Tues Jan 9
Editorial comments in blue.
[ABC/8:30pm] The Bill. Charlotte Parker is questioned by DC Suzie Sim while her sister fights for her life in intensive care. CAST: Wendy Kweh, Bruce Byron
[ABC/9:20pm] Bodies. Doctor Polly Grey (Tamzin Malleson) a specialist registrar in obstetrics and gynaecology is carrying out a research project on female sexual dysfunction quizzing reluctant patients on their levels of sexual desire and arousal. Anaesthetist Dr Maria Orton (Susan Lynch) asks young registrar Rob Lake (Max Beesley) to sign a letter of no confidence in the incompetent consultant gynaecologist Roger Hurley (Patrick Balardi) but he refuses saying doctors stick together. Dr Orton goes ahead and sends her complaint to hospital officials. She is immediately sent to Coventry by the rest of the staff and is suspended, the official lie being that she is clinically depressed. Then Roger Hurley looks certain to botch another major operation and Rob's intervention threatens his own career.
[ABC/11:25pm] Movie: Dark Mirror (1946, B&W;). A woman suspected of murdering her boyfriend has an identical twin sister. When both twins have an alibi a psychiatrist is called in to assist in solving the case. CAST: Olivia de Havilland, Lew Ayres, Thomas Mitchell. This is classic film noir stuff. ABC is treating us to some fab late night classics over summer!
[Nine/10:30pm] Dave Hughes Special.
[Ten/8:30pm] The OC. My Two Dads. Newly engaged Seth and Summer both panic about the prospect of being married, but neither will break it off, despite the advice of their friends. Meanwhile, when Ryan's estranged biological father, who has been in prison for years, tries to reconcile with Ryan, Sandy remains dubious and his instincts about Frank may just be correct.
[Ten/9:30pm] Charmed. "Rewitched" First Charmed, then The OC. Just count the axed Ten shows. Jericho... we're watchin' you......
[Seven/8:30pm] Life Begins. Final.
[Seven/10:30pm] Life As We Know It. NATURAL DISASTERS. Jonathan and Dino discover Ben's big secret. But as Ben grows tired of living a lie and develops a newfound chemistry with Sue, Ms. Young's jealousy gets way out of hand. Jackie makes a new friend at an AA meeting. Starring SEAN FARIS, JON FOSTER, CHRIS LOWELL, MISSY PEREGRYM, KELLY OSBOURNE, D B SWEENEY, LISA DARR, MARGUERITE MOREAU and JESSICA LUCAS.
[Seven/11:30pm] Huff. WHIPPED DOGGIE. Huff is less than pleased with where Teddy choses as his assisted-living facility. Russell ends up asking Huff to give a professional opinion of his new client's behaviour. Teddy has a moving moment with Byrd and Beth's mother's health dramatically changes. Starring HANK AZARIA, PAGET BREWSTER, OLIVER PLATT, BLYTHE DANNER and ANTON YELCHIN. Huff is a terrific and underrated series that has been denied due status, and should appeal to fans of House. Look at that cast!
[SBS/7:30pm] The Boy In The Bubble. A documentary about a boy who was born in 1972, without a working immune system - David Vetter, who became known as The Boy In The Bubble. The story is willfully told with the hope and the desperation of survival. The documentary shows you David’s life from a pre-empted germ free delivery room to his life in the plastic chamber known by medical staff as the ‘isolator’. Severe Combined Immunity Deficiency, SCID, is a rare genetic disease only passed on to males. Infants born with SCID in the Seventies did not live past their first year. Usually, by the time the disease is discovered they are riddled with infection and little more can be done to save them. David’s parents had already lost their first son to SCID. Hopeful of extending their family, they decided on having David after talking to and gaining the support of the Houston Texas Medical Centre. David’s older sister Kathryn was expected to be a bone marrow donor to help restore his immune system, as she matched the Vetter’s previous son, who died at seven months. Unfortunately their bone marrow was not a match. “The doctor’s knew the odds of finding a perfect sibling match were one in four. The odds of finding a match from an unrelated donor were 1 in 100s of 1000s. So this was going to be a long shot, perhaps a longer shot then any of them were able to face up to.” –Evelyn Nelson Mc Millan, Writer. The ‘isolator’ was an experiment designed by a team of doctor’s who thought it would be a temporary measure. But what was set up as a temporary solution became his home, and as he grew, they had to allocate a hospital room for him to live in. As the years went by, David moved to other environments in the hospital, each one bigger to fit him and the bubble. Although the press created an image of a healthy young boy trapped in a bubble, David was psychologically unstable, primarily due to the lack of any human contact.“Nothing seemed to offer real hope, and most of the procedures offered real danger and as long as the isolator was working we didn’t have to do anything.” – John R Montgomery, M.D. Pediatric Immunologist. Although he defied the odds, David was overcome by the disease before he was a teenager when a bone marrow transplant operation failed. The Boy In The Bubble follows the ethical questions that his family and the resourceful team around him were always faced with throughout his short life.
[SBS/8:30pm] Cutting Edge: The Prisoner – Or How I Planned To Kill Tony Blair. This film tells the story of a Baghdad journalist and his experience of having been wrongly targeted as a bomb-maker with a plot to murder Tony Blair. American troops acting on intelligence arrest him and his brothers, brutally interrogate them and send them to Abu Ghraib, where conditions are so dreadful that there is a riot in which a number of prisoners die. Despite no evidence of a plot and no traces of bomb-making material the brothers are detained for nine months. This is the story of This is the story of one ordinary man caught up in the nightmare of a chaotic war against an elusive enemy.
[SBS/10:00pm] Born In The USSR: 21 Up is a fascinating social documentary which revisits a group of Russian children at seven year intervals to track their personal development against a backdrop of incredible social and political change.Following the successful UK original by director Michael Apted, this particular program, screening in the Hot Docs timeslot on Tuesday 9 January, looks at a group of young people from the former Soviet Union. The young adults here, all introduced to viewers at the age of seven and seen again at 14, were born in a country that no longer exists.Their stories provide a fascinating insight into the break-up of the former Soviet Union as well as a reflection of what life has become without Communism. They are entertaining and heart-breaking, and provide a unique human portrait of what has happened to ordinary people during one of the most dramatic periods of modern history. Since filming started 21 years ago, some of the youngsters have left the USSR to go to Israel or the United States, some have stayed in their family home, but all have had their lives changed, and not necessarily for the better. Through archival footage of them at the ages of seven and 14, and now new material at 21, we catch a glimpse of life in a society that was once shut off from the world and is now trying to grab it with both hands.
[World Movies/8:30pm] Movies marathon: Three Colors Blue / White / Red
[Ovation/11:00pm] Hugh Jackman The Boy from Oz
