Peter Yeldham

The Bergman sisters could not be more different. Jessica is a feisty tomboy who loves to help her father work their farmland. Her beautiful sister Meg is eagerly being groomed by her mother Hester (Lisa Harrow) to be the perfect wife, so that she can marry her way out of poverty. However, when the man, Jack Thomas, who Meg has set her sights on falls in love with Jessica and gets her pregnant, Hester schemes to wrench the couple apart to claim Jessica's son, Joey for Meg. Later she commits Jessica to a mental asylum. It is here that Jessica receives news of her lover's death and almost loses hope, but after enlisting the help of Mr. Runche, a down and out lawyer battling alcoholism, she is eventually released. Years later, it is the reformed Runche who gives Jessica the courage to fight for the return of her child. Eventually Meg and Hester call an uneasy truce with Jessica, and allow her to play a role in Joey's life as his aunt.

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It was an ordinary day when successful film producer, Megan Turner, and her director husband, David, were flagged down by a goodlooking highway patrol officer who seemed friendly. WITHOUT WARNING is the story of sexual pursuit and intimidation that almost destroys the Turner's marriage and, in the end, leads to violence and murder.

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Holidaying in Asia, Australian backpackers Joanne and Richard are hauled off a train and taken as hostages by Cambodian rebels. A ransom demand is made on the Australian Government for their release. The Government refuses to pay. Also kidnapped is French couple Louise and Pierre who are confident a French mining company for whom Pierre works will pay the ransom. When Richard and Pierre are executed, Joanne and Louise know their days are numbered and plan their escape.

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Sixteen years after returning home, three disillusioned Australian Vietnam conscripts use their army skills to plan and execute the country's biggest bank robbery. And they get away with it. Seven years pass and a petty criminal convicted as the driver in the heist is released from gaol. When his body is fished out of the harbour the grim murder reignites the case.

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A female lawyer heads a government taskforce investigating a suspected paedophile racket in Sydney. Based on the novel by Gabrielle Lord.

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Fairly sensitive melodrama about life on the back-roads in Australia at the height of the Great Depression. Centring on the developing romance between two drifters this presents a commendable level of period detail. Based on the novel by Kylie Tennant.

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Heroes II: the Return is a 1991 Australian mini-series about Operation Rimau during World War II. The true and tragic story of Operation Rimau, one of the most daring raids of WW2. In September 1944 Ivan Lyon and 22 Australian and British troops attempted to blow up Japanese ships in Singapore. Just 10 miles away from the target they are discovered and so begin a long and desperate bid to escape to Australia. The series shows how after the war it is revealled that 13 men were killed during the pursuit and that the remaining 10 were murdered by the Japanese in a war crime. Tragically this was covered up and their killers were never charged while the men themselves never received any honours for their heroism.

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The Private War of Lucinda Smith is a 1990 Australian mini series about an Australian chorus girl living in London.

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The Alien Years is a three-part miniseries that first aired on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on 19 April 1988. It was directed by Donald Crombie and written by Peter Yeldham. It stars Victoria Longley, John Hargreaves and Academy Award-winner, Christoph Waltz. Yeldham later adapted his screenplay into a novel of the same name.

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Based on Captain James Cook's three voyages. It was on his first voyage, in 1770 (while in the South Pacific region to observe the transit of Venus), that Captain Cook discovered the east coast of Australia. He later recommended Australia as a future British colony. The series was financed by $5 million from Revcom France, $2.25 million from the ABC and the rest from 10BA tax money.

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Based on a true story, The Heroes follows one of the most extraordinary and heroic exploits of World War II. After months of rigorous training in the north of Australia, a team of 14 men, most barely out of their teens, set sail from Cairns on board a leaky old fishing boat called 'The Krait'. Their mission, code-named Operation Jaywick, became a tense voyage through thousands of kilometres of Japanese held territory to launch a daring attack on Singapore Harbour. The raid is a success but within sight of safety they encounter a Japanese destroyer, and all prepare to die rather than be taken prisoner.

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A small desert town in western Australia is the scene of several love affairs in this romantic drama. Forty-year-old Stella (Wendy Hughes) works at her father's hotel and bar. She receives annual New Year's marriage proposals from rodeo rider Andy Ford (John Hargreaves), who talks himself into asking her one more time. Stella's father Billy (Norman Kaye) is a former cricket star whose career ended early when he was involved in a sex scandal. She spends the night with vacationing Arthur (Michael Siberry) when his car breaks down. Andy elects not to pop the question to Stella in lieu of her one-night stand with the stranger. When Billy elects to marry June Thompson (Julie Nihill), the local gossipmongers have a field day recalling the woman's promiscuous past.

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Just after the second world war, an English girl from a sheltered background, Jennifer Morton, falls in love with Czech migrant Carl Zlinter. But Carl is not all that he seems and even Jennifer is not privy to his dark secret.

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Orphaned after a shipwreck off the Victorian coast of Australia, the spirited Philadelphia Gordon finds both love and adventure aboard a paddle-steamer on the Murray River.

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1915 is a 1982 Australian mini series about two friends who wind up serving in World War One.

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Levkas Man is a 1981 mini series about a doctor who goes to the Greek island of Levkas to prove a theory about prehistoric man. It was shot on location in Greece. Paul Gerrard is a man in search of his missing father - a wayward archaeologist who has disappeared from Greece.

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Three attractive socialites working for charity turn to robbery to keep a special primary school for underprivileged children open.

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Zodiac was a six-part series transmitted by ITV in 1974. Starring Anton Rogers and Anouska Hempel as cynical detective David Gradley and his astrologer associate Esther Jones, the unusual astrological premise set this show apart from the humdrum detective dramas of the time. Little seen since its original broadcast, the series has garnered something of a cult status.

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John Thornton, is a fearless man who's after more than gold; he wants to do what's right. Thornton works for the U.S. mail and is the only person daring and smart enough to figure out how to travel the deadly 600 miles from Skagway to Dawson, Alaska in the icy winter. His incredibly dog Buck is by his side and part of how he survives.

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Van der Valk is a British television series that was produced by Thames Television for the ITV network. It starred Barry Foster in the title role as Dutch detective Commissaris "Piet" van der Valk. Based on the characters and atmosphere of the novels of Nicolas Freeling, the first series was shown in 1972.

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An English aristocrat and an American millionaire come together to tackle crime.

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Birds on the Wing is a 1971 BBC Two television comedy written by Peter Yeldham and produced by Graeme Muir, originally aired in a single series of six episodes. A businessman becomes enamoured of an attractive young woman, whom he finds out is trying to con him with her friend. The three form an unlikely alliance.

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An elderly artist thinks he has become too stale and is past his prime. His friend (and agent) persuades him to go to an offshore island to try once more. On the island he re-discovers his muse in the form of a young girl.

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An idealistic colonial police officer is sent to capture a rebel leader who threatens the stability of the Raj's north-west frontier. Despite his official colonial capacity, the policeman is impressed by the ingenuity and integrity of his enemy and is determined to arrest him alive rather than bring him in dead as his superiors might wish.

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Five-part thriller series about a detective investigating the world of fashion photography and becoming involved with the London underworld.

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One of six travelers who catch the bus from Casablanca airport to Marrakesh is carrying $2 million to pay a local operator to fix United Nations votes. But which one?

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Lighthearted spy drama about Boysie Oakes, who takes a nice job with the British Secret Service, enjoys all the perks, and signs all the forms before learning that his job depends on murdering people, and not romancing all the beautiful civilian staff in Whitehall.

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When a jet airliner with engine trouble lands in Beirut for a twenty-four hour stopover, purser 'Jonesey' fears his life is in danger from a gold-smuggling gang whom he double-crossed on a previous trip. So begins a day of chilling suspense, as he and other crew members find themselves embroiled in a desperate race to get out of the country alive!

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An American pilot assists the Portuguese colonial police who are battling a gang of criminals involved in drug smuggling from Lisbon to Mozambique to Zanzibar.

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A middle-aged stock actor goes to London to try the big time. After much frustration, he lands a job doing TV commercials, gaining wealth and recognition. He eventually gives it all up to return to stage work and keep his pride.

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The first victim is the butler of South African millionaire Wexler, who hires hard-hitting private eye Steve Martin for protection. Once at Wexler’s palatial Cape Town estate, Martin meets the patriarch’s family, close associates – and possible suspects. When it’s discovered that the key to the killing may lie in an old war photograph, Martin sets out on a mission to unravel the identities of the men in the picture before they become target two through VICTIM 5.

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Story Parade specialized in adaptations of modern novels. It was broadcast on June 5, 1964 and repeated on August 28, 1964. The teleplay was by Terry Nation (who invented "Blake's 7" and the Daleks in Dr. Who), and Elijah Baley was played by the late Peter Cushing. It also starred John Carson John Carson as R. Daneel Olivaw and Kenneth J. Warren. The master tapes of the program were erased, however a few clips from the production have turned up in various documentaries about Isaac Asimov's work.

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Pulled from actual case histories and utilizing newsreel and documented narratives, the activities of spies from various countries are depicted as far back as the American Revolution and as recent as the Cold War.

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Armchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series of single plays that ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by Associated British Corporation, and later by Thames Television from mid-1968.

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A UK anthology series of single plays from major playwrights old and new. It ran from 1955 to 1974, producing about five hundred ninety-minute episodes from Granada Television. Season 1 also incorporates the Plays from the 'H.M. Tennant Globe Theatre' series, some of which were incorporated and labelled in listings as official Play of the Week episodes and some of which were played in place of Play of the Week episodes in alternative ITV regions. All 8 plays have been incorporated into this entry for convenience.

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