@Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Audiences aged 45 and above will very much feel the march of time as they watch the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's six part drama 'The Newsreader'.
The show, set in a Melbourne TV newsroom, fashions each episode around major news events that occurred in that audience's lifetime.
But that's part of its charm.
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Set between January and April 1986, Michael Lucas' series is built around coverage of the 'Challenger' Space Shuttle Disaster, the return of Hailey's Comet, the exoneration of Lindy Chamberlain, the Russell Street bombing, the Royal Wedding of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, the emergence of HIV and AIDS and the nuclear power plant explosion in Chernobyl.
But it is also about the personal and professional challenges faced by the journalists - primarily by Anna Torv's established newsreader Helen Norville and Sam Reid's wet around the ears junior reporter Dale Jennings.
At the start of the series, mild mannered Dale is desperate to grab whatever opportunity comes his way and tries to persuade William McInnes' grouchy Head of News Lindsay Cunningham a chance to let him read the early morning news bulletin.
Helen also wants to prove her worth beyond being a news anchor by doing hard hitting special reports on the Six O'Clock News.
But the ratings obsessed Lindsay is reluctant to do that because of her choice of story which he finds too downbeat, left of centre and feminine.
Afraid that he might lose the news show's best asset, Lindsay recruits Dale to keep an eye on her and produce her special report in return for reading the early morning bulletin.
Although allowing Dale to read the bulletin goes against his better judgment.
With Dale under a remit to pull her away from worthy stories, Helen eventually snaps and threatens to quit.
@Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Realising she left her bag when she stormed out of the newsroom, Dale calls at Helen's home to return it and check she is alright.
However, he finds Helen unconscious and immediately phones an ambulance.
She regains consciousness before the crew arrives and rather sheepishly admits to taking too many pills.
This results in a paramedic insisting Dale must find her a place to recuperate away from her home where the temptation of taking prescription medicine and committing suicide is too great.
@Australian Broadcasting Corporation
With little knowledge about her family, he takes Helen to his place and they become close.
When Dale's debut as an early morning newsreader goes disastrously, Helen is able to help him see the funny side.
Helen's fellow news anchor, Robert Taylor's pompous Geoff Walters is, however, dismissive of her.
The ratings, however, are starting to slide in her absence.
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As he heads towards 60, Geoff is also feeling vulnerable and with good reason.
A long time fixture on the Six O'Clock News, management increasingly has him in their crosshairs and are hoping to persuade him to go into retirement and pass the baton onto the next generation.
Geoff has other plans, though, and egged on by his wife, Marg Downey's Evelyn, he resists, railing at home against the station's drift away from hard news to light entertainment.
He is particularly resentful of how management appears to tolerate Helen's occasional breakdowns.
@Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The frontrunner to succeed Geoff is sports presenter and former Australian Rules footballer, Stephen Peacocke's Rob Rickards.
Affable but extremely gauche, Rob is not that comfortable presenting news and current affairs.
He is also very reliant on Michelle Lim Davidson's bright and ambitious newsroom researcher and autocue operator Noelene Kim to help him muddle through interviews when he is asked to anchor the Six O'Clock News.
Rob and Noelene have a certain chemistry but it also isn't long before Dale and Helen's friendship blossoms into a romance.
And it is this that really sets the tongues wagging in the newsroom and also in the social columns of the newspapers when they turn up together at Geoff's 60th birthday bash.
Dale, though, has a secret from his past which will ultimately threaten their relationship and risk his rise to the top.
Written by Michael Lucas, Jonathan Gavin, Niki Akren and Kim Ho, 'The Newsreader' focuses on a time when the dynamics of broadcast journalism and Australian society started to change.
Women newsreaders were a rarity on Australian TV even up to the late 1970s, with ABC's Margaret Thorsby the subject of a rather sexist article in Melbourne's Scene newspaper in 1978.
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What 'The Newsreader' does extremely well is showing the sexism and macho culture that pervaded most newsrooms well into the 1980s.
Not only is Helen condescended by her male peers despite outshining them but Noelene's ability to keep Rob right and her ambition to become a producer are treated dismissively by Lindsay and Chum Ehelepola's head producer Dennis Tibb.
While 'The Newsreader' shines a strong light on these ridiculous attitudes in Australia, let's not be naive or selective.
Those attitudes were also in evidence in media outlets in other countries like the UK.
@Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Homophobia was rife in news coverage in Australia and elsewhere of the HIV and AIDS crisis and this is brilliantly demonstrated in the fifth episode.
The Six O'Clock News' coverage of a story about a woman contracting HIV from a blood transfusion succumbs to newsroom bigotry, as Lindsay insists on finding a quote which blames gay men.
This sparks protests outside the TV station and an on air apology after it emerges the quote was false, with Helen trying to rectify the situation by allowing HIV activists to tell their side of the story.
Nervous about catching AIDS from being in the presence of gay protesters and unsure about his ability to carry off such an interview live on air, Rob backs out of it.
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@Australian Broadcasting Corporation
This leads to a particularly aggressive and spectacularly ignorant and insensitive interview by Geoff - much to the delight of Lindsay and the disgust of Helen and Chai Hansen's talented cameraman Tim Ahern.
The other thing that Lucas' drama does really well is capturing the dynamics of a TV newsroom - particularly when news is breaking or things start to go wrong.
The first episode begins with video of 'Crocodile Dundee' star Paul Hogan getting eaten up by the video machine not long before the Six O'Clock News is about to go on air.
In a panic, Dale quickly films a piece to camera to be hastily edited into his package but it is far from ideal.
The episode about the Russell Street police station bombing is particularly well written by Niki Aken and is impressively directed by Emma Freeman, particularly in the way it depicts the frantic energy that pulsates through a newsroom when a major story erupts on its doorstep.
Seasoned reporters will recognise from their own experience of newsrooms the blowhards and the company men, the wet about the ears hungry junior hacks, the fragile egos and the gossip.
All of these elements give 'The Newsreader' an authenticity that most TV and movie depictions of journalists shows often lack.
So instead of the stilted delivery of actors pretending to be news anchors on shows like 'The Undeclared War' or the stagey press conferences in great series like 'Cracker,' you get news bulletins that actually sound like how they would be delivered.
You believe in Anna Torv's polished reading of the autocue as Helen because her vocal inflections and delivery are spot on, even in one episode when her character is succumbing to a breakdown while in the studio.
Emma Freeman directs each episode with panache and pace, extracting strong performances from her cast.
Torv is terrific as Helen, a talented news anchor who can be tough and dogged in her pursuit of a story but occasionally brittle.
Reid shines too as the eager to please Dale who grows in confidence as the series wears on, only to come very close to crumbling right at the end.
Taylor is good value as the pompous and, at times, very devious Geoff and he is boosted by Downey who imbues his wife Evelyn with real shrewdness.
Davidson, Peacocke, Hansen, McInness, Ehelepola and Maude Davey's as Dale's proud mum Val Jennings also bring a lot to the table.
The same can be said for Tim Draxl as Adam an old school friend of Dale's and Mark Leonard Winter as Russell, the HIV sufferer determined to tell his story - even under Geoff's provocation.
Eagle eyed viewers will enjoy spotting 'Neighbours' and 'Emmerdale' legend Anne Charleston popping up briefly as an elderly woman being interviewed by Dale about the last time Hailey's Comet was seen from Earth.
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And while 'The Newsreader' occasionally threatens to veer into soap opera territory, it largely avoids that thanks to the quality of its scripts which ground everything in the reality of what newsroom life was like in the 1980s.
The costume design and decor is also wonderfully 1980s.
'The Newsreader' demonstrates there's more to Australian TV drama than ridiculous soaps like 'Home and Away' and 'Neighbours'.
So roll on the second season and it's depiction of 1987.
We can't wait to see what major events Lucas's newsroom team covers.
But it will also be fascinating to see how the characters continue to handle life away from the camera.
(Season one of 'The Newsreader' aired on ABC1 in Australia from August 15-September 19, 2021 and on BBC2 in the UK from July 30-August 14, 2022)
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