A Fortunate Life
Monday 16 and 23 September at 8:00 pm
Introduced by Delvene Delaney
As he prepares to celebrate his 80th birthday, an uncharacteristically reflective Paul Hogan looks back over his remarkable life and career.
In the first of two episodes, the actor and comedian talks about his working-class background, sudden fame in his early 30s, his relationship with John “Strop” Cornell and the genesis of Crocodile Dundee, one of the most successful independent films ever made.
Paul’s son Todd, speaking publicly for the first time, talks movingly of the disruptions the family faced as their father became a star virtually overnight.
Featuring previously unseen childhood photos and candid insights from family, friends and colleagues, this is Paul Hogan as you’ve never seen him before.
Airs Monday September 16, 8pm on ABCTV and iview. A Fortunate Life continues Monday September 23
Getting Away with Murder
Monday 7 October at 8pm
Introduced by Terry Willesee
We go behind the scenes at the inquest into one of Australia’s most chilling cold cases, the 1975 murder of Perth brothel madam Shirley Finn
From the outset, rumours of police and political involvement swirled around the case, many believing that Shirley Finn was silenced when she threatened to reveal the secrets of powerful figures in Western Australia.
When we last visited the story, Shirley Finn’s daughter Bridget Shewring and author Juliet Wills had succeeded in obtaining a coronial inquest after a decade-long battle
Tonight we follow the two women through the twists and turns of the inquiry as they grapple with new allegations of police and political corruption and we hear from crucial witnesses, fronting the cameras for the first time.
Dancing with the Dead
Monday 14 October at 8:00pm
Introduced by barrister and former ABC journalist Stuart Littlemore
When the body of a well-dressed man was found on Adelaide’s Somerton Beach in 1948, police assumed that somebody would soon come forward to identify him. But nobody did.
More than 70 years later, the mysterious case of the “Somerton Man”, as he became known, regularly makes the lists of Australia’s most baffling unsolved cases.
Was he murdered? Was he a Russian spy? Was it suicide? Or was he the victim of a love triangle?
In an effort to finally unearth the truth, Adelaide University Professor Derek Abbott is pushing for the Somerton Man’s remains to be exhumed.
Professor Abbott has a more personal motivation to solve the case: He is married to a woman he believes is the Somerton Man’s granddaughter.
Crime and Punishment
Monday 21 October at 8:00pm
For the past decade, Australian Story producer Belinda Hawkins has been following the case of Jock Palfreeman, a young Australian man convicted in Bulgaria for a stabbing murder he says he didn’t commit.
He claims he was acting in self-defence when he was protecting a Gypsy who was being attacked; the court found him guilty of murder with hooliganism.
When Jock was released on parole recently having served 12 years in jail, he and his father, Simon Palfreeman, could have been forgiven for thinking their nightmare was over.
But a new crisis unfolded when Jock was caught up in a bitter stoush when politicians argued against his parole.
He remains in limbo.
https://twitter.com/AustralianStory/status/1184728469101432833
Boots and All
Monday 28 October at 8pm
Introduced by Anthony LaPaglia
Former Socceroos captain and respected football analyst Craig Foster has been an outspoken, sometimes controversial public broadcaster, driven by an unrivalled passion for the game.
But privately, he has led another life, working with those less fortunate than himself.
And in November last year, when a fellow football international, Bahraini refugee Hakeem Al-Araibi, was arrested in Thailand and threatened with extradition back to the country where he had been imprisoned and tortured, Craig Foster led a global campaign to free him.
Now he and Hakeem reveal the full story of that campaign, and how close it came to disaster.
Eye of the Storm
Monday 4 November at 8pm
Introduced by South Sydney Rabbitoh’s Cameron Murray
In the NSW mid-coast town of Kempsey, principal Mark Morrison brushes close to the rules to give troubled teens their last chance at a high school education.
At Macleay Vocational College, the former private school teacher and rugby league coach does whatever it takes to get students past the high-security fence and into a classroom.
These kids mostly come from generational disadvantage, where poverty, drug addiction, domestic violence and/or cultural trauma is the norm.
Life has taught them unacceptable behaviour but Mark Morrison hasn’t given up on them.
In fact, as the end of the school calendar draws close, he’s looking at a record-breaking number of student graduations.
Art of the Possible
Monday 11 November at 8pm
Introduced by actress Asher Keddie
Award-winning Melbourne artist Vincent Fantauzzo doesn’t hold with the idea of the starving artist. Instead, he’s made a spectacular life for himself despite leaving school at 13 barely able to read or write.
His teenage years were spent working menial jobs and dabbling in petty crime until his boxing coach encouraged him to follow his passion for art.
When he was outed for plagiarism at art school, his trouble with words was finally diagnosed as dyslexia.
After successfully completing his fine arts degree he forged a successful career as one of Australia’s best known portrait artists. Heath Ledger, Julia Gillard, Baz Luhrmann and wife Asher Keddie are some of his high-profile subjects.
Today Vincent no longer sees his dyslexia as a disability. Instead he calls it the gift that allows him to see the world and his subjects from a different perspective.
Last Drinks
Monday 18 November at 8pm
Introduced by Talitha Cummins
When Shanna Whan realised she was an alcoholic, she didn’t just decide to give up drinking.
She drew on her experience to start a one-woman campaign to start a conversation about the pervasive culture of alcohol in rural Australia.
And she took the brave step of going public with her own 20-year battle with the bottle, as a way of encouraging others who want to change to step forward and seek help.
Now her online community “Sober in the Country” is spreading the message throughout the bush: “It’s OK to say no to a beer.”
Forever Young
Monday 25 November at 8pm
Introduced by Loren O’Keeffe, founder of Missing Persons Advocacy Network
Ursula Barwick was 17 years old when she vanished without a trace.
Her family dropped her to the train station on the NSW Central Coast in Spring 1987. She was headed to Sydney to start a new job and was to call when she got there. But that phone call never came.
Desperate and worried, Peter Barwick reported his daughter missing but police at the time failed to prioritise the case. Friends and family were not interviewed and potential leads were missed.
For the next three decades, those closest to Ursula lived with an enduring heartache, not knowing if she was dead or alive.
When Ursula’s fate was finally discovered by two new detectives in 2016, it raised uncomfortable questions for NSW Police as to why her disappearance had gone unsolved for so long.
Out of the Woods
Monday 16 December at 8pm
Introduced by Tim Costello
From a homeless alcoholic living in the wild to academic success, this is the next chapter in the inspiring comeback story of forest-dweller Gregory Smith.
When he left school at 14, dogged by the crushing assessment from teachers that he was “functioning at the lower level of the dull range”, Gregory had already endured a violent upbringing and months in an orphanage.
At 35, struggling with a lifetime of trauma, he opted to escape into the wild with no desire to return to the society that had failed him so dismally.
In an incredible turnaround, he emerged from the rainforest and gained an undergraduate degree and then a PhD at Southern Cross University.
This powerful story explores how Gregory is now using his voice to help others sleeping rough.
Australian Story, 2020 Return
Monday 17 February 8.00pm
Putting the “real” back into reality television, Australian Story returns for a brand new season in 2020. The award-winning documentary series with no narrator and no agendas — just authentic stories told entirely in people’s own words. Take 30 minutes to immerse yourself in the life of an extraordinary Australian. It’s television guaranteed to make you think and feel.
The Only Witness - Part 1
Monday 17 February 8.00pm
This is the complex and controversial story of a man who killed two people, six years apart, both in mysterious circumstances.
It begins with two country cops determined to solve the mystery of who hit and killed Dr Martin Pearson.
On Anzac Day 2014, Dr Pearson was on the home stretch of a marathon 1500 kilometre, nine day ride when he was struck.
Somewhere out there was the driver. Who was it? Why hadn’t they stopped?
The silhouette of a suspect began to emerge, only to reveal a figure who had killed once before – incredibly, six years previously, almost to the day.
The Only Witness - Part 2
Monday 25 February 8.00pm
Making His Mark - Marlion Pickett
Monday 2 March 8.00pm
Introduced by Richmond forward Jack Riewoldt
When Marlion Pickett took to the field in the AFL Grand Final late last year, it set the scene for one of the most heart-warming moments in the sport’s history.
For Pickett it was the triumphant high point of a journey that began more than seven years ago when he was behind bars in WA’s Wooroloo Prison Farm.
“Some people say what’s happened to me is a fairy tale but if you’re looking for a change and a better life then it’s up to you,” he says.
Marlion Pickett grew up in Western Australia where the rate of Indigenous incarceration is the highest in Australia.
By the time he was 21 he’d spent more than three years in jail and his dream of making the AFL looked out of reach.
He credits partner Jess Nannup and his four children for creating the incentive to turn his life around. “If me and Marlion wasn’t to have children, I’d say he would be still be a troubled person and probably be in and out of jail,” says Jess.
Although scouted as promising talent, Pickett was overlooked in successive AFL drafts, year after year. It wasn’t until Richmond coach Damien Hardwick took a punt on him that his fortunes turned around.
“We don’t have to fit the same box, we can let people be who they are, we can embrace them for the person that they are,” says Hardwick.
Pickett didn’t let his coach down in last September’s AFL Grand Final, kicking a famous first goal in front of 100,000 at the MCG.
Now, as he gears up for the new season, all eyes are on what he will achieve next, both on and off the field.
https://twitter.com/AustralianStory/status/1232933223493038080
When Worlds Collide
Monday 9 March at 8:00pm
Introduced by Julian Morrow
There are very few Chinese journalists in Australia who openly criticise their government and even fewer working simultaneously on the comedy circuit.
This might help explain the growing media profile of Chinese journalist Vicky Xu.
When the 25-year-old arrived in Australia on a university gap year she thought of herself as loyal to her country’s government.
But then everything changed.
Her journalism is raising questions about the Chinese government’s human rights record and she now finds herself at the centre of an increasingly heated debate over the Australia-Chinese relationship.
https://twitter.com/AustralianStory/status/1235447198202187776?s=20
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Courtney Act will be on two programs across two networks next week: Dancing with the Stars on Sunday on 10, then Australian Story on the ABC on Monday.
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Caught in the Act - Shane Jenek / Courtney Act
Monday 16 March at 8pm
Introduced by British comedian Matt Lucas
Since appearing on Australian Idol in 2003, drag queen Courtney Act has gone on to become an international star, appearing on RuPaul’s Drag Race in America, winning Celebrity Big Brother in the UK and coming second on Dancing with the Stars last year in Australia.
But for much of Courtney’s career there was a struggle going on between the glamorous drag queen and the man behind the make-up, Shane Jenek.
The turning point came in 2014, when he was introduced to the concept of gender fluidity.
Since then, Shane and Courtney have used reality TV, social media and performance to preach a message of acceptance and tolerance.
In an intimate portrait, Jenek talks candidly — as both Shane and Courtney — about his career and identity issues.
https://twitter.com/courtneyact/status/1210431683411030016?s=20
https://twitter.com/AustralianStory/status/1237961897137164288?s=20
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This Monday’s ep with Courtney Act is reviewed tonight on Gogglebox.
