ACMA green lights 3D grand finals

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has granted temporary licences to both the Seven and Nine networks to allow them to broadcast the AFL and NRL grand finals respectively in 3D.

The temporary licences for both networks are applicable for the period from 18 September to 8 October and cover the markets of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

The AFL Grand Final is to be held on 25 September and the NRL Grand Final is scheduled for 3 October.

The broadcasts will be on digital channel 40 and will require a 3D compatible receiver and eyewear to view in 3D.  ACMA points out that because the trials are on a lower strength signal to normal television services that some viewers may still not receive the 3D telecast even if they have a compatible set and are within the relevant licence areas.

ACMA has also pointed out that it will not be issuing any further licences for 3D TV trials pending its review into 3D broadcasting on free-to-air television.  The authority is currently reviewing reports received from the Nine Network and SBS from their recent 3D TV trials conducted for the NRL State Of Origin and the FIFA World Cup.

Coverage of the AFL Grand Final in 3D in the major capital cities will be of cold comfort to viewers in Tasmania who appear unlikely to be able to view the game even in high-definition, as the high-definition broadcast forms the launch of the Seven Network’s 7mate channel which is not likely to air in Tasmania in the short term.

Source: ACMA

1990: September 1-7

Get me to the church on time…
The upcoming A Country Practice wedding between Lucy Gardiner (Georgie Parker) and Matt Tyler (John Tarrant) will continue Wandin Valley’s tradition of dramatic weddings.  “The problem is the parents,” Parker tells TV Week.  “And whether the ceremony is going to be held in an Anglican or Catholic church.  Matt’s father Gilbert (George Mallaby) is pompous and doesn’t think Matt is coping without good financial backing.  My parents are supposedly splitting up and my father Patrick (Jonathan Hardy) refuses to come because it’s not being held in a Catholic church.  My mother Lois (Jill Perryman) turns up without him.”  The lead-up to the wedding has also been marred by Lucy’s cancer scare and the couple’s house being burnt to the ground in recent episodes.  “Post-marriage is much calmer,” Parker hastily points out.

The Great Soap Shake-Up!
A number of key cast shake-ups are about to unsettle popular soaps Home And Away, A Country Practice and E Street, while cop drama Skirts is about to lose one cast member.  Julian McMahon and Sharyn Hodgson (pictured), who play Home And Away newlyweds Ben and Carly, are leaving the show over the coming months.  Their exit from Home And Away follows recent news that original cast member Adam Willits is about to leave the show – and Craig McLachlan is also planning to leave the show but will return for guest appearances during 1991.  James Davern, producer of Seven’s A Country Practice, has confirmed that the series is about to lose cast members Michael Muntz, Mary Regan and child actor Georgina Fisher.  Actors Muntz and Regan are leaving to pursue other opportunities, while the young Fisher is leaving after two years with the show.  “I spoke to her parents and two years are enough for a child actor,” Davern told TV Week.  Meanwhile, Network Ten’s E Street is about to lose cast members Paul Kelman and Lisbeth Kennelly, whose contracts have not been renewed.  Also tipped to be leaving E Street are Chelsea Brown and Rebecca Saunders.  And Skirts star Kate Gillick is leaving the police drama to return to the theatre.

Caught in the crossfire
Tragedy strikes Neighbours when Kerry Mangel (Linda Hartley, pictured, with Mark Little) is left fighting for her life after being accidentally shot while taking part in a duck-shooting protest.  “This storyline brings out the side of Kerry’s character that I’ve always liked the most,” Hartley tells TV Week.  “She has been in a very domestic situation lately, but no-one can forget their past.  I’m pleased the opportunity came up for her to be more forthright about things she cares about.”    

Briefly…
The Comedy Company producer Ian McFadyen (pictured) has admitted that the show’s return has been tougher than expected.  “We’ve obviously got a mandate to deliver a big audience pretty soon and that’s a lot of pressure to carry.  Our ratings are worse than I thought they would be.  60 Minutes has an enormous following – a very strong loyalty – and we’re working on that at the moment.”  Meanwhile, McFadyen’s other project, Mark Mitchell’s The Big Time, has been taken off air after a short time and is set to be re-worked.

Robbo’s World Tonight host Clive Robertson insists he couldn’t care less that his show is being beaten by Tonight Live With Steve Vizard in the ratings.  “If they don’t want my show after next March (when his contract runs out), that’s fine,” he told TV Week.  “I’ll do something else.  I wouldn’t mind going back to Seven or even the ABC.”  He also admits to not liking the name of his own show.  “”Robbo’ sounds a bit silly,” he says.  If he had his choice, he’d call it something like ‘The Final Word, With Mr Robertson’.

Denise Drysdale and Ernie Sigley have spoken to TV Week about their daytime show, In Melbourne Today.  “We really are like an old married couple,” Drysdale says.  “We can have a go at each other, and it’s all part of the fun.”  While Sigley says it is a battle to try and stay ahead of the gags that the studio crew have in store for them.  “They once blew up a chook on the set and scared the living daylights out of me,” he said.

John Laws says…
”SBS’ The Movie Show with David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz is certainly a reflection of two completely different personalities.  Pomeranz is bubbly, earnestly sincere and prone to gush the extremities of praise and criticism; Stratton is cool, laidback and possessed of both gentlemanly charm and viper-like attack.”

Program Highlights (September 1-7):
Saturday:  HSV7 starts its celebrity-led assault on the top-rating Hey Hey It’s Saturday with two new shows, Celebrity Family Feud and Celebrity Wheel Of Fortune.

Sunday:  With More Winners now finished up, ABC starts screening the original Winners series of children’s dramas that had originally screened on the Ten Network.  Tonight’s episode is The Other Facts Of Life starring Ken Talbot, Dennis Miller and Anne Grigg.  Sunday night movies are Stakeout (HSV7), Children Of A Lesser God (GTV9) and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (ATV10).

Monday:  Tonight Live With Steve Vizard (HSV7) starts a week of shows presented live from London.

Wednesday:  John Bach, Oliver Tobias, Rebecca Gilling and Peta Toppano star in ABC’s new mini-series The Paper Man, screening over three consecutive nights.  Australian Democrats politician Janine Haines is this week’s guest on Speaking For Myself (SBS).  HSV7 screens the long-awaited telemovie Bony, starring Cameron Daddo, Burnum Burnum, Catherine Oxenberg, David Reyne and Tom Richards.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  1 September 1990. Southdown Press.

Victoria Longley

Actress Victoria Longley has died in Sydney at the age of 49 after a battle with breast cancer.

It was her second bout with the illness.

An accomplished actress on stage, film and television, Longley was awarded best actress at the Sydney Theatre Awards in 2006 for her performance in the stage production The Goat, Or Who Is Sylvia? and last year played the role of Goneril in the South Australian production of Shakespeare’s King Lear and was to appear in the same role in the Bell Shakespeare production of the play this year before falling ill.

Longley also had an extensive career in television, appearing in The Dirtwater Dynasty, GP, Mercury, Murder Call, Seven Deadly Sins, Wildside, Water Rats, Young Lions, Farscape and All Saints.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald, IMDB

New channels on Tassie waiting list

The recent announcements of new digital channels 7mate and 11 have yet to be followed up with confirmation from local affiliates that they will be carried in Tasmania.

Craig Davies, Tasmanian general manager for Southern Cross Media (representing both Southern Cross Television and Tasmanian Digital Television), told The Mercury that neither of the new channels will appear in Tasmania at the same time as they launch on the mainland, but added that an announcement is coming:

"We are not sure of the timeframe because we haven't got an agreement from Seven or Ten to bring these channels into Tasmania and we also do not have the capacity to broadcast these channels into Tasmania (but) it is within our best interests to get them on air as soon as we possibly can.”

Mr Davies added that further extensions to Southern Cross’ network infrastructure, based in Canberra, is needed to bring the new channels to Tasmania.

The delay will mean that Tasmanian viewers may be denied the opportunity to see the high-definition broadcast of the AFL Grand Final, as it will serve as the opening program on Seven’s 7mate channel. The standard-definition broadcast is expected to be relayed via Southern Cross Television as normal.

The delay in bringing Ten’s new youth-focused channel, 11, to Tasmania via TDT may impact on fans of Neighbours and The Simpsons as both shows are set to move exclusively to 11 when it launches in the new year.

Both new channels 7mate and 11 are also expected to carry a significant schedule of exclusive programming not available on the main Seven and Ten channels.

The launch of Seven’s first digital channel, 7TWO, was delayed to Tasmania by one month and Ten’s sports channel, One HD, was delayed by approximately three months. However, Nine’s digital channel GO! was broadcast via Tasmania’s local affiliate, WIN, from the beginning.

The Nine Network is also expected to announce an additional digital channel soon.

Tasmania is a market of around 500,000 viewers – making it one of the smallest populations for a competitive market in Australia – yet in the space of ten years it has gone from two commercial channels (WIN and Southern Cross) to six commercial channels (WIN, Southern Cross, TDT, 7TWO, GO!, One HD) and also receives the full suite of digital channels offered by ABC and SBS.

Meanwhile, Prime Television, the Seven Network affiliate serving the regional markets of New South Wales/ACT and Victoria, have said they will be carrying 7mate from the time it launches on 25 September.

Source: The Mercury, Regional TV Marketing

WIN rediscovers Homicide

When it debuted in October 1964, Homicide marked a significant milestone in the development of Australian television drama.  There had been earlier attempts at drama series, soap operas, mini-series and televised plays but many struggled to gain a high profile in Australia’s early television landscape.  After all, it was so much cheaper to buy US shows than to invest in local production, but Homicide was the first high-profile drama series to be made by Australians for Australians and its ratings from the very beginning proved that local production could be a viable and popular alternative to imported programs.

The show’s producer, Hector Crawford, had been a successful producer of radio programs since the mid-1940s and television productions since the late 1950s and had modelled Homicide loosely on an earlier radio drama series, D24.

Homicide made its debut on Melbourne’s HSV7 on Tuesday 20 October 1964 at 7.30pm.  The series was soon sold across the network and also later sold overseas.  By 1966, Homicide was ranked as the third most popular show on Australian television, rising to first place the following year and would top the national ratings again for four consecutive years from 1969 to 1972.  In 1973 it was bumped to second place by Number 96. 

The success of Homicide led to Crawford receiving requests from rival networks to produce police dramas for them as well – and he responded with Division 4 (Nine Network) and Matlock Police (0-10 Network) which were also well received by the public.

Homicide continued for a record breaking 510 episodes with its final episode going to air on HSV7 in January 1977, although production had ceased as far back as 1975.   Homicide’s demise came soon after the axe had also been put to Division 4 and Matlock Police, triggering theories that the networks had colluded to bring down the Crawford empire in response to his high-profile battle to force the networks into an increase in the amount of Australian production on television.

Since its last episode in 1977, repeats of Homicide have been few and far between.  The Seven Network did pay tribute to Homicide on the occasion of the show’s 30th anniversary in 1994 with a one-hour special hosted by Blue Heelers stars John Wood and Lisa McCune, and the network screened a handful of Homicide episodes in an afternoon timeslot.

Seven also paid tribute to Homicide in November 2005 with the screening of the 1973 episode that farewelled long-time cast members Leonard Teale (pictured, far right, with the cast in 1967) and Alwyn Kurts to commemorate the start of HSV7’s fiftieth year of transmission.  And the Nine Network’s 50 Years 50 Shows special, produced in 2005, ranked Homicide as the 12th most significant program to have been made in 50 years of Australian television.

With Crawford Productions now owned by WIN Corporation, its regional television network, WIN, has in recent years been re-playing various series from the Crawford archives in late-night timeslots.  Some of the titles to have featured include Division 4, Matlock Police, Carson’s Law, Skyways and even the ill-fated Holiday Island.  With episodes of most of those titles now exhausted WIN earlier this month started replaying Homicide, starting from the show’s earliest episodes that first went to air in 1964.

WIN broadcasts through regional markets in Southern NSW, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia as well as the Australian Capital Territory.

Homicide.  Monday night/Tuesday morning, 2.00am.  WIN Television (except South Australia)

Source: TV Eye – Classic Australian Television, TelevisionAU

Ten to launch new channel – Eleven – in 2011

The Ten Network has today unveiled two major strategic moves.  The first will be the launch of its new standard-definition channel – 11 – early in 2011.  The new channel continues Ten’s strategy of building independently-focused identities, following the launch last year of One HD, while maintaining the Ten brand on its main channel.

11, which will replace the standard-definition simulcast of One HD, promises to provide a general entertainment format with focus on the 13-29 age bracket, with access to tens of thousands of hours of program material, old and new, from the library of US network CBS. 

Some of the current programs promised to appear on 11 include The Office, Stargate Atlantis, Top Model UK, Dollhouse, The Cleveland Show, The Late Show With David Letterman, Dexter, Smallville, 90210 and Melrose Place.  The new channel will also have access to CBS’ library of classics including Family Ties, Happy Days, The Brady Bunch, Cheers, Becker, Get Smart, MacGyver, Hogan’s Heroes, Everybody Loves Raymond, Sex And The City, Roseanne, The Love Boat, Frasier and Star Trek.

However, spearheading the new channel’s prime-time line-up will be two programs that have been early evening staples for Ten for two decades – Neighbours and The Simpsons.

In a bold move, Ten will be moving Neighbours exclusively to 11.  It will be the first time that a commercial network has scheduled an ongoing locally-made drama exclusively on a digital multi-channel.  Ten chief Grant Blackley also announced that 11 will become the new free-to-air home of The Simpsons.  Both The Simpsons and Neighbours are expected to occupy the same weeknight timeslots on 11 as they currently do on Ten.

The shifting of the two programs from the main Ten channel creates an opportunity for Ten’s other strategic development – an increased commitment to news and current affairs.

Ten is planning to bridge the one-hour gap between Ten News and The 7PM Project with a half-hour national news bulletin followed by a half-hour locally-based bulletin in each state.  Ten’s increased news presence will also extend to weekends where state-based bulletins will be reinstated on a regular basis.  Presenters and reporters for the expanded news service have yet to be announced.

With this increase in news and current affairs coverage the network has committed to employing an additional 100 staff and upgrading infrastructure in an investment of up to $20 million per annum.  Network Ten and CBS have also entered into a joint venture, ElevenCo Pty Limited, to ensure content supply for the new channel.  ElevenCo will be two thirds owned by Ten and one third by CBS.

It is unknown at this stage what plans are in place for 11 to be relayed through pay-TV or through Ten’s regional affiliates such as Southern Cross Ten, Tasmanian Digital Television and Darwin Digital Television.

The announcement of 11 comes a week after rival Seven unveiled details of its new high-definition channel, 7mate, and just over a month after ABC launched its new 24-hour channel, ABC News 24.

Source: Network Ten

Prime welcomes 7mate aboard

Regional broadcaster Prime Television has today announced that it will be carrying the Seven Network’s new high-definition channel, 7mate, starting on the same day as its launch on Seven’s digital platform.

The decision to air 7mate from day one contrasts last year’s situation where 7TWO was broadcast on Seven for almost two months before it launched on Prime.

The Seven Network announced the upcoming launch of 7mate last week – with the channel promising a program line-up targeting males aged 16-49.  The channel is scheduled to launch on 25 September starting with the high-definition simulcast of Seven’s coverage of the AFL Grand Final.

7mate will be broadcast on digital channel 73 on the Seven Network stations, and on digital channel 63 on Prime.

Prime Television broadcasts through the regional markets of New South Wales and Victoria, including the Australian Capital Territory and the Gold Coast.   Prime’s WA outlet, GWN, may be unlikely to carry the channel for some time as the network is still in the early stages of its digital roll-out across WA and existing multi-channels such as 7TWO are yet to appear there.

There is speculation that the surprise announcement of 7mate has prompted the Nine and Ten networks to fast-track their third channels to air – though neither network has given any definite or clear indication of their strategy for the third channel.  Nine is rumoured to be considering anything from a crime-themed channel to movies to classic TV programming, while Ten is considered likely to pursue a general entertainment channel or something with a more defined youth focus to tackle the ratings growth of Nine’s GO!

Source: Freeview

TV names battle it out in federal election

Last night’s Federal Election might not have returned a clear result but there were some familiar faces along the way.

Sarah Henderson (pictured), representing the Liberal Party, had contested the Victorian marginal seat of Corangamite, including areas surrounding Geelong.  Henderson will be familiar to television viewers from her work as a newsreader and reporter at Network Ten in Melbourne as well as appearing on ABC programs The Investigators, The 7.30 Report and Holiday.  She has also worked at radio 3AW and has worked in management roles at Network Ten and National Indigenous Television (NITV).  At the time of writing the result for Corangamite was still inconclusive with a narrow margin between Henderson and the ALP’s incumbent, Darren Cheeseman, but ABC has this afternoon predicted a narrow ALP win.

Former ABC journalist and presenter Maxine McKew (pictured), who famously snatched the Sydney seat of Bennelong for the ALP from former prime minister John Howard in 2007, lost out last night against the Liberal Party’s John Alexander, former tennis star and commentator for the Seven Network.  McKew has since lashed out at the ALP, saying the ALP’s campaign lacked clarity and that the recent dismissal of prime minister Kevin Rudd has had to have had an impact on the public vote.

Steve Titmus (pictured), a former newsreader for Southern Cross Television in Tasmania and representing the Liberal Party, was unsuccessful last night in his bid for the northern Tasmanian seat of Bass.

Meanwhile, the campaign for the attention of viewers last night was won by ABC with its marathon coverage headed by Kerry O’Brien returning a rating of 28.0 per cent (combining ABC1 and ABC News 24 which were in simulcast).  Nine came second on 20.3 per cent, followed by Seven (16.8), Ten (10.5) and SBS1 (3.3 per cent).  Viewers also demonstrated a definite appetite for alternative programming, with digital channels 7TWO scoring 8.1 per cent, GO! 6.9 per cent and even SBS2 getting a higher than usual 1.2 per cent.

Source: Geelong Advertiser, Wikipedia, Sydney Morning Herald, The Examiner, ABC, TV Tonight

Comment sought over GTV9 redevelopment

The company redeveloping the GTV9 studio site at 22 Bendigo Street, Richmond, is seeking community consultation over plans to convert the 102-year-old building into an eight-storey apartment block.

Vivas Lend Lease, which bought the building for an estimated $50 million earlier this year, is planning to build 550 apartments plus low-rise townhouses on the three hectare site.

The external facade of the original building is heritage protected but additional extensions added in recent decades are not – but Vivas Lend Lease says it “will work to capture the history of the site through sensitive and appropriate interpretive methods. This could be by way of an interpretive trail, street naming or interactive media.”

Hey Hey It’s Saturday producer and host Daryl Somers recently suggested that part of the site should be converted into a TV museum to pay tribute to the many programs and personalities that have entertained Australians from the iconic studios.

But not everyone is pleased with the proposed redevelopment.  Cr Stephen Jolly is one who believes local "residents are already majorly p----- off" with the over-development of Richmond:

"I'm not against development, but this is unchecked development. What about the infrastructure?  Developers are just seeing dollars, dollars, dollars, and trying to squeeze as many people in as they can."

Vivas Lend Lease has established a website to make available its ‘Master Plan’ for the site and to seek community feedback and progress reports on the redevelopment.

Feedback will be reported to the City of Yarra when Vivas Lend Lease presents its draft Development Plan in September.

GTV9 plans to vacate the premises and move to new facilities in the Docklands precinct early next year.

Source: Herald Sun, Vivas Lend Lease

1990: August 25-31

‘I could have given them a real pregnancy!’
Now back on the set of Home And Away after her brief honeymoon, Nicolle Dickson (pictured) has a tough workload ahead as Summer Bay’s Bobby Simpson faces death threats, a new romance and a baby on the way.  “I could have given them a real pregnancy,” the newlywed Dickson jokingly told TV Week, but is quick to point out that she and husband James aren’t planning a family.

The littlest star on the street
Ten’s E Street has welcomed a new cast member, and the show’s cast and crew and bending over backwards to make sure she is happy.  The new star is nine-week-old Madison Doyle who will play the part of Rachel Patchett, the new daughter of Megan and Chris (Lisbeth Kennelly and Paul Kelman).  The young Patchett arrives in less than ideal circumstances.  Megan’s cheering at the grand final between the Westside’s Kookas and The Royals turns into contractions and she gives birth in the Kookas’ change-rooms!

Saturday night fever!
The war is now on as the Seven Network takes a celebrity-laden attack against Nine’s popular Hey Hey It’s Saturday.  Celebrity Wheel Of Fortune and Celebrity Family Feud (with presenters Rob Brough, John Burgess and Adriana Xenides, pictured) are set to debut early in September.  But Hey Hey’s Daryl Somers isn’t too worried about the competition.  “The other networks have put shows up against us in the past but they couldn’t match us,” he told TV Week.  “In times of gloom and doom, people love to laugh – and that’s what Hey Hey does best.”  Somers also diffuses speculation that Jacki MacDonald is set to return to the show following some guest appearances when the show was recently taped in Brisbane.  “It is certainly wonderful to welcome back our beloved Jacki.  But it is just for these two shows.  We have all missed her, and the door is always welcome for her to come back.”

Effie’s hair-raising new role!
Acropolis Now’s Nick Giannopoulos and Mary Coustas have signed a deal to pilot a sitcom set in a hairdressing salon.  The pilot, likely to go into production after the current series of Acropolis Now is completed, has the working title Effie.  The project is being funded by Crawford Productions for the Seven Network.  “The idea is that Effie works in a salon called ‘Hairazors’,” Giannopoulos told TV Week.  “The series will take a look at her adventures in the salon and her problems with the other kooky characters who work there.”  At this stage Coustas, who also stars in Seven’s police drama Skirts, is the only definite cast member.

Deafness Awareness Week
A record 14.5 hours of television programs with Supertext subtitles will be broadcast by the Nine Network during Deafness Awareness Week.  The network will be offering Supertext subtitles on Our World, Sale Of The Century, The Flying Doctors, Burke’s Backyard and Graham Kennedy’s Funniest Home Video Show, US series The Cosby Show, Murphy Brown, Growing Pains and Night Court, and selected movies.  ABC’s late night news bulletin will also start carrying Supertext subtitles from this week.

Briefly…
Only a year into his three-year contract, TV Week Gold Logie winner Craig McLachlan (pictured) is looking to wind back his role in Seven’s Home And Away in 1991 as the actor is struggling to juggle both acting and singing careers.  McLachlan has been allowed breaks from the series to promote his recording career but Seven is said to be less than pleased with singing taking a higher priority.  The relationship between Seven and McLachlan has also been tested with the star withdrawing from his commitment to co-host Seven’s Sydney telethon for the Royal Alexandra Hospital For Children and the Children’s Medical Research Foundation.

Burke’s Backyard host Don Burke is keen to sell the top-rating Nine Network show overseas.  He has already had interest from Japan in buying the show but with the show’s demanding schedule as well as presenting his own gardening show on Sydney’s 2UE, he admits the time just isn’t there yet to discuss the options.

Former Uncanny X-Men lead singer Brian Mannix (pictured) was thrilled when he scored a guest role in the Seven Network’s Skirts – more so when he heard he was playing a drunk!  “I’ve been drunk for years,” he said.   After Skirts, Mannix is set to release his own solo album and will also be making a guest appearance in SBS’ English At Work series.

John Laws says…
”It’s disappointing to see that Mark Mitchell’s ambitious show, The Big Time, failed to attract significant ratings and be put on hold.  In The Big Time, Mitchell plays himself and it seems that as far as the viewers are concerned they don’t consider this much a humorous ploy.  Anyway, this is not the end of the world for Mark Mitchell, because he has a superb comedy talent.  What he must do is come to terms with the fact that he is always going to be more successful by creating characters such as Con The Fruiterer and his missus and that it’s no failure at all to remain in that form of comedy.”

Program Highlights (August 26-31):
Saturday:  ATV10 screens The Wall – Berlin 1990 Concert, a two-hour music spectacular featuring some of the world’s best known rock stars performing with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra in the shadow of the infamous Berlin Wall, now fallen.

Sunday:  HSV7 begins screening the children’s series Round The Twist, originally shown on ABC, starring Tamsin West, Sam Vanderberg, Richard Moir and Bunney Brooke.  ABC’s Sunday morning World Of Worship presents A Mass For The Deaf, from the Ephpheta Centre in Sydney, to commemorate Deafness Awareness Week.  Sunday night movies are The Witches Of Eastwick (GTV9) and Die Hard (ATV10).  HSV7 debuts the two-part US mini-series I Know My First Name Is Steven, based on the real-life story of Steven Staynor who was kidnapped as a seven-year-old in 1972 and was held captive for seven years.

Tuesday:  Beyond 2000 (HSV7) presents a 90-minute special edition, 20th Century Syndrome, looking at some aspects of our modern-day lifestyles and whether they are actually killing us.  This is followed by a 90-minute edition of Tonight Live With Steve Vizard.  Heather Mitchell and Vince Martin guest star in ABC’s GP.

Wednesday:  Kim Beazley is the special guest in this week’s Speaking For Myself on SBS.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  25 August 1990. Southdown Press.