Step Into Paradise
Tuesday 12 October 8.30pm
Step Into Paradise marks the beginning of the ABC Arts Know My Name partnership with the National Gallery of Australia. Know My Name addresses historical gender bias in the arts by presenting a celebration of women across diverse creative practices. Iconic fashion designers Jenny Kee and Linda Jackson are two such women, their pioneering style created a bold and unashamedly Australian fashion identity.
For the best part of 50 years, Jenny Kee and Linda Jackson have shared a passionate love affair with Australia. An affair that bound them in the most extraordinary and enduring friendship and a creative collaboration that defined a generation. No other creative pairing has had such a lasting impact on Australian fashion, our design identity and our sense of self.
Jenny and Linda embraced the vibrancy of a unique landscape and elevated icons of Australiana tourist kitsch, to the height of fashion and art. They observed this vast country with wit, irreverence and astonishing imagination to create a fashion story like no other. And then they gifted it to the world.
Step Into Paradise is an evocative ride of fame, triumph, tragedy, riches, losses, determination, racism, rebellion, sexuality and heartbreak. It is a story of remarkable highs and deep lows, of women and love. A story of Australia, who we were and who we are today. A gloriously rich visual collage of emotion, art and kaleidoscopic colour. A walk into the dreams of Jenny and Linda. A step into paradise.
As part of the Know My Name partnership, ABC Arts will deliver a vibrant slate of original content across all ABC platforms to celebrate the work of all female artists and to enhance understanding of their contribution to Australia’s cultural life.
Production credits: A Blackfella Films Production. Director and Co-Writer, Amanda Blue. Producer, Darren Dale. Producer, Fran Moore. Co-Writer, Jacob Hickey. Associate Producer, Charlotte Mars.
Annika
From Friday 15 October 8.30pm
Annika follows the life of DI Annika Strandhed (Nicola Walker), who has returned to Glasgow to head up the Marine Homicide Unit, where she is tasked with solving the puzzling crimes and unexplained murders that wash up in Scotland’s waters. Annika allows viewers to be her confidante by speaking directly, sharing her wry observations on the case and her life, as she balances solving cases, managing a new team, and raising a brilliant yet complex teenage daughter.
Intuitive and instinctive, Annika has a weakness for using literary and historical references to help solve her crimes, an enthusiasm that her team definitely don’t share, but which is often the thing that unlocks the case.
The team’s cases take them from the depths of Glasgow’s Clyde River to the Isle of Bute and
picturesque Loch Katrine as they solve a new crime each episode, juxtaposing Scotland’s stunning landscapes and urban beauty against the horrific realities of the murders her team must solve.In this first episode, Annika and her team are assigned their first case when a man’s body is dredged from the Clyde, a harpoon piercing through his head. Their investigation leads to the victim’s struggling boat business, and his unscrupulous dealings. Channelling Moby Dick’s obsessive search for the white whale, Annika feels there’s a poetic justice at the heart of this murder, much to her team’s bemusement. And when a second death is uncovered, the new team need to pull together to find the killer before any more lives are lost.
Meanwhile, Annika’s daughter Morgan (Silvie Furneaux) is struggling to adjust to the new life that goes along with her mother’s new job. Morgan makes her feelings clear at the school play, which causes a headache for Annika.
Production credits: Black Camel Pictures production for UKTV, UK and WGBH, USA. Starring and written by Nicola Walker, directed by Philip John.