Dieter gets the message
Home And Away star Dieter Brummer (pictured with co-star Melissa George) says a lot of people tell him it would be great to be famous — but he sets the record straight in that fame does have a downside.  “I don’t think they realise exactly what being famous entails,” he told TV Week. “Quite simply, fame means not having your own life. You never really get away from it.” Even the task of checking his answering machine causes him to cringe.  He receives up to 50 calls a day from fans who manage to keep pace with his ever-changing telephone number. “I don’t really have a problem with the kids but there is always the niggling thought you might get some psycho who doesn’t like you. There are people who are so obsessed with the show, they fail to realise that we are totally different people in real life.”

Sigrid’s family law
Actress Sigrid Thornton (pictured) and husband, film producer Tim Burstall have brought their family back to Australia after two-and-a-half years living in the US. “Despite all the difficulties that Australia is facing, this is still a great place to be,” she told TV Week. Thornton will soon be back on Australian TV screens in the Nine Network telemovie The Feds, playing the part of lawyer Christine McQuillan. The Feds also stars Robert Taylor, Bruno Lawrence and Nicki Wendt.

Spies like us
ABC‘s new 13-part series Secrets, from the producers of Phoenix, follows the initiation of three young recruits to The FIRM (Foreign Intervention and Revolutionary Management), an organisation loosely based on ASIO. The three new “thrusters” are played by Tony Poli, Rachel Griffiths (pictured) and Michael Fry.  The cast also includes Marshall Napier, Frank Whitten and Babs McMillan.  Griffiths, working in her first regular TV role, says working on the show has been an “amazing opportunity”.  “It was a sensational feeling on the set,” she told TV Week. “To work with the calibre of cast and quality of scripts has been rewarding.”

Briefly…

• As her character Bernice makes her exit, A Country Practice star Judith McGrath (pictured) looks back on Wandin Valley’s eccentric hippie. “With formula television, in particular, characters are black or white, good or evil,” she told TV Week. “But to have those shadows and that shade in someone like Bernice is great… to be somebody who just makes mistakes, unintentionally, and is an irritant.”  McGrath is now planning a move back to the theatre.
• The Nine Network was determined not to let the advance launch date of their new series Snowy get out to the opposition — so it went to the trouble of printing fake program guides with the wrong night for the series premiere.  The fakes were circulated within the network… and, as expected, leaked out to its rivals.
• Former Neighbours star Felice Arena had barely arrived in London when he scored a role in the new stage production of Hair, to open at the Old Vic Theatre on London’s West End.

Lawrie Masterson: The View From Here

“Our revamped — and, in my opinion, greatly improved — program listings (pictured above) are another major step in a revamping process that has been taking place gradually since early this year. The move is another demonstration of our commitment to providing the best coverage of television — and, indeed, entertainment generally — throughout Australia. And we’re not the only one excited about it. Reaction from Australia’s five major networks has been uniformly positive, a further indication that, while are independent of them all, a unique relationship exists between us.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, September 11-17):
Saturday: Norman Kaye, Alyson Best and Chris Haywood star in the Australian film Man Of Flowers (9.30pm, SBS).

Sunday: Kyle Patterson presents live coverage of the Sandown 500 motor racing (1pm, SBS).  The Winfield Cup Major Semi-Final is broadcast live (3pm, Nine). Sunday night movies are VI Warshawski (Seven) and Point Break (Ten) up against the debut of three-part mini-series Queen (Nine).

Monday: In A Country Practice (7.30pm, Seven), Bernice (Judith McGrath) is devastated to learn she has cancer and decides to shun medical treatment, choosing instead to run away to India. In Healthy Wealthy And Wise (7.30pm, Ten), Jim Brown takes viewers on a tour of the Dandenong Ranges; Lyn Talbot has suggestions for kids birthday parties; and Ross Greenwood offers some handy hints in the art of bargaining.

Tuesday: In the final episode of All Together Now (8pm, Nine), school is out for Thomas and Anna (Steve Jacobs and Jane Hall, pictured). In GP (8.30pm, ABC), Steve (Michael O’Neill) is surprised to be consulted by the surgery’s gardener, a middle-aged mother, about her lack of orgasms — and when her husband confronts Steve about his counselling methods, the two men almost come to blows.

Wednesday: In Neighbours (6.30pm, Ten), the Robinsons are shocked by the arrival of Lucy’s (Melissa Bell) husband and become concerned that he may be exploiting her for his own ends. In Hey Dad! (7.30pm, Seven), Martin (Robert Hughes) overhears Lyn (Mary-Lou Stewart) and Betty’s (Julie McGregor) conversation and mistakenly thinks Lyn is pregnant. In Newlyweds (8pm, Seven), Allie (Annie Jones) and Peter’s (Chris Gabardi) nightmare begins when Jules (Cathy Godbold) moves in and invites rock bands home for a jam session.

Thursday: In Snowy (8.30pm, Nine), Jack (Neil Melville) and Molly’s (Catherine Wilkin) suspicions over Michael’s (Bernard Curry) friend Wolfie (Jochen Horst) are realised when they are informed that Wolfie has been charged with assaulting a young girl.

Friday: In Home And Away (7pm, Seven), in the depths of despair with the knowledge that his negligence caused Bobby’s (Nicolle Dickson), Adam (Mat Stevenson) disappears — leaving Pippa (Debra Lawrance) and Michael (Dennis Coard) fearing for his safety.

Source: TV Week (Melbourne edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide. 11 September 1993.  Southdown Press.