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Airdate: The Broken Shore

An all-star cast heads up a thriller telemovie coming to ABC1, and it sounds like a cracker.

2014-01-14_2103ABC’s first local drama for 2014 is the telemovie The Broken Shore, based on the novel by crime writer, Peter Temple (Jack Irish).

Filmed mostly in south-western Victoria, this thriller is set against a background of police corruption, racism and family tragedy. It stars Don Hany, Claudia Karvan, Anthony Hayes, Catherine McClements, Erik Thomson, Tony Briggs, Dan Wyllie, Robyn Nevin, Meyne Wyatt, Dan Hamill, Bruce R Carter, Wayne Blair and Jim Russell.

Directed by Rowan Woods, adapted by Andrew Knight, this has been produced by Essential Media.

Sounds like a cracker.

Detective Joe Cashin (Don Hany) has returned to the coastal village of Port Monro where he grew up. Broken in both body and spirit as a result of a botched homicide raid in Melbourne, Cashin and junior police officer Kendall Rodgers (Marni Johnston) run the local cop shop. Not everyone is pleased to see Cashin back. His mother, Sybil (Noni Hazlehurst), wants Joe to leave immediately, before the dark cloud of his father’s death overwhelms him.

Joe’s new neighbour, Helen Castleman (Claudia Karvan), also stirs up memories. Thirty years ago she planted a summer kiss on Joe that still lingers. When Helen accuses him of putting up illegal fences, desire and attraction are laced with hostility.

When well-heeled philanthropist Charles Bourgoyne (Ralph Cotterill) is brutally bashed and robbed in his home, Joe’s investigation uncovers a cycle of lies, betrayal and systematic corruption in a community where tensions over race, class and politics are at boiling point.

Capturing the chilling action and laconic wit of Peter Temple’s internationally acclaimed novel, this television adaptation filmed against a rugged coastline brings alive the novel’s cast of complex characters as it slowly reveals the shocking face behind a community’s respectable mask.

Sunday 2 February 8:30pm ABC1.

5 Responses

  1. I’ve read all of Peter Temple’s books and I’ll certainly look forward to seeing The Broken Shore with Don Hany. As far as the Jack Irish TV series goes I much preferred Black Tide to Bad Debts as I thought it captured the gritty Jack Irish character more successfully, and am looking forward to Dead Point being aired (this year maybe?). I thought Guy Pearce was a good Jack Irish fit. Too much Peter Temple is never enough.

  2. The problem with the Jack Irish movies is that despite being a Hollywood name Guy Pierce is strangely miscast in this role. Dony Hany should do better here as the tortured protagonist with his own demons. He cannot do romantic leading man – so I agree, if he speaks up, it should be great. How the ABC can cast him in both Serangoon Road and this in the leading roles continues to tell me the Head of Fiction is not exerting overall responsibility for the output of the slate.

  3. Hopefully better than Black Tide which was mediocre at best. It should appeal to the ABC’s Sunday audience though they haven’t put it on during ratings.

    It will be up against the final T20 against England in the East and Sherlock in the West. And whatever Seven has on After the tennis.

  4. Let’s hope it’s subtitled – I always need it with Don Hany. He’s a great mumbler.

    However, I love Peter Temple’s books, so I’m looking forward to it.

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