are examined when Mickey (Gary Sweet) faces a great loss. In the series debut of Snowy (8.30pm, Nine), a new policeman arrives in Cooma prepared to stamp out the racial tension causing fights in the camps. Bruce McAvaney hosts the new sports-magazine program Seasons (9.30pm, Seven).
Friday: In the 2000th episode of Neighbours (6.30pm, Ten), a surprise birthday celebration for Helen Daniels (Anne Haddy) sees the return of Lucy (Melissa Bell) and Paul (Stefan Dennis) to Ramsay Street. Jennifer Keyte and Stan Grant host the Australian Fashion Industry Awards from the Sydney Town Hall (8.30pm, Seven).
Saturday: Norman Kaye, Alyson Best and Chris Haywood star in the Australian film Man Of Flowers (9.30pm, SBS).
Source: TV Week (Melbourne edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide. 4 September 1993. Southdown Press.
