An Australian Masterpiece

The Newsreader

An Australian Masterpiece

I

The other night I was fiddling around and wanting to move away from the Desktop. It was time to relax. I went upstairs, having enjoyed hearing that gentle click of the door behind me that announced to the study, the french doors (behind the drawn curtains) and to my postage stamp Garden of Eden tother side, that’s it, all. I’m off upstairs. It’s sofa time. See you in the morning for coffee outside.

That last is true. For regardless of weather, and season, the day’s first coffee is always in the garden.

If it’s wet, well, I wander around, check that Hamburg the goldfish (no I’m not a Goldfish I’m a Whale damn it!) is okay, fiddle around, as one does, catch glimpses of birds high overhead, completely missing the large pigeon watching me from the tree over the pond and then, timing it just right, leaping into the air to cause maximum hassle in the form of spilled coffee!! And a lot of impromptu giggling by me.

In these terrible times, I’m very grateful that I am able to do this.

I stay away from the news until mid to late afternoon. iPhone alerts will keep me posted and I keep these to a minimum. I then wander back upstairs having checked that the desk is neat and tidy for the day’s writing to commence whenever, or to check that the suit is pressed in readiness for the weekly Probus gathering; have a slice of toast and my second coffee whilst working through the five books that await me. Fortunately, I live alone so I can do this, more or less, without interruption.

The news the other night was bleak. Today it is still bleak. And the other week, having thoroughly enjoyed Saturday’s Strictly Come Dancing I thought, no. No news. No documentaries. Not tonight. I need to chill out. If I don’t then Kenney Wenney won’t be around to enjoy ‘chilling out’.

I went to BBC iPlayer. The caption The Newsreader caught my eye. I’m glad it did.

II

An Australian Drama now preparing to make Series 3, the BBC have leased the rights from the Australian Broadcasting Company - the world renowned ABC - to air Series 1 and Series 2.

I am so used, these days, to the no-holds-barred American dramas and the even more brutal British dramas, that The Newsreader is a beautifully written script by Michael Lucas that presents to me at least, very real people, people who represent ordinary everyday human nature, rather than human nature’s terrifying extremes. Reflecting life in the 1980s - for me, simply yesterday - the storylines are real, moving, and presented in the manner in which we then lived in the pre social media, desktop era. The Cast perfectly capture the lifestyle of that decade, so much so, that I wondered at first whether I was watching a series from yesteryear that had been given a makeover courtesy of AI.

III

I like it for another reason. It reminds me that there is life outside that topsy turvy land of the free aka the dis-USA. I’m watching the English-Speaking Peoples who are very much attuned with us, and us with them, simply because two very independent nation states have the same head of state. That undoubtedly will change, as it will do for New Zealand. And I know this. The warmth will remain and, I sense will be a far greater warmth than the affection - genuine - that exists between America and Britain.

Watching Series I, even though it is not stated, I started recalling how Australia stood with the British People in 1939. They paid a terrible price. It also focussed my mind on to the geopolitics of the Second World War and of today. I see a map and see how close Japan is within the sphere of influence. Darwin seemed just a hop away. I’m skimming the surface. But this Drama series is refocussing my mind, reminding me that there is a world beyond America, and reminding me of my very close ties to Australia and New Zealand and because my sister’s brother in law and family live in Tasmania.

It reminds me too about Vietnam. And I know that I’ll be asking a friend in Queensland to recommend to me a title that enables me to read about Vietnam from the Australian viewpoint. Here, in the UK, the Vietnam War is still seen as an American War. Yet, 60,000 Australians served alongside US troops. The UK’s current standing army is 73,000. The UK population 67,825,929 million on today’s Worldometer, also records Australia’s population as 26,542,214 million. Australia’s commitment pro rata to fighting alongside the USA was enormous.

IV

The Newsreader is a superb production. And the cast are thoroughly believable. Something else, too. In Britain this year, the good old BBC has had something of its own night of the long knives. Our main news anchors disappeared. A new lot has come in, the millennial generation and with it the consequent drop in values. We now have podcasts and newscasts and we have shifted away from the gravitas of news reporting, to the millennial tendency to belittle the older generation, and to not undersand when there is a time to refer to the King’s ‘mum, and a time to refer to His Majesty the King’s mother, the Late Queen Elizabeth II. Both are acceptable. The challenge is knowing in which situation we use one or the other. To do so on the BBC’s News at Six, again at 10pm and again on a frivolous newscast edition reminds me that my world has quietly slipped away when I wasn’t looking.

How strange, that at the very moment I’m finding myself thinking that the BBC News seems to be shifting increasingly to celebrity format, the character Geoffrey Walters superbly played by Robert Taylor, makes that very comment, that there is a danger of a shift away from serious news to celebrity style format.

That pulled me up short.

Thank you Australia.
Just as Prime Minister Sir Robert Gordon Menzies (i) stood with Churchill
at the Country’s darkest hour during the Battle of Britain,
you’re doing it again.
Brilliant.
But he also had the confidence and courage to stand up to Churchill in 1942 following the Fall of Singapore, when the PM insisted on bringing Australian Troops home to defend Australia, when Churchill had demanded that they instead go to Burma. When I look at the map
I know that the Australian PM was right.
Regardless of how things play out, there will ALWAYS
be a warmth between us that the rest of the world
can never quite fathom.

G’day

23 November 2023
All Rights Reserved


LIVERPOOL


© 2023 Kenneth Thomas Webb

Note 1 (i) Sir Robert Gordon Menzies Source is by courtesy of David Sansome of Australia and to whom I am most grateful