How Titanic was an inspiration for The Newsreader

Episode 3 of The Newsreader is set against the backdrop of Lindy Chamberlain’s release from a Darwin prison.

It follows from earlier episodes around the Challenger explosion and Halley’s Comet -all actual news events from 1986.

Writer Michael Lucas told TV Tonight, “The whole show takes place over about five months and there really were all those events in that time. The dates are supered on screen. The only thing that maybe I’m slightly playing with is the first visibility of Halley’s Comet, which is a little bit compressed.”

Tonight’s episode uses real news footage of Lindy Chamberlain’s release from prison.

“At the plotting stage, I’d go into the ABC archives, and take footage of the dates that I wanted. I watched The 7:30 Report or Mary Delahunty’s news report, which would all feed back into the story.”

In tonight’s episode Helen (Anna Torv) races to Darwin with Dale (Sam Reid) and Tim (Chai Hansen) in tow, ferociously pursuing the “interview of the century”. Yet as she denies her oscillating mental health and ignores sobering news of her estranged father, what toll will this story have on her?

Lucas reveals he also took inspiration from James Cameron’s Titanic as to how he placed his characters within the history of real events.

“When it comes to something like Lindy Chamberlain, they found the matinee jacket on this day, then on another day she was released from jail, then another she was back in Mt. Isa. So how do I manoeuvre my fictional characters around all of that to build a story? That was sort of the approach that I took.”

8:30pm tonight on ABC.