THE NEWSREADER

80s-set Media Mayhem

It might be set in an Australian TV newsroom, but the stories here are global. This 1980s-set drama follows the lives of the team at News At Six as they chase ratings and report on the big-hitting events of the day, from the Challenger space shuttle disaster through to a royal wedding (Prince

Andrew and Sarah Ferguson) and the Chernobyl catastrophe. Primarily, the show is about ambitious newsreader Helen Norville (Anna Torv) as she fights to be taken seriously in an era when casual sexism was still the norm. Her story is wrapped up in that of junior reporter Dale Jennings (Sam Reid, above right with Torv) who becomes her confidant, producer and more. The balance of the personal and professional is well handled, with hectic scenes capturing the rush to get ‘packages’ ready in time, while the personal has you rooting for Helen and Dale to be a hit both in work and out of it.