SBS (main channel) - Programs and Schedules

10 posts were split to a new topic: ABC and SBS On-Air Presentation

SBS has acquired American show A User’s Guide to Cheating Death, which explores controversial procedures and diets that claim to improve health.

SBS will have to wait until June to fasttrack the new season of The Handmaid’s Tale.

Australia in Colour

From Wednesday 6 March at 8.30pm

SBS ’s ground-breaking new documentary series Australia in Colour relives modern Australia’s history for the very first time in colour.

Told through a unique collection of iconic archival footage brought to life in stunning colour, it tells the story of how Australia came to be what it is today.

Narrated by Hugo Weaving , it’s a reflection on our nation’s character, its attitudes, its politics and its struggle to value its Indigenous and multicultural past. Australia in Colour gives us a chance to look at Australia’s history from a fresh perspective.

This four-part series carefully curates classic historical footage, as well as home movies and never-before-seen archival material to chart how Australia developed as a nation. From the oldest surviving footage captured in Australia in 1896 in Sydney’s Prince Alfred Park, to the beginning of colour television in the mid-1970s, each sequence has been lovingly restored and colourised with historical accuracy. The effect is remarkable, bringing to light history that is both shared and deeply personal.

The landscape of our collective memories is revealed throughout the series. We see the foundation of modern Australia when six British colonies unite, the unveiling of Canberra as the nation’s capital and the Antarctic explorations of Douglas Mawson. We relive a time when Ned Kelly was the first hero of the silver screen, and see some of the quarter million men who fought in World War I – their experiences made all the more vivid in colour.

It takes a fresh and colourful look at some of the country’s most celebrated people and historical moments including Queen Elizabeth II’s first visit in 1954, cricketing legend Donald Bradman in all his glory, Beatlemania in full force as the Fab Four visit their Aussie fans and, of course, the iconic Dancing Man on George Street celebrating the end of WWII.

The series also explores the evolving role of women in the Australian workforce and their struggle for equal rights – the right to equal pay, the right to drink in public bars and even the right to not wear pantaloons when swimming.

It reflects back on uncomfortable moments in the treatment and characterisation of Indigenous people and other people of non-Anglo background, charting the gradual changes in these attitudes through the 1960s and 70s.

Through the decades, Australia in Colour reveals how Australia finds its voice as a nation. From the White Australia Policy of 1901, to the “populate or perish” slogan of the 1940s; from the spirited protests of the 1960s to the very first hints of modern multiculturalism in the 1970s.

Produced by SBS for Stranger Than Fiction Pictures and with funding from Screen Australia , Australia in Colour has been meticulously researched, including the historical accuracy of the colours themselves. Every sequence has been curated and carefully considered and the result is a remarkable, fresh vision of history that reconnects us with our past in a way that no other medium can.

SBS has dropped season 2 of Sinkholes: Deadly Drops from its schedule after the show’s low ratings on Sunday.

Mardi Gras 2019

Sunday 3 March at 8.35pm on SBS

The 2019 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade is set to dazzle screens across Australia for another year on SBS, via a special broadcast of the parade on Sunday 3March at 8.35pm .

10 News First Perth presenter Narelda Jacobs , comedian Joel Creasey and The Feed’s Patrick Abboud will be joined by comedian Zoë Coombs Marr to host coverage of the event.

Narelda Jacobs said: “It’s a huge privilege to host such an important event. As always, I’m humbled by the courageous attitude of our community, who show the world what resilience and love looks like every day. 41 years of pride and protest is an amazing achievement and certainly something to celebrate. Wishing everyone a very happy Mardi Gras!”

Joel Creasey said: “I am over the moon (or perhaps rainbow) to be hosting the Mardi Gras broadcast again. Last year was an incredibly special celebration of love and acceptance, and this year is a great opportunity to reflect on the fearless, fabulous characters who make our community so wonderful. I am especially excited to be presenting alongside Narelda Jacobs who I have loved and watched read the news in Perth for many years. And for the first time we’ll be joined by the hilarious Zoë Coombs-Marr alongside Mardi Gras regular, the brilliant Patrick Abboud. It’s going to be a truly epic evening!”

Founded in 1978, the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras remains one of the world’s largest and loved LGBTIQ+ celebrations. This year the festival is themed Fearless , to honour the sense of resilience, activism, protest and celebration that makes up the LGBTIQ+ community and fuels the continued fight for equality.

Zoë Coombs Marr said: “Hosting Mardi Gras this year feels like a triumph in many ways. After face planting in the middle of the parade as a 19 year old, I feel relieved to claw back some of my dignity. I’m also filled with immense pride to be part of the LGBTIQ+ family, and cannot wait to be on Oxford St with them showcasing my exceptionally bad dance moves.”

Patrick Abboud said : “I’m so excited to be hosting for the sixth year! 2018 was a huge milestone, an absolute honor to celebrate the legends that brought us through four decades fighting for freedom. Now we look to the future. I’m doing something really special this year with the new guard of LGBTIQ+ young people working across the country to make their communities more inclusive. These fearless warriors for change will surprise you, move you, and shock you as their stories unfold across the broadcast. It’s a new format that I can’t wait to reveal.”

The television broadcast will feature the most fabulous floats and costumes in the parade, interviews with celebrities and special guests, commentary from Narelda Jacobs and Joel Creasey , as well as on ground coverage from The Feed’s Patrick Abboud and Zoë Coombs Marr . Patrickwill also present another very special series of untold stories that will be shown throughout broadcast.

SBS Director of Television and Online Content, Marshall Heald said: “It’s an honour and a pleasure to be broadcasting the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade again. Every year, the festival is a wonderful celebration of diversity, inclusion and acceptance. SBS is committed to upholding these values across all of our programming, and proud to bring this joyous event to our audience.”

A live stream of the parade will be available on SBS On Demand and the SBS Twitter account on Saturday 2 March . SBS Arabic 24 will report live from the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade to Arabic-speaking audiences around Australia.

Coverage of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is produced by Blink TV for SBS.

SBS celebrates Mardi Gras across the network:

From Friday 15February , SBS On Demand will host a Rainbow Pride movie collection, including BPM, Beach Rats and 3 Generations starring Naomi Watts and Susan Sarandon. SBS On Demand will also show Thinking Queer , a special collection of documentaries curated by Queer Screen including The Last Goldfish and Rebels On Pointe .

SBS VICELAND is celebrating Mardi Gras throughout the month of February with a Rainbow Pride movie collection, airing every Sunday including Seventeen, A Moment In The Reeds and Hard Paint.

From Sunday 24 February NITV will have a stellar line-up of programming for Mardi Gras which will celebrate the LGBTIQ+ community and explore this year’s theme Fearless. Appointment viewing will include TV series Shade: Queens of NYC and feature documentary Leitis in Waiting , the story of Tonga’s evolving approach to gender fluidity and the group of South Pacific transgender women battling with religious fundamentalism and intolerance.

The live stream of the Mardi Gras parade will also be available via the SBS Australia Facebook Page, the Facebook Australia page, and to audiences worldwide on the LGBTQ@Facebook Page on Saturday 2 March.

That’s so confusing.

not really

The Five Billion Pound Super Sewer

From Sunday 17 March at 7.30pm

London’s Victorian sewer network is at bursting point. Its tunnels are regularly pushed past their limit, and each week the equivalent of 300 Olympic swimming pools full of raw sewage is released into the Thames, totalling 39 million tonnes every year.

Now a huge engineering project is underway to massively expand the capital’s capacity to deal with its own waste. Twenty miles long and seven metres wide, the enormous tunnel will be created directly beneath the River Thames by an army of 4,000 workers, and it will capture this city’s waste before it hits the river.

The super sewer is the biggest upgrade to the sewage system for more than 150 years, but built 90m under London, it’s also the biggest engineering challenge for a generation. In a major new three-part series, The Five Billion Pound Super Sewer puts cameras at the heart of the action, following workers across the capital for the past three years as they race to build the enormous tunnel on time and on budget.

Versailles - Season 3

From Wednesday 20 March at 10:40pm

Louis celebrates victory in war by welcoming defeated Emperor Leopold with his niece, Eleanor. Louis plans to expand his empire but Leopold has plans of his own he seduces Mari-Therese

But are Louis’ feelings real or does he have an ulterior motive? Louis dislikes having Protestants in the palace but Madame de Maintenon convinces him they are no threat - although prominent Protestant, Delphine foresees trouble. Phillipe returns a war hero and a new father but finds life in Versailles hollow and he splits with Chevalier.

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Project Blue Book

From Thursday 28 March at 8:30pm

Game of Thrones’ star Aiden Gillen leads the critically acclaimed new UFO drama series Project Blue Book on SBS - The 10-part series is based on de-classified US government investigations into UFOs and unexplained phenomena conducted between 1952 to 1969

Set against the backdrop of the Cold War and rising Atomic Era, Project Blue Book is a thrilling series inspired by the real-life Project Blue Book, the U.S. Air Force’s investigation of UFOs.

Aidan Gillen (‘Littlefinger’ Game of Thrones , The Wire ) stars as Dr. J. Allen Hynek, a brilliant yet underappreciated college professor who is recruited by the U.S. Air Force to spearhead a clandestine operation called Project Blue Book .

Along with his partner, the debonair Air Force Captain Michael Quinn, played by Michael Malarkey ( The Vampire Diaries ), he is summoned to investigate UFO sightings around the country and use science to discover what really happened. However, when some encounters cannot be explained away and cases remain open, Hynek begins to suspect that he has been duped by the government into a larger conspiracy to cover up the truth.

Produced by Academy Award and Golden Globe winning director Robert Zemeckis ( Forest Gump , Back to the Future ), Project Blue Book is the origin story of everything we know about UFOs and aliens in pop culture. Over the course of their stranger-than-fiction investigations, Hynek and Quinn will coin the terms ‘UFO’ and ‘Close Encounters’, uncover smoking gun cover-up memos from Blue Book Chief General Nathan Twining, and witness President Truman approve a shoot down order after a mass UFO sighting in Washington D.C in 1952. By 1970, Hynek will transform from ardent sceptic into avid believer, convinced that we are not alone.

The 10-episode drama series is based on the real life Project Blue Book, a now-declassified series of studies on UFOs conducted by the United States Air Force. Project Blue Book scientifically analysed UFO-related data, and the team was tasked with determining if UFOs were a threat to national security. From 1952 – 1969, Project Blue Book investigated hundreds of UFO sightings across the United States.

Aidan Gillen and Michael Malarkey are supported by a stellar international cast comprising Neal McDonough ( Captain America, Minority Report ), Michael Harney ( Orange is the New Black, Widows ), Robert John Burke ( Gossip Girl, Law & Order: SVU ), Ksenia Solo ( Orphan Black, Black Swan ) and Laura Mennell ( Loudermilk ).

SBS will air the double-episode premiere of Project Blue Book at 8.30pm AEDT Thursday 28 March, followed by two weeks of double episodes. From Thursday 18 April, the remaining episodes will air weekly at 9.30pm AEST.

Great British Railway Journeys - Season 10

From Wednesday 6 March at 8.00pm

Michael Portillo continues to travel the length and breadth of Great Britain by train with his trusty guide in tow.

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SBS has been showing episodes from series 2 of Channel 5’s Inside… last week and this week, on Cadbury, Hamley’s and Harrods. But I don’t understand why they were given different program titles from their UK broadcast. The full titles for the three episodes (as shown on program guides) were:
Secrets of the Chocolate Factory: Inside Cadbury
Secrets of the Toy Shop: Inside Hamley’s
Secrets of Harrods Department Store (UK title: Inside Harrods: The World’s Most Famous Department Store)

My cup of tea, interested in this one for sure.

A live stream of the Mardi Gras parade will be available on Twitter, Facebook and SBS On Demand from 7PM on Saturday 2 March, or you can tune in to SBS at 8:30PM on Sunday to see our coverage.

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The Sunday Telegraph has an excellent article on new show Australia in Colour, including meticulous research into each subject to be covered, and the colorisation process.
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/arts/sbs-documentary-brings-colour-to-key-moments-in-australian-history/news-story/68d6e87307de5c3d88e008ecac89ecab

EDIT 9/3: saw the recording of first episode this afternoon. It was a confronting episode showing the dispossession of Indigenous people and also revealed some interesting facts, e.g. prickly pears which plagued NSW and Queensland in the 1920s. The varying quality of B&W films from the early part of 20th century was also further exposed with colourisation. Still it is a great educational films that should be compulsory for high school students.

China From Above

Saturday 16 and 23 March at 7.35pm

This stunning series is an epic exploration of China from the skies. Natural wonders, mega-engineering marvels and a rich social tapestry are revealed with breathtaking aerial views.

China is physically vast, from towering mountains to the biggest ports in the world – to see it from above is fittingly epic. Equally compelling is China’s cultural heart. Unseen human stories represent the country’s blend of reverence for tradition and vigour for the industrialising modern world.