The Newsreader

The acclaimed Australian drama series The Newsreader is finally arriving on British screens, with the show due to debut on BBC Two on 24th July 2022.

Likewise, the timing of some announcements is tweaked to better fit within an episode timeline. Some statements made during the series appear to have the benefit of hindsight. From messy beginnings, they will form an unlikely bond that will transform the very fabric of the nightly news bulletin."

This Australian drama uses real-life media stories as the backdrop for some classic soap opera tropes.

Stick with it and you may find yourself becoming quite invested in these characters – Robert Taylor is particularly good as the ageing newscaster Geoff Walters, who can see the writing on the wall but is doing everything he can to avoid being pushed into retirement. The two main characters are Helen Norville (Anna Torv, who sometimes bears an uncanny resemblance to Cate Blanchett), the spiky star newsreader, and Dale Jennings (Sam Reid), an inexperienced producer and reporter. Sadly, no Australian show has hit these heights in the years since, and The Newsreader (BBC Two) is definitely not going to break that duck.

Forget neighbors. The pinnacle of Australian television was Return to Eden, a 1983 miniseries shown in the UK in which a wimpy heiress had her face chewed.

But otherwise, it’s a straightforward soap opera that takes us behind the scenes in a TV newsroom, with its rivalry, office politics, pre-MeToo attitudes, and—inevitably—a romantic relationship between the two protagonists. The two main characters are Helen Norville (Anna Torv, who at times bears an uncanny resemblance to Cate Blanchett), the spiky newscaster, and Dale Jennings (Sam Reid), an inexperienced producer and reporter. to be rescued by a hermit who nursed her back to health, underwent a covert reconstructive surgery that turned her into a supermodel, then returned to high society with a new identity to exact revenge on the husband and his new beautiful wife . How’s that for a plot?

This otherwise classy Australian series doesn't just depict women being written off in the workplace – by focusing on a less interesting male character, ...

Costumes aside, however, it is hard to feel fully enveloped in The Newsreader’s world. Helen’s mental health struggles are gradually teased out over the series, while Dale’s backstory is only vaguely hinted at in the first few episodes (his intriguingly uncomfortable flirtation with cameraman Tim might have something to do with it). Helen and Dale’s budding romance, which develops in an unusually ambiguous way, is made even more compelling by these shrouded histories. It helps that both performances are brilliant; Reid is wholly convincing as a reserved nice guy with hidden depths (and as a man for whom reading the news is tantamount to rocket science). Torv, meanwhile, deserves global acclaim for her portrayal of Helen, a cracklingly sensitive woman in a job where emotion is taboo; a raw nerve sheathed in oversized shoulder pads. Speaking of real stars, we get an awful lot of them in the two opening episodes, as the team report on the Challenger space shuttle’s explosion and then Halley’s comet. It makes a neat narrative device for the show to contrast the reception these two ambitious journalists get: Dale also demands more, but his nagging is viewed as admirably enthusiastic, while Helen is seen as a pushy, deluded, egotistical nuisance (an exaggerated but still effective example of the double standards that continue to this day). Yet the show itself also feels somewhat complicit in these stereotypes, seemingly not believing that Helen is sympathetic enough to be the main character. Weirdly – considering the show’s title and 2022-friendly themes (women having a hard time, men being horrible) – Helen is not The Newsreader’s protagonist.

The titular newsreader (we assume from the early episodes) is Helen Norville, played by Anna Torv, previously seen in Fringe. Helen is a glamorous presenter in the young Barbara Walters vein, with an older, gnarly co-anchor, Geoff Walters (Robert Taylor, ...

The period feel of the piece is masterfully done, a filter giving it a dingy look that accentuates the browns, beiges and dirty greens of the spot-on decor and fashions. One of the strengths of the series is the unshowy way it goes about stirring this pot. Serious news, we realise, is doomed if the ratings say people don’t watch it readily and want only entertainment. Presiding over this fractious newsroom is a dyspeptic boss, Lindsay Cunningham (William McInnes, pictured below), whose explosions seem to be so routine that few of his staff react to them other than by keeping their heads slightly further below the parapet. Period drama from Australia is something of a rarity on our televisions, so The Newsreader scores for novelty alone. He clearly sees himself as the senior member of the team, battling for position off-camera with the volatile Helen, who is all cool stateliness on-screen but a mess off it.

The Newsreader is the new Australian drama that hones in on a busy newsroom but its exploration of women in the workplace is something that we can all see a ...

Cunnigham thinks he’s coming to the rescue with a vial of valium for Helen before taking her home. But here, we manage to focus on one woman’s journey as it unfolds once she is already aware of her success. The world of televised news is a theme that has been explored on screen before – take The Morning Show, for example. What ensues is a budding friendship where the two manage to help each other with their common goal: rising to the top of such an archaic industry. She’s opinionated and not afraid to air her views, she’s passionate about shining a light on underrepresented stories and she’s not fearful of newsroom boss Lindsay Cunningham (William McInnes). Like any person in a professional environment who is constantly berated and sidelined, you eventually reach your limit.