Month: July 2013

In this three-part series, John Clarke, arguably Australia’s greatest natural athlete, looks at how Australia came to take its sport so seriously and what it means to be a Sporting Nation.

Australia is a sporting nation. Sport is officially everywhere. It even helps us describe matters other than sport. We speak of being in the home straight, dropping the baton, getting down the wicket to the bowling, raising the bar, having a game plan and taking it one week at a time.

The series celebrates our sporting achievements. It also examines the sporting passion of spectators and looks at how sport has shaped us as a nation.

John speaks to athletes, coaches, commentators and former Prime Ministers about sport and they confirm what we suspected: that if so many people are interested in sport, it’s certainly not just about sport.

He also meets legendary sporting heroes and he asks them how and why they achieved such prodigious deeds. And listen carefully, for the answers are not what you’d think.

Whatever you think of sport this series should interest you. And if you love sport, you won’t be able to wipe the smile of your face.

Outland is a six-part comedy series about a gay science fiction fan club and the lives, loves and never-ending dramas of its five members.

There’s Max, insecure and looking for love; the sexually-adventurous Andy; Rae, the unofficial head of the group; the high-maintenance Fab; and the wealthy but socially-inept Toby. Outland is a series about belonging, no matter who you are, and how everyone searches to find a place to fit in.

Princess Pictures has gone where no other production company has gone before with Outland, conceived and written by John Richards and Adam Richard, following a group of gay sci-fi fans who are in the closet about being geeks.

Anxious Max (Toby Truslove) is constantly searching for romance; Doctor Andy (Paul Ireland) is preoccupied with his sexual adventures; Rae (Christine Anu) an indigenous, paraplegic lesbian has broken up with her girlfriend; high-maintenance Fab (Adam Richard) causes havoc wherever he goes; and wealthy Toby (Ben Gerrard) struggles to communicate with real people in the real world.

Trickster John Safran is back in his most personal adventure yet, pursuing cross-cultural, interracial and interfaith love. Given that we live in a multicultural world, most of the women John meets are from other races and religions. He’s attracted to Eurasians, but his mother always said he should marry a Jew. What to do?

In this eight part series John goes undercover as a black man, a ladyboy and an elephant man, digs up graves, talks to his dead mother and does the unthinkable in Anne Frank’s attic ­– all in an attempt to solve the riddle: when it comes to love, should you stick with your tribe, or escape your tribe?

A romantic buddy movie about the meaning of relationships, the importance of friendship, and having the courage to pursue the one you love. Written by comedian Peter Helliar and directed by Daina Reid, I Love You Too stars Brendan Cowell as Jim, a 30-something emotionally stunted man whose inability to declare his love to his girlfriend, Alice (Yvonne Strahovski), threatens to cost him the best thing he ever had but leads him to befriend Charlie (Peter Dinklage), a talented photographer and man of fine words, who helps him find the words to get her back.

The Ball is a documentary special that follows four high school students with special needs as they prepare for their school’s debutante ball. First loves, fist fights and falls on the dance floor all combine with honest interviews with their parents, the school principal, and intimate moments captured in their homes – plus a grand finale on the dance floor. This film provides a humourous and heartwarming insight into the day-to-day lives of these unique characters living with disability.

For these children who have always been told that they are different, The Ball celebrates the joy that comes from taking part in something that most high schoolers take for granted – a deb ball.

You certainly can’t tell an Australian by the way we look, but the minute we open our mouths, the guessing is over.

Why do we speak the way we do? And what exactly is the Australian accent?

Hosted by satirist John Clarke, The Sounds of Aus tells the entertaining story about the way Australians sound through an array of illuminating interviews with linguists, historians, social and political commentators, comedians, and actors.

David Letterman will be forever known as the king of late night television in America, and Graham Kennedy the king in Australia – both in longevity and artistically – but Dave Lawson is the indisputable heir apparent to the chat show crown online.

A kind of Antipodean to David Letterman, Dave Lawson hosts a talk show from his backyard shed. The typical chat show format is reinvented with guests, comedians, musicians and banter between Dave Lawson and his sidekicks, musical director Mark Wilson (Jet) and hand puppet Wormie (Stephen Curry). The idiosyncratic presence of Dave Lawson, known for his laid-back attitude, is the kind of persona that has become an instant hit with viewers.

Dave’s Shed Show is aflagship production for the Princess Digital Hub and will allow Dave Lawson to reinvent chat show monologue, create clever skits and introduce memorable new characters. Dave’s Shed Show is where you’ll find today’s biggest stars and musical acts and set the stage for the digital online platform for every talk show to come.

As one YouTube viewer TeenageKicks11 says, ‘Move the fuck over Adam Hills.’