The Age Green Guide interview with Leigh Sales, EP Greg Hassall and Claudia Karvan (paywall)
Bob Bramley, who featured in the 2021 episode titled Surviving Turbulence, has died in a plane crash in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
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TIME AFTER TIME – CHENG LEI
Monday 7 September at 8PM
When journalist Cheng Lei was released from a Chinese prison three years ago, she was ecstatic. But Lei has since learned that freedom is not straightforward.
“Sometimes,” Lei says, "it feels like the sentence continues after release.“
In 2020, the TV anchor and single mum was arrested and accused of espionage while working at Chinese state television. She spent the next three years behind bars deprived of contact with her family.
For most Australians, the story ends with her joyful homecoming. But Lei and her two teenage children still live with the fallout.
“I’m full of anguish about the time that was taken away when they needed me and wanted me to be there,” Lei says.
A further blow is that many in the Australian-Chinese community believe China’s propaganda that she was a "greedy spy.“
“I feel I’m an inconvenience sometimes,” Lei says. "My old Chinese friends … are too scared to contact me.“
The ordeal has encouraged Lei to “live urgently”. She’s written a book, taken up soccer, and even starred in a play about her imprisonment.“This is the second shot at life for her,” says friend Kylie Moore-Gilbert. “She’s just running with it.”
The ABC has apologised to Barnaby Joyce’s wife, Vikki Campion, after posting a video to social media from its Australian Story program on the fallout from the pair’s affair and her postpartum depression, which received hundreds of comments before they were disabled.
The video, uploaded on 25 August, came with a warning that the story discussed suicide and self harm, and included links to help services. But it was open slather in the comment section.
The ABC’s apology
THE GIRL NEXT DOOR – MOLLY TICEHURST
Monday 14 September at 8PM
This week, Daniel Billings will be sentenced for the murder of his former partner Molly Ticehurst.
The 28-year-old mother, from the NSW town of Forbes, had done everything she could to end her relationship with Billings but his violent and threatening behaviour kept escalating.
“She wanted to move on with her life and he couldn’t allow that to happen", her friend Aidan Clarke tells Australian Story. "It was the phone calls, it was the turning up at her house.”
The police arrested and charged Billings but he was released on bail.
“When Daniel had been given bail, I just remember she said she just cried that whole day”, recalls Aidan.
“When you look in hindsight, potential failures in the system that occurred in the lead up, it’s like how did this happen?”, asks former police prosecutor Phil Donato.
Molly’s death sent shock waves across the nation. It provoked outrage about the high levels of domestic violence and led to a tightening of bail laws in NSW.
In this powerful program, Molly’s family and friends speak exclusively to Australian Story, remembering the young woman whose smile lit up a room and whose death has left a lasting legacy.
