Tv Previews

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday May 1, 2006

JACQUI TAFFEL

Inside Australia: The Prodigal Son

SBS, 7.30pm

Director Tony Radevski began shooting this film in response to a longstanding family feud. His Uncle Alexo and Aunt Lubica had a gay son, Ted, whom Alexo had not spoken to for 15 years.

Radevski wanted to document the effects of this rift, but when Alexo's health began to fail and he re-established contact with Ted, the project turned to focus on the slow and often painful process of reconciliation.

Ted's ultimate goal is for Alexo to meet and accept Anthony, his partner of 10 years, but the father's acceptance of his son's lifestyle only goes so far.

Radevski captures the contradictions and mixed feelings of each player in this family drama without taking sides.

Lubica, the go-between for years, still thinks Ted could be straight if he wanted to be. And Ted, convinced that they will come round, walks around shirtless with his undies showing above his jeans - hardly outrageous in Sydney but perhaps a tad insensitive in his parents' rural home.

Radevski, who has made a number of award-winning documentaries, has acknowledged that his relationship with his subjects was crucial to this film, bringing an unusual level of trust and honesty to their responses, and a willingness to face hard personal issues on camera. It's a powerful piece, at once hopeful and sad.

House

Ten, 8.30pm

Having lost his rank in the hospital pecking order to Dr Foreman, House continues his losing streak at the betting shop, where he meets a young woman with a good nose for the track but some not-so-good medical complications.

Played by guest star Cynthia Nixon (Miranda in Sex and the City), she is admitted to Princeton-Plainsboro Hospital and becomes a pawn in the power struggle between House and Foreman.

You wouldn't want him to treat you in real life, but Hugh Laurie plays one of the most entertaining white-coats in a long line of TV doctors, a professional misanthrope so grumpy even his stubble looks crotchety. Given his previous small-screen personas, from Blackadder's poncy princes to professional dimwit Bertie Wooster, this casting U-turn is still impressive, even after two seasons.

Word Shed

TVS, 8pm

Community television doesn't deliver the slick production standards we've grown accustomed to on the box. This show, dedicated to writers and writing, contains microphone rattle, overly earnest interviewers and some arty effects.

However, it also contains a refreshing variety of subjects and genres you'd be hard-pressed to find anywhere else on TV, from author David Malouf to the Mixmasters, a hip-hop group from Sydney's western suburbs.

John Tranter talks about creating female characters, poet Joanne Burns imbues kitchen appliances with religious symbolism and The Australian Women's Weekly's books editor, Carol George, talks about literary snobbery. The final interview, with indigenous poet Sam Wagan Watson, is perhaps the most revealing, about the pressures of the festival circuit while trying to avoid over-exposure. Refreshingly different.

© 2006 Sydney Morning Herald

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