
Penne Hackforth-Jones
Actor · 1943 – 2013 · Greenwich, Connecticut, USA
Penne Hackforth-Jones (August 5, 1949 – May 17, 2013) was an American-born Australian actress and biographer. Hackforth-Jones lived with her family in England before relocating to Australia in 1964. She gratuated National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1968. In 1969, Hackforth-Jones made her first credited on-screen appearance in the Australian television series Riptide, and later appeared in such Australian television series. Penne Hackforth-Jones died at the age of 64 after battling lung cancer. She never married, and was survived by her three sisters.
Movies23
Movie6.8ComedyDramaSocially awkward Muriel Heslop wants nothing more than to get married. Unfortunately, due to her oppressive politician father, Muriel has never even been on a date. Ostracized by her more socially adept friends, Muriel runs into fellow outcast Rhonda Epinstalk, and the two move from their small Australian town to the big city of Sydney, where Muriel changes her name and begins the arduous task of redesigning her life to match her fantasies.
Muriel's Wedding
1994 · 508 votes
Movie6.6DramaRomanceAt the age of 11, Li was plucked from a poor Chinese village by Madame Mao's cultural delegates and taken to Beijing to study ballet. In 1979, during a cultural exchange to Texas, he falls in love with an American woman. Two years later, he managed to defect and went on to perform as a principal dancer for the Houston Ballet and as a principal artist with the Australian Ballet.
Mao’s Last Dancer
2009 · 125 votes
Movie6.3WarDramaA group of English, American, Dutch and Australian women creates a vocal orchestra while being imprisoned in a Japanese POW camp on Sumatra during World War II.
Paradise Road
1997 · 95 votes
Movie6.4DramaThe O'Neills lived happily in their house in the Australian countryside. That was until one day fate struck blindly, taking the life of Peter, the father, leaving his grief-stricken wife Dawn alone with their four children. Among them, eight-year-old Simone denies this reality. She is persuaded that her father still lives in the giant fig tree growing near their house and speaks to her through its leaves. But the tree becomes more and more invasive and threatens the house. It must be felled. Of course, Simone won't allow it.
The Tree
2010 · 121 votes
Movie6.2DramaAustralia, 1958. When a nine year old white girl is found murdered, police are quick to arrest illiterate Aborigine, Max Stuart. Under interrogation Max admits to the killing. With a legal system compromised by intimidation tactics, the skills of his two gifted but naïve defense lawyers are put to the test.
Black and White
2002 · 15 votes
Movie5.4ActionCrimeA police sergeant is hoping for a few quiet weeks before his impending retirement, but his plans are scuppered when he is joined by an over-enthusiastic rookie partner who is assigned to him after failing her field test. To make matters worse, trouble looms when a group of white supremacists hold up a local shopping centre.
Irresistible Force
1993 · 15 votes
Movie8.0AnimationA kindly shop owner whose overwhelming gambling debts allow a greedy landlord to seize his shop of dusty treasures. Evicted and with no way to pay his debts, he and his granddaughter flee.
The Old Curiosity Shop
1984 · 2 votes
Movie7.0DramaThe grandson of a war veteran is found dead from an overdose of heroin. He and his old army buddies swing into action and stake out the drug dealer, only to discover a web of police corruption surrounding the drug dealing. Given police complicity in the matter, they take the law into their own hands.
Kokoda Crescent
1989 · 1 votes
Movie5.3ActionDramaMike loves his fast cars and his hot women. When he fancies the girlfriend of the local street racing king, Fox, he gets way in over his head in racing for his girl, his money and his life. Through racing, sex, nightclubs and small road trips the film depicts what it was like to be a teenager in Australia in the 1980's.
Running on Empty
1982 · 17 votes
Movie7.0DramaJess has to come up with $800 or lose her house. A flat tyre leaves Joan stranded in the middle of nowhere. Matt needs a job. All these stories are brought together as what goes around comes around and they impact each other in a way they couldn't imagine.
We've All Been There
2013 · 3 votes
Movie4.8ComedyComedy about a womanizing journalist on a Sydney newspaper who confronts job problems and impotence in the context of Australian media and politics of the 1970's. A somewhat lesser Australian film comparable to the American film Shampoo.
The Journalist
1979 · 4 votes
Movie6.0ComedyRomanceAustralian Diana Spencer wins a competition in a women's magazine, and as a prize gets a trip for two to London, where she wants to meet her idol and namesake, Princess Diana. She goes there with her fiance, Mark, but during the garden party the Princess plans to attend, things get mixed up and Aussie Diana gets arrested with Paparazzi photographer Rob. Diana really wants to meet the Princess and follows Rob as he searches for Princess Di to take some photos.
Diana & Me
1997 · 5 votes
- MovieDrama
In a post divorce suburban Australian family, the hormonal teenage daughter feels undercurrents of sexuality, confusion and loss. When she loses her temper, her stepfather enacts a strange symbolic punishment - he removes her bedroom door...
The Door
1993
- Movie
Jack likes Jill. Jill likes Jack. Two teenagers dealing with love, lust and death. A short film written and directed by Julian Ryan, stars Christian Byers and Airlie Dodds in the two main roles
Purple Flowers
2011
Movie5.4ComedyAlvin is your average guy, except for the fact women find him irresistible and chase him everywhere. He tries to avoid them and get psychiatric help but gets used by the psychiatrists as a gigolo to treat other patients instead.
Alvin Purple
1973 · 22 votes
MovieTV MovieDramaA 38-year-old woman feels her biological clock is ticking and is torn between her ex and a younger lover.
Time's Raging
1985
Movie4.5ComedyAlvin Purple, a man who can't hold down a job because of his voracious sexual appetite, impersonates a dead American Gangster.
Alvin Rides Again
1974 · 13 votes
Movie6.2ComedyDramaA family drifts down a spiral of self-destruction and depression in the years following the death of their eldest son. Can they come to terms with what's happened before everything falls apart?
Bitter & Twisted
2008 · 4 votes
Movie4.7DramaScripted by four of Australia’s greatest authors (David Williamson, Thomas Keneally, Hal Porter and Craig McGregor), this quartet of carnal desires explores adultery and jealous fantasies, the end of innocence, the moral and spiritual conflicts of a priest and a nun in love. The stories define the exploration of women and the cultural upheaval of the early 70s.
Libido
1973 · 6 votes
Movie5.5DramaThrillerImage of Death is a 1978 Australian TV movie about a woman who likes to live off other people's money.
Image of Death
1978 · 2 votes
- Movie8.0Drama
A young photographer Simon Jess (David Cameron) is given an assignment to shoot some backgrounds for a fashion display in the Snowy Mountains.
Down the Wind
1975 · 1 votes
Movie7.0The untold story of Australia's movie heroines - on and off the screen.
Don't Call Me Girlie
1985 · 1 votes
- Movie10.0DramaTV Movie
A woman artist's affair with a younger man jeopardises her marriage, her career and her child's future. He personifies the nihilistic philosophy of Albert Marcuse and tries to manipulate her. Her dependence on him forces her to reassess all the values of her art and life. We observe these events at three levels; a woman writer uses them as the basis of a play and in the process reveals parallels in her own experience.
After Marcuse
1988 · 1 votes
Series13
TV6.4DramaSoapHome and Away is set in the fictional town of Summer Bay, a coastal town in New South Wales, and follows the personal and professional lives of the people living in the area. The show initially focused on the Fletcher family, Pippa and Tom Fletcher and their five foster children Frank Morgan, Carly Morris, Steven Matheson, Lynn Davenport and Sally Keating, who would go on to become one of the show's longest-running characters. The show also originally and currently focuses on the Stewart family. Home and Away had proved popular when it premiered in 1988 and had risen to become a hit in Australia, and after only a few weeks, the show tackled its first major and disturbing storyline, the rape of Carly Morris; it was one of the first shows to feature such storylines during the early timeslot. H&A has tackled many adult-themed and controversial storylines; something rarely found in its restricted timeslot.
Home and Away
1988 · 78 votes
TV4.2ComedyCrimeNumber 96 was a popular Australian soap opera set in a Sydney apartment block. Don Cash and Bill Harmon of the Cash Harmon Television production company, produced the series for Network Ten, which requested a Coronation Street-type serial, and specifically one that explored adult subjects. The premise, original story outlines, and the original characters were devised by David Sale who also wrote the scripts for the first episodes and continued as script editor for much of the show's run. The series proved to be a huge success, running from 1972 until 1977. Number 96 was so popular it spawned a feature film version, filmed in December 1973. Number 96 was known for its sex scenes and nudity, somewhat risque at the time, and for its comedy characters. The series was the first Australian soap opera to feature an openly gay character.
Number 96
1972 · 8 votes
TV6.2DramaMedical drama focusing on the working and personal lives of the doctors and nurses working on the front line of a busy inner city Emergency Department at All Saints Hospital.
All Saints
1998 · 13 votes
TV5.8DramaCrimeHomicide was an Australian television police drama series The series dealt with the homicide squad of the Victorian Police force and the various crimes and cases the detectives are called upon to investigate. Many episodes were based on real life crime cases.
Homicide
1964 · 4 votes
TV8.0DramaCrimeRafferty's Rules was an Australian television drama series which ran from 1987 to 1990 on the Seven Network. Rafferty's Rules was one of the first programs undertaken by the Seven Network's then new in-house drama unit, going into production in May 1985 as "a 15-part courtroom drama". The program had started out as a pilot episode, recorded in early 1984 with the actor Chris Haywood in the lead role. When the pilot episode was remounted later in 1984, Chris Haywood wasn't available and the lead role was re-cast to John Wood. This second recording was eventually broadcast as the program's first episode.
Rafferty's Rules
1987 · 2 votes
TV7.7CrimeDramaOur lady sleuth sashays through the back lanes and jazz clubs of late 1920’s Melbourne, fighting injustice with her pearl handled pistol and her dagger sharp wit. Leaving a trail of admirers in her wake, our thoroughly modern heroine makes sure she enjoys every moment of her lucky life. Based on author Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher Murder Mystery novels.
Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
2012 · 179 votes
TV7.8MysteryDramaDr Lucien Blake left Ballarat as a young man. But now he finds himself returning to take over not only his dead father's medical practice, but also his on-call role as the town's police surgeon, only to find change is afoot, nothing is sacred, and no one is safe.
The Doctor Blake Mysteries
2013 · 50 votes
TV7.9DramaSoapHeadland is an Australian drama television series produced by the Seven Network which ran from 15 November 2005 to 21 January 2006. The Seven Network filmed 52 episodes in the first series. Production on the second series had begun before any episodes were aired. Set in a university, Headland premiered in Australia on Tuesday, 15 November 2005 at 7.30pm. On 23 January 2006, the Seven Network officially announced that the series has been cancelled. The show aired on weekdays at 7.30pm in the United Kingdom on E4, re-formatted as half-hour episodes. E4 eventually dropped the show but episodes continued to be broadcast on Channel 4 at 12:30pm, this time in the original hour-long format.
headLand
2005 · 9 votes
- TV8.0Soap
Punishment is an Australian television soap opera made by the Reg Grundy Organisation for the Ten Network in 1981. Set in a fictional men's prison, the series attempted to present a male version of the successful soap Prisoner. Attempts by the show's makers to differentiate the series from Prisoner saw Punishment imbued with greater realism; however, the formula did not attract high viewing figures. Network Ten deemed the new series a failure after only three episodes had gone to air, and it was quickly removed from the schedules. The remainder of the 26 episodes produced were shown out-of-ratings later that year. Unusually for a soap opera, the series was taped using the single camera technique. The regular cast featured many notable Australian actors including Brian Wenzel, Barry Crocker, Michael Preston, Ross Thompson, Anne Haddy, George Spartels, Cornelia Frances, Lisa Peers and Julie McGregor. Mel Gibson played a prisoner in the first episode. Kris McQuade played the girlfriend of Gibson's character and was phased out of the series after the first few episodes due to Gibson's departure. The programme was produced and directed by Alan Coleman.
Punishment
1981 · 1 votes
- TV9.0DramaCrime
Bony is an Australian television series made in 1992. The series of 13 episodes followed on from a telemovie made in 1990. The series was criticised for casting a white man (Cameron Daddo) as the title character Detective David John Bonaparte, under the tutelage of "Uncle Albert", an elderly Aborigine (Burnham Burnham). Bony was supposed to be a descendent of the Bony character created by Arthur Upfield in dozens of novels from the late 1920s until his death in 1964.
Bony
1992 · 1 votes
TV7.5DramaTandarra was the follow-up Australian television series to Cash and Company, set during the Victorian gold rush period of the 1850s. It was produced in 1976, consisted of 13 one hour episodes and was shown on the Seven Network in Australia and London Weekend Television in the UK. Two of the originals characters from Cash and Company continued in Tandarra. These were Joe Brady and Jessica Johnson. The other main character, introduced in the final episode of Cash and Company was Ryler. He had been a bounty hunter who was later convinced of Joe’s innocence and decided to join with him. Tandarra was taken from the name of the homestead, owned by Jessica’s character, and the series primarily dealt with the adventures of running the large farming property. The original premise of the first series, namely that Joe and Sam Cash were fugitives from the law and were being assisted by Jessica was totally removed. No reference to the Sam Cash character was ever made in this series. The previous antagonist, the corrupt police trooper, Lieutenant Keogh only appeared in the first episode of Tandarra, and the character of Jessica’s servant, Annie only appeared in the second.
Tandarra
1976 · 2 votes
TVComedyChandon Pictures was an Australian comedy television series that premiered on Movie Extra on 10 November 2007 and ended on 7 May 2009. The series featured sixteen episodes and was a spin-off from a Tropfest short film produced by Rob Carlton and Alex Weinress. It followed the misadventures of a struggling video production company called 'Chandon Pictures.' Rob Carlton, who plays the main character, is the younger cousin of Brian Carlton, The Spoonman talkback host on the Austereo Triple M network. This was revealed when The Spoonman interviewed Rob. On 10 July 2008, it was announced that the series had won a second season and it had sold format rights to its distributor Lionsgate. The first season premiered in the UK on Dave on 19 February 2009 in a 10pm slot. It was also aired in the US on the Sundance Channel.
Chandon Pictures
2007
TV7.5DramaCash and Company was an Australian television period adventure series, set during the Victorian gold rush of the 1850s. The original series consisted of 13 one hour episodes, filmed in colour and on location in rural Victoria. Production began in July 1974 and the series premiered in Sydney on the Seven Network on 26 May 1975, in Melbourne on 29 May, and in Brisbane a few weeks previously. It was also was screened at the Cannes Film Festival, and was sold to Sweden, Holland, Yugoslavia, Ireland, Norway, Rhodesia and Nigeria. The series was also shown at Sunday lunchtime in the United Kingdom by the London Weekend Television Network, in advance of its airing in Australia. It was produced by Homestead Films, a TV production company set up by Patrick Edgeworth and Russell Hagg, who had worked together at Crawford Productions on Matlock Police. Edgeworth's brother is the musician Ron Edgeworth, who was married to Judith Durham of The Seekers. The episodes dealt with the adventures of bushrangers Sam Cash and his partner Joe Brady and a helpful widow, Jessica Johnson. Cash and Brady were fugitives, constantly absconding from the authorities, led by the corrupt police trooper Lieutenant Keogh. Other regular and recurring characters included Jessica’s father in law and her servant, Annie.
Cash and Company
1975 · 2 votes