Hell’s Kitchen

“They’re all very well dressed”, Debra Lawrence said to the overlay, as we walked on to the set of “Hell’s Kitchen”, the celebrity cooking program that’s screened on Australian television over the last few months. Even before the comment, she was our favourite, as we got down to the final four, ahead of the program’s […]

Mary-The Making Of A Princess

“He didn’t really propose to her on the side of the road to Hobart Airport?”, I asked a couple of colleagues during the week. Both were Hobart born and bred, and in the 40-50 year age group. I figured they’d know. Having seen only the last fifteen minutes or so of “Mary – The Making […]

Nashville

As I mentioned the other week, I’m not a great watcher of fictional television. When friends talk about “The West Wing”, “Orange Is The New Black” and “Miss Fischer’s Murders”, I tend to glaze over. While there are some shows I do watch intently, and with passion, most of the time, television is either background […]

Please Like Me

I always feel a bit awkward when friends talk about what they’ve been watching on TV. “Have you seen Nashville? What did you think of the latest episode of Borgen? Have you been watching House Of Cards”. You know what I mean. THOSE kind of conversations where a group of friends talk in intimate detail […]

The Box

In some ways I was a rather precocious child. Really? You sure about that? No way! Unlike other children of my generation I was allowed to watch some of the more “adult” television programs screened on Australian. For example, I loved Number 96. As I wrote on the fortieth anniversary screening of the show… I […]

88 Documentary

Thought I’d give a mention to a documentary my friend, Michaela Perske has produced and co-written called “88”. The documentary goes back to 1988, the year of the Australian Bicentenary, and tells the story of some of the many thousands of Indigenous people who travelled from all over Australia to join in protests on January […]

Number 96 Turns Forty

“The thing I’m most proud about Number 96 is that it saved lives”, David Sale told us at tonight’s fortieth anniversary screening of the legendary Australian television show. As the creator of the show, and as a gay man, he was speaking about the impact of the program’s character, Don Finlayson, on the large number […]

Television Saturday

Regular appearances by Sean Micallef could emerge as the only reason I don’t become totally addicted to “Laid”, the new black comedy on ABC 1. I don’t know why I don’t like him. I just don’t. Co-incidentally, the last time I truly loved a program and found my allegiances tested was when he became Laura’s […]

Embarrassing illnesses

I don’t know if it’s my television viewing habits, or if it’s the summer season, but every time I turn on Channel 9 or Gem, there seems to be an episode of “Embarrassing Illnesses” (or one of the associated spin-off programs). Are they strip programming it at the moment? I can’t recall exactly the first […]

Life Can Be Sweet And Sour

I’ve had a wonderfully nostalgic night listening to the soundtrack of the “cult” 1980s ABC-TV series, “Sweet and Sour”, released this week on CD. Somewhere in the garage I’m sure I have the original album on vinyl, which I used to listen to regularly, though this is probably the first time in over twenty years […]

Democracy in Action

After watching Q&A tonight, my attention turned to democracy in Sweden, as I watched a “leader’s debate” – or Duell, as they called it – ahead of next weekend’s general election there. If you’re interested, you can actually watch the debate with English commentary on the SVT website. In fact, it seems it was translated […]

Television Sunday

I’m checking out Twitter, I’m reading every newspaper article, I’m listening to the radio, and I’m watching a fair bit of television for even the slightest cue from the independents about when they’ll make a decision or announcement (it’s a professional interest for me at the moment). Although there’s speculation, and there’ll be some rumours, […]