ABC1 / ABC2: redefining television

ABC1 is now on the air. It joins in ABC2 in redefining the television platforms of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

And with the re-branding, the ABC has now released full details of its new Australian-made product. It is the most comprehensive slate of projects the broadcaster has ever announced.

There are 7 drama productions (some previously announced) including The Cut, Dirt Game, Bran Nue Dae, Conversation Killer, Bed of Roses, Valentine’s Day and two seasons of East of Everything.

There are 50 hours of specially-commissioned documentaries looking at our past plus On Trial, Two in the Top End, Seed Hunter, Dinosaurs on Ice, The Burning Season, Alien from Earth and How Kevin Bacon Cured Cancer.

New Entertainment and comedy includes The Gruen Transfer, Very Small Business, Lawrence Leung’s Choose Your Own Adventure and The Urban Monkey with Murray Foote.

ABC2 offers theme-night programming with Arts (Sundays), Music and Games (Mondays), Drama (Tuesdays), Factual (Wednesdays), Comedy (Thursdays), Drama and Comedy (Fridays) and Movies (Fridays).

An extensive and detailed breakdown of ABC1 and ABC2 programs follows.

Drama
The Cut
6 x 55 ABC1
John Wood stars in The Cut, as colourful sporting identity Bill Telford, a player/ manager/agent who has fallen on his feet in the past decade as Australian professional sports have boomed. When Bill is injured in a bomb attack in Bangkok, his estranged son Andrew returns to Sydney and is reluctantly persuaded by his mother to run the business until Bill recovers. What Andrew unravels is a financial disaster that could ruin Bill. The family patriarch has a lot of skeletons in the closet and a host of clients with too much money, too much time on their hands and not a lot of grey matter! Bill has used players’ money to dabble in a range of shonky investments, which Andrew must now wade through and negotiate as best he can. The Cut is a Tom Blackett Media production in association with the FFC and the NSW FTO.

Dirt Game
6 x 55’ ABC1.
Dirt Game is about one of Australia’s oldest and riskiest pursuits – mining. It’s the story of the industry’s men and women – from the faction-torn board, to the workers at the hazardous ore face – striving to save a proud if crippled Australian firm that is about to collapse. That is unless a UK oil executive, an Aussie woman geologist and an ill-matched crisis management team can somehow save it.
From Harvey-Taft Productions in association with the FFC and Film Victoria.

Bran Nue Dae
1 x 90 ABC1
The celebrated stage musical Bran Nue Dae, which toured Australia in the 1990s, is being adapted to film. It’s the summer of 1965 and young Willie revels in life in the idyllic pearling port of Broome – fishing, hanging out with his mates, and when he can, his girl Rosie. His mother, Theresa, however has great hopes for him and it starts with an education at Clontarf, a religious mission in the city. Bran Nue Dae is a blend of rock opera, road movie, comedy, song, dance and romance.
From Mayfan Pty Ltd in association with Screenwest, the NSW FTO and MIFF.

Conversation Killer
1 x 90 ABC1
The strange case of Arthur Upfield and Snowy Rowles is a murder mystery writer’s worst nightmare come true. In 1929 Arthur Upfield, Australia’s premier crime writer, plotted the perfect murder for his novel The Sands of Windee. To his horror, one of his friends, stockman Snowy Rowles, put the scheme into deadly effect even before the book was published. The result was Western Australia’s most sensational murder trial of the 1930s.
A Taylor Media Pty Ltd production in association with Screenwest.

East of Everything
6 x 55 ABC1
Having spent most of his professional life wandering the globe in search of paradise, travel writer and prodigal son, Art Watkins, rushes home, too late to be by his dying mother’s bedside. Hoping to pay his last respects and escape the run-down tropical resort – the scene of his misspent youth – a twist in the tale traps him at the ‘Far Out East’. There he has to face his bitter brother, his childhood sweetheart and a teenage son he hardly knows. Thanks to his mother’s posthumous attempt to reunite her scattered family, Art discovers that his best chance of happiness is the ‘paradise lost’ he left behind. Created by Deb Cox and Roger Monk, East of Everything stars Richard Roxburgh and Susie Porter, Tom Long and Gia Carides.

Bed of Roses
6 x 55 ABC1
Kerry Armstrong (MDA, Oyster Farmer, Lantana) and Julia Blake (Aquamarine, Human Touch, Innocence) team up as mother and daughter in this contemporary series that takes us on a dramatic, bumpy and often very amusing journey of a woman who has to start life anew. Louisa Atherton (Kerry Armstrong), 49, has lived a privileged and superficial life when her wealthy husband, Jack, drops dead in the arms of another woman. Louisa couldn’t imagine things could get worse, until she discovers that he’s left her bankrupt. Louisa is forced to return to her tiny home town, Rainbow’s End, with her tail firmly between her legs. Rainbow’s End will play a vital role in her future if she can re-negotiate her relationships with her prickly mother, Minna (Julia Blake), and recalcitrant kids. Gradually, Louisa begins to learn who she really is for the first time in her life.
From Ruby Entertainment Pty Ltd in association with the FFC and Film Victoria.
A Twenty20 production in association with the FFC and the NSW FTO.

Valentine’s Day
1 x 90 ABC1
Ben Valentine drifts into the small Victorian country town of Rushworth, where he quickly finds himself in trouble with the law. When the magistrate learns the defendant in his next case is Ben Valentine, a famous Aussie Rules footballer fallen on hard times, Ben is given 200 hours of community service coaching the town’s ‘no-hoper’ football team. The stakes are more than simply town pride – the future of Dick’s Pies also rests on the success or failure of the football team. Embraced heart and soul by the townsfolk, Ben, the one-time drifter, learns how to live and love again.
An ABC TV/December Films co-production in association with the FFC and
Film Victoria, and starring Rhys Muldoon, Freya Stafford, Anita Hegh and
Michael Tuahine.

East of Everything 6 x 55 ABC1 Second Series.
In series 2 of East of Everything we rejoin the characters of the tropical town of Broken Bay. The series is currently financing.
A Twenty20 production in association with the FFC and the NSW FTO.

Documentary
The Prime Minister is Missing
Menzies and the Fate of Australia
Monash and the Anzac Legend
Mr Chifley’s Fifty Days
The Hunt for the Sydney
Mawson: Beyond Human Limits
Gallipoli Submarine
The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce
On Trial
Two in the Top End
Seed Hunter
Dinosaurs on Ice
The Burning Season
Alien from Earth
How Kevin Bacon Cured Cancer
Robot Revolution
The Modernity Paradox

Documentary
With Australia at war in Vietnam, one December day in 1967 the astonishing news breaks across the nation – the Prime Minister Harold Holt is missing. Reconstructed from eyewitness accounts and declassified government documents, this dramatised documentary, directed by Peter Butt (Who Killed Dr Bogle & Mrs Chandler?), re-examines Holt’s bizarre disappearance. Forty years on, new evidence forces a major reassessment of the events leading up to the Prime Minister’s death.
A Film Australia/Blackwattle Films production.

The Prime Minister is Missing
1 x 55’ ABC1.
This is the story of Robert Menzies’ political epiphany. It’s an epiphany that grew out of the dark days of 1941 when Menzies battled with Winston Churchill over the strategic direction of the Second World War with the fate of Australia hanging in the balance. Through Menzies’ diaries, letters and broadcasts, plus the expert analysis of leading scholars, this film shows how modern Australia was forged in the fires of the London blitz. Menzies and the Fate of Australia provides a new insight into what made the man who would go on to become Australia’s longest serving prime minister.
A Film Australia Making History Production in association with 360 Degrees.
Produced with the assistance of Film Victoria.

Menzies and the Fate of Australia
1 x 55’ ABC1.
This is the story of Robert Menzies’ political epiphany. It’s an epiphany that grew out of the dark days of 1941 when Menzies battled with Winston Churchill over the strategic direction of the Second World War with the fate of Australia hanging in the balance. Through Menzies’ diaries, letters and broadcasts, plus the expert analysis of leading scholars, this film shows how modern Australia was forged in the fires of the London blitz. Menzies and the Fate of Australia provides a new insight into what made the man who would go on to become Australia’s longest serving prime minister.
A Film Australia Making History Production in association with 360 Degrees.
Produced with the assistance of Film Victoria.

Monash and the Anzac Legend
1 x 55’ ABC1.
Revered as one of Australia’s most successful commanders in WWI, John Monash’s brilliance as a military tactician is as legendary as the loyalty he inspired in his troops. Less well known are the dark forces he fought off the battlefield to achieve his dazzling rise through the ranks, and the pivotal role he played in creating the ANZAC legend. By focusing on the time when Monash was most under pressure (1917-18) Monash and the Anzac Legend reveals how Australians made their mark on the Western Front: where the ‘noise’ around the ANZACs began; and why we’re still listening to it today.
A Film Australia Making History Production in association with 360 Degrees.
Produced with the assistance of Film Victoria.

Mr Chifley’s Fifty Days
1 x 55’ ABC1.
On the 1 August, 1949 Ben Chifley became the first Prime Minister of Australia to turn the Army on its own citizens. To find out why, this drama-documentary explores the tinder box that was Australia at that time: a nation on the verge of a post-war economic boom but suffering a coal strike in the middle of winter: rising paranoia at the threat of communism; growing unemployment and anger at ongoing rationing. Situated between Chifley’s ‘war rooms’ in Canberra, the NSW coal fields and the offices of the Communist Party of Australia, this film will examine the reasons behind Ben Chifley’s extraordinary decision and explain why the face of Australian politics would never be the same again.
A Film Australia Making History Production.

The Hunt for the Sydney
1 x 55’ ABC1.
In November 1941, Australia suffered one of the most humiliating and mysterious naval disasters. HMAS Sydney, the pride of the Australian fleet, along with 645 of the nation’s young soldiers disappeared off the coast of WA. There are no records from the Sydney of what happened that day. Nothing quite explains how one of our biggest and best ships could have been taken out by a much smaller German raider. The truth lies at the bottom of the Indian Ocean. And after 66 years of uncertainty, Ted Graham, a nephew of one of the missing sailors, with his band of fellow Australians, and David Mearns, a world expert in locating shipwrecks, have an unprecedented chance to find it.
A Film Australia Making History Program in association with Electric Pictures.
Produced with the assistance of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Mawson: Beyond Human Limits
1 x 90’ ABC1.
In 1912 Sir Douglas Mawson, Australia’s most famous Antarctic explorer, set out to map and explore the coastal area of Antarctica closest to Australia. In this film, scientist and adventurer Tim Jarvis, retraces Mawson’s footsteps to find out how one of the greatest stories of lone survival in polar exploration was possible. Mawson’s amazing story unfolds using historical reconstruction and the remarkable footage and photos of Frank Hurley – the man who also shot the chillingly beautiful images of Shackleton’s voyage to the pole.
A Film Australia Making History Production in association with Orana Films.

Gallipoli Submarine
1 x 55’ ABC1.
In September 2007, a group of Australian and Turkish scientists and naval historians undertook an unprecedented scientific expedition to determine if one of our maritime history’s most important submarines, the AE2 could be salvaged 92 years after being sunk in Turkish waters. Gallipoli Submarine tells the story of this international expedition and the nail-biting dramatised account of the AE2’s perilous journey through the Dardanelles. The film combines dramatic recreations based on the accounts of the AE2’s flamboyant Irish Commander Dacre Stoker, his crew; the Turkish Navy; naval historians; marine archaeologists and serving submarine commanders.
Co-produced by Mallinson Sadler Productions and Electric Pictures and the
FFC in association with ITV. Developed and produced with the assistance of
Screenwest and Lotterywest.

The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce
1 x 55’ ABC1.
In 1819, three young Irish men are sent to the other side of the world where they will experience conditions so brutal, that the physical, mental and spiritual limits of human endurance will be called into question. Alexander Pearce, a farm labourer, is sentenced to seven years in the new penal colony. His crime is the theft of six pairs of shoes. Phillip Connolly, a Catholic priest, will administer religious guidance to the damned of Hobart Town, the most isolated settlement on Earth. What he will hear in Pearce’s confession will challenge his faith in man and God.
An Essential Viewing Production in association with the FFC, Northern Irish Film
and Television Commission, Gaelic Language Film Fund and Screen Tasmania.

On Trial
4 x 55’ ABC1.
Ever wondered what it would be like to be on trial? To have your life in the hands of lawyers? To hope against hope that the judge will find in your favour? On Trial is a ground-breaking documentary series offering unprecedented access to criminal matters in an Australian court. For the first time cameras have been given access to the District Court of NSW where cases range from armed robbery to rape and manslaughter. In the tradition of courtroom classics like The Staircase, On Trial will take viewers behind the scenes as they observe the emotional and legal journeys of the accused.
An On Trial Production in association with the FFC.

Two in the Top End
5 x 30’ ABC1.
John Doyle and Tim Flannery explore Australia’s last frontier in an eclectic journey across the Top End from Cairns to Broome. As the national focus shifts northward, the two men, in their inimitable style, examine the colourful past, present and future of the Deep North. Most climatologists believe that while the lower two thirds of our continent will get drier, the Top End will get wetter. Already the source of great mineral wealth and wilderness assets, the North is potentially the nation’s well. John and Tim not only explore the mystique of the Top End, but attempt to understand its future in a rapidly changing global landscape.
A Cordell Jigsaw Production in association with the FFC.

The Future Makers
These seven one-hour specials follow the work of Australians who are making a significant contribution to the world.

Seed Hunter
Australian scientist Dr Ken Street and his team of ‘gene detectives’ hunt for plant genes that will help withstand the impact of 21st century global warming.
A 360 Degree Film with the FFC in association with Film Victoria.

Dinosaurs on Ice
Part extreme adventure, part documentary, this follows Australian palaeontologist Tom Rich and gold miner Bobby Fithian as they try to retrieve 40-million-year-old dinosaur bones, trapped deep under solid ice in Alaska.
Big Island Pictures and the FFC in association with WGBH/NOVA and ARTE.

The Burning Season
Indonesia’s forest clearing contributes around 20 per cent of international carbon emissions every year and is also pushing the orangutan close to extinction. But can a fresh approach and sharp negotiating skills reverse the devastating impact of climate change ?
Hatchling Productions Pty Ltd and the FFC with assistance from the NSW FTO.

Alien from Earth
Alien from Earth goes beyond the moment of discovery of Hobbit-like humanoids on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003 and the scientific arguments that followed, to the current investigations that reveal the real implications of the discovery.
An Essential Viewing Production in association with CBC, ARTE and WGBH.

How Kevin Bacon Cured Cancer
How Kevin Bacon Cured Cancer – unfolds the science behind the popular trivia game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Based on the idea that anyone on the planet can be connected in just a few steps of association, six-degrees of separation was supposedly an urban myth. Now we discover it’s at the heart of a major scientific discovery.
An Essential Viewing Production in association with the AFC, the NSW FTO,
Discovery Canada and the BBC.

Robot Revolution
Robot Revolution – explores Artificial Intelligence (AI) with one of the world’s greatest minds, the charismatic, opinionated, ex-Adelaide professor, Rodney Brooks. Based in MIT Boston, Rodney is racing to produce the world’s first personal robot.
Essential Viewing and the FFC in association with ARTE and CBC.

The Modernity Paradox
The Modernity Paradox – increasing childhood rates of diabetes, respiratory disease, behavioural disorders, obesity and mental health problems lead 2003 Australian of the Year, Fiona Stanley, to predict that future generations of Australians could have a shorter life expectancy than their parents.
Rymer Childs Pty Ltd and the FFC with the assistance of ScreenWest and Lottery West.

Entertainment & Comedy
The Gruen Transfer
Very Small Business
Lawrence Leung’s Choose Your Own Adventure
The Urban Monkey with Murray Foote

Review with Myles Barlow ABC2
Hackfest ABC2
Good Game Game ABC2

Entertainment & Comedy

The Gruen Transfer
13 x 26’ ABC1.
The Gruen Transfer is a studio-based, magazine-style, factual entertainment series about advertising. It is named after that moment when consumers in shopping malls, overtaken by the “scripted disorientation” in the mall’s design, lose full control of their senses and become vulnerable to the idea of buying (as identified by Austrian architect Victor Gruen). On a mission to decode and defuse the advertising that swirls through every aspect of our lives, The Gruen Transfer will provoke, inform, amuse and alarm.
A Zapruder’s Other Films production.

Very Small Business
6 x 30’ ABC1.
Don Angel (Wayne Hope) is a small businessman – the backbone of this great country’s economy. But if that’s true, it’s no thanks to him. After numerous unsuccessful business ventures, now Don’s one man publishing empire is hurtling towards liquidation. His debts are mounting, his stomach’s killing him, his wife has left him and he’s just hired Ray Leonard (Kim Gyngell) as his journalist. Taking his first tentative steps back into the workplace after a six-year battle with depression, Ray enters a world totally alien to him. He’s come from being a noted feature writer for ‘The Australian’ to writing advertorials for ‘Wilson’s Woodwind and Brass Autumn Sale’ – which might just be his cure. It’s a marriage made in heaven – at least until the tax office gets there.
A Gristmill production in association with ABC TV and Film Victoria.

Lawrence Leung’s Choose
Your Own Adventure
6 x 30’ ABC1.
Lawrence is turning 30 in 2008. In 1987, as an adventuresome nine-year-old he wrote a list of things he wanted to do with his life. Realising he has achieved none of these goals, on the eve of his birthday, he embarks on a journey to tick off on all his childhood aspirations. In each episode Lawrence chooses an adventure he imagined having as a boy. Can he really be the world’s best breakdancer, ghost hunter, WWWF wrestler or lover?? Guided by a mentor, an expert in each field, and scrutinised by his loving but concerned Chinese parents, Lawrence tries to make his naïve dreams come true. In the process, he meets and learns from the people who are living his dreams, and their own.
A Chaser Broadcasting production with ABC TV.

The Urban Monkey with Murray Foote
10 x 5’ ABC1.
In a world before Steve Irwin, comes a man of the wilderness in tiny shorts. Found in the vault of ABC TV, this series (mockumentary) dates back to the late 1980s and is the work of wildlife explorer Murray Foote. Murray Foote is a mix of Alby Mangle and Harry Butler, and he is obsessed with discovering the missing link between humans and animals. Comedian Sam Simmons plays Murray Foote and draws on his previous experience as a Melbourne Zoo Animal Enrichment Officer (true) a job that entailed finding ways to make animals happy so they can forget for a while that they are caged. Sam Simmons has cleverly woven fact and fiction to create a new take on Darwin’s The Origin of Species.
A Jungleboys production in association with ABC TV.

Hackfest
10 x 30’ ABC2.
Hosted by Walkley award-winning journalist Steve Cannane, Hackfest is a studiobased discussion program that interrogates the issues of our times, seen through the eyes of young Australians. Hackfest illustrates how much the youth of Australia have to say on our cultural, social and political life. It’s a confronting, thoughtprovoking and ground-breaking forum. The show will have a live, guerilla filmmaking approach, shot in the round, in the studio, with hand-held cameras. Hackfest is an extension of Hack on triple j radio and triple j tv, youth and current affairs programs.

Review with Myles Barlow
6 x 30’ ABC2.
Review with Myles Barlow is an existential infotainment program, the blackest of black comedy. It is a six-part fictional television show playing to the conventions of a television review program. Each week Myles Barlow is asked by his viewers to give guidance and advice on their particular dilemma and nothing is forbidden in his quest to experience and evaluate whatever it is that his viewers want reviewed. While other critics are content to watch, Myles Barlow is prepared to live it. Join Myles as he lives out the harrowing effects of being a murderer, the rush of pleasure as he pays for sex, the bleakness of living on the streets and many more challenging moments from life’s rich tapestry.
From Starchild Productions Pty Ltd and ABC TV.

Good Game Game
ABC2.
The TV series Good Game, the show for gamers by gamers, is bigger than ever and returns in 2008 with an exciting new gaming initiative. In an Australian first, ABC TV and the Australian Film Commission have teamed up to create a game which will be developed online by “crowd sourcing” with the Good Game audience. Throughout the run of Good Game Series 4, the audience will contribute ideas, concepts and artwork with the best material voted on by their peers and industry professionals. Once the design document is finalised, it will be given to an Australian game development company to build a playable prototype. This project will be a first of its kind – offering an innovative way for the Good Game audience to create the perfect game.
This project is co-financed by ABC TV and the AFC.

Arts
Face Painting with Bill Leak
Eternity Man

ABC 2 Live ABC2
Re-enchantment ABC2

ARTSCAPE
IOU
ABC of Dance 4 Film

Face Painting with Bill Leak
6 x 30’ ABC1.
Face Painting with Bill Leak follows Bill as he attempts to paint six very different portraits of six very different Australian legends who all have one thing in common…they are no longer with us. Bill’s challenge is to find the real person he’s about to commit to canvas. Using archival vision and interviews with friends and family, Bill will immerse himself in his subject’s world. He’ll visit favourite places and participate in favourite pastimes. He’ll do anything and everything to help him find out and understand the essence of his subject. Over each episode, Bill will build a very personal picture of the subject he’s trying to capture on canvas. We’ll find out things we didn’t know and celebrate and commiserate with Bill when he thinks he’s got someone just right or not quite right. And at the
end of the show, Bill will reveal to the TV audience and the subject’s family and friends his portrait. Will we like it or hate it? Will it ever hang it in a gallery?
A Southern Star/ABC TV production.

Eternity Man
1 x 60’ ABC1.
The story of Arthur Stace, the Eternity Man, runs like a songline through 20th century Sydney history. Spanning four decades, Arthur Stace’s nocturnal mission to chalk his timeless message on the city streets captured its changing soul, and to this day his journey remains one of its most inspiring stories. Told in a classic three-act opera, Eternity Man tells Stace’s story through a 40-year-long night with dawn as the conclusion. Shot and sung on location in Sydney, it is a textured filmic extravaganza.
From Essential Viewing and Illuminations Films (UK), funded by the NSW FTO, the
FFC, Channel 4 and ABC TV.

ABC 2 Live
ABC2.
ABC TV, the Australian Film Commission, Opera Australia, the Australian Ballet and the Australia Council are collaborating to re-frame TV performance coverage to include the edge and dynamism that only live recording and transmission can deliver. We will be presenting a suite of diverse events throughout the year – opera, ballet and theatre – to be broadcast live on ABC2 as well as transmitting to the AFC’s Regional Digital Screen Network which includes cinemas in Albany (WA), Devonport (Tas), Hervey Bay (Qld), Katherine (NT), Port Augusta (SA), Singleton (NSW), Wagga Wagga (NSW) and Yarram (Vic).

Re-enchantment
10 x 30’ ABC1. ABC2.
Re-enchantment is a massive cross-platform interactive online project that revels in the well known world of fairytales and their not so well known meanings. Adult audiences will be invited to journey through an online enchanted forest to find how stories such as Snow White, Hansel and Gretel and Bluebeard have continued to resonate across time and across all cultures in the hands of storytellers, writers, artists and filmmakers. This fully interactive project will invite people to contribute their own interpretations and become part of a large community of people around the world fascinated by fairytales. Ultimately, the project explores what it is about fairytales that make them so pervasive and meaningful. The TV series will explore the origins, the legacy and the secrets of 10 classic fairy tales.
A Sue Maslin Production in association with ABC TV, AFC and University of
Technology.

ArtScape
The half-hour arts slot, ARTSCAPE, features a variety of documentaries and specials across all artistic genres from Australia and around the world. It is a combination of ABC produced series, one-off documentaries and specials, independent commissioned documentaries and acquisitions including packaged short programs.

IOU
3 x 26’ ABC1. Second Series
Produced by ABC TV, IOU is a three-part series in which contemporary artists from a wide variety of disciplines pay homage to the influence of three legendary Australian arts figures. IOU: Series 2 re-examines the life and work of three major Australian artists: actor and comedienne, Mary Hardy; painter, Lloyd Rees; and writer, Elizabeth Jolley.

ABC of Dance 4 Film
3 x 30’ ABC1.
The ABC of Dance 4 Film is a showcase of short dance films from around the world, with a particular focus on Australia and the UK. Co-hosted by choreographers Jonzi D (UK) and Frances Rings (Australia), the project will feature short interviews with select talent from the films featured. The program is a collaboration between the ABC, Channel 4 (UK, Arts Council England) and the Australia Council, and will comprise a mix of acquisitions and commissioned films; the latter will be selected in a competitive round.

Children
Blue Water High
Figaro Pho
Zigby

Blue Water High
26 x 30’ ABC1. Third Series
Beautiful beaches, crystal clear water, long sunny days… the award-winning, teen drama Blue Water High is back. The new series follows six lucky 16-year-olds, selected for an intensive, 12-month residential surfing and schooling program at Solar Blue Surf Academy. The aspiring pupils are all competing for a wild card spot on the world pro-surfing circuit. But things aren’t quite the same at Solar Blue. The Academy has been taken over by new management, and they’ve instigated major changes. The waves still roll in as big as ever though, and for a teenager, life at Blue Water beach is about as good as it gets.
A Southern Star Entertainment production in association with ABC TV, Nickelodeon Australia and produced with the assistance of the New South Wales Film and Television Office and the FFC Australia.

Figaro Pho
26 x 1’ ABC1. ABC2.
Figaro Pho is a boy swamped with the alphabet of phobias. He’s got them all, whether it’s the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of his mouth; the fear of telephones; vegetables; beards or even the fear of the great mole rat! In fact, you’d be strapped to think of a single phobia that Figaro has not harboured, lodged or morbidly entertained. Take a journey into the absurd and humorous world of Figaro as he reveals his own personal A-Z of phobias.
Produced by Vishus Productions in association with the SAFC and ABC.

Zigby
52 x 10’ ABC1.
Zigby the Zebra lives in a tree house on the fringes of the jungle. Along with his friends McMeer the Meercat, and Birtie Bird (an African guinea fowl), Zigby embarks on adventures. The exotic backdrop of the jungle is a rich and diverse world where the friends never know quite what they will encounter.
From Flying Bark productions.

Sport

Paralympic Games
ABC1. ABC2.
ABC TV’s award-winning coverage of the Paralympics will be taken to new heights with its broadcast of the Beijing Paralympic Games in 2008. Australia has been a leading medal winner in recent Paralympic summer games and the Beijing effort looks set to continue that success. The ABC will be there to show each and every Gold medal won by Australia’s elite Paralympic athletes. The Games will commence on Saturday September 6 with the spectacular Opening Ceremony broadcast live from the National Stadium in Beijing. The Games will conclude on September 17 with the Closing Ceremony. The ABC will broadcast more than 100 hours on ABC1 and ABC2 – the biggest coverage of a Paralympic Games ever.

Returning – Australian Made
At The Movies
Bindi The Jungle Girl
Can We Help?
Catalyst
Collectors
Compass
Creature Features
Enough Rope with Andrew Denton
First Tuesday Book Club
Gardening Australia
Hopman Cup
Media Watch
Message Stick
Play School
Rage
Roller Coaster
Spicks and Specks
Sunday Arts
Talking Heads
The Cook and the Chef
The Einstein Factor
The New Inventors
triple j tv

Returning –News and Current Affairs
7.30 Report
Asia Pacific Focus
Australian Story
Behind The News
Foreign Correspondent
4 Corners
Insiders
Inside Business
Landline
Lateline
Lateline Business
Midday Report
National Press Club
Offsiders
Order in the House
Stateline

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