''Bastard Boys'' is an Australian television

miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format ...

broadcast on the ABC in 2007. It tells the story of the

1998 Australian waterfront dispute The Australian waterfront dispute of 1998 was an event in Australian industrial relations history, in which the Patrick Corporation undertook a restructuring of their operations for the purpose of dismissing their workforce. The restructuring by ...

. The script, published by Currency Press, won the 2007

Queensland Premier's Literary Award The Queensland Premier's Literary Awards were an Australian suite of literary awards inaugurated in 1999 and disestablished in 2012. It was one of the most generous suites of literary awards within Australia, with $225,000 in prize money across ...

for Best Television Script.

Plot

The series tells the story of the waterfront dispute from four points of view: ''Greg's War'' from the point of view of union leader Greg Combet, ''Josh's War'' from the point of view of lawyer Josh Bornstein, ''Sean's War'' from the point of view of dock worker Sean McSwain and ''Chris' War'' from the point of view of

Patrick Stevedores Patrick Corporation is an Australian seaport operator with operations in Brisbane, Fremantle, Melbourne and Sydney. Formerly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, it is owned by Brookfield Asset Management and Qube Holdings. History P ...

Managing Director

Chris Corrigan Chris Corrigan (born 1946) is an Australian businessman. He was the managing director of the Patrick Corporation until it was taken over in 2006. Born in country New South Wales, he was educated at Bowral High School, the Australian National Uni ...

Cast

Daniel Frederiksen Daniel Frederiksen is an Australian actor who has worked in television, film and live theatre. Early life and education Frederiksen grew up in Metcalfe, Victoria. He moved to Sydney to study at the National Institute of Dramatic Art. Career ...

as Greg Combet * Justin Smith as Josh Bornstein * Anthony Hayes as Sean McSwain * Geoff Morrell as

Rhys Muldoon Rhys Muldoon (born 17 October 1965) is an Australian actor, writer and director who has worked extensively in film, television, music, theatre and radio. Since 2012 he has starred as Mark Oliver in ''House Husbands''. Career Television Muldoon ...

Julian Burnside Julian William Kennedy Burnside (born 9 June 1949) is an Australian barrister, human rights and refugee advocate, and author. He practises principally in commercial litigation, trade practices and administrative law. He is known for his staunc ...

, QC * Francis Greenslade as

Bill Kelty William John Kelty, AC (born 5 February 1948) is an Australian trade unionist and a well-known figure in the Australian labour movement, who served as Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) from 1983 to 2000. Born in Brunsw ...

*Mike Bishop as Peter Reith *

Jack Thompson Jack Thompson may refer to: Sports *Jack Thompson (footballer, born 1892) (1892–1969), English footballer who played for Sheffield United and Bristol City *Jack Thompson (1920s footballer), English footballer who played for Aston Villa and Bright ...

as Tony Tully * Dan Wyllie as Brendan Tully *

Lucy Bell Lucy Bell (born 23 December 1968) is an English-born Australian actress who appears in Australian television and film. She is the daughter of Australian actor/director John Bell. Her partner is James O'Loghlin and they have three daughters. ...

as Petra Hilsen * Colin Friels as John Coombs *

Deborah Kennedy :''This is an article about the actress. For the American eco artist and author, see Deborah Kennedy (artist)''. Deborah Kennedy is an Australian character actress recognised for several television and film roles, especially for her appearance ...

as Gwen Coombs * Christopher Widdows as Garry Coombs * Caroline Craig as Tali Bernard * Justine Clarke as Janine McSwain *

Jeremy Kewley Jeremy Leo Kewley (born 16 August 1960) is an Australian actor, writer, producer and convicted child sex offender. He made his professional acting debut as an adolescent in the feature film '' The Devil's Playground'' (1976). Early life Kew ...

as Frank Parry * Kevin Harrington as Derek Corrigan * Helen Thomson as Valerie Corrigan *

Anna Lise Phillips Anna Lise Phillips (Australia, 1975) is an Australian actress. She is sometimes credited as Anna Lise, Anna Lise Philips, or Anna-Lise Phillips. Early life Phillips grew up in Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia where she was a fou ...

as Cherie Snape *Louis Corbett as Joe Corrigan *Richard Heath as Podge

Episodes

Degree of fictionalisation

Most of the characters portrayed are real individuals, many of whom were interviewed in the process of writing the drama. However, a number of characters were invented and events were considerably compressed for dramatic purposes. Notably, the waterside workers portrayed in the drama were composites, based on interviews with many waterside workers. Another example of invention was the placing of lawyer Josh Bornstein at a key protest, which would have been illegal because of a court injunction

Response

Liberal Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells said in 2006, while the series was still in production, that it "smacks of another example of wasteful spending by the ABC, being used to drive an anti-government, pro-left agenda, conveniently timed to appear during an election year". Journalist Michael Duffy described the series as "the most blatant union propaganda" and was critical that "80 per cent of the story is told from the union point of view". ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

s Debi Enker, however, described it as a "thoughtful, illuminating and superbly cast account of a seminal event in our recent history hichrepresents exactly the kind of drama that one would want the national broadcaster to nurture."

was heavily critical of the series, stating after its screening that " e program portrays a series of predictable stereotypes and silly caricatures and gives them real names then cleverly claims to be a drama and hence does not explore any inconvenient truths such as the impact of the waterfront rorts on ordinary Australians." Then-Prime Minister

John Howard John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party. His eleven-year tenure as prime minister is the ...

declared the series " e of the most lopsided pieces of political propaganda I've seen on the national broadcaster in years" and argued that it completely ignored the notorious inefficiency of the Australian waterfront and years of collaborative failures to change this. Criticism has also emerged from some members of the union movement. According to Phillip Adams,

was concerned that "no researcher, writer or producer - spoke to him about the dispute or his role in it. Yet they haven't hesitated to put words into their Kelty's mouth that the original Kelty never said".

's brother Derek Corrigan has disputed claims that the broadcasting of ''Bastard Boys'' was timed to support Greg Combet's run for politics".

Home media

The series has been issued by ABC and Roadshow Entertainment in their "Masters collection" as a two-DVD set (220 mins), packaged with another Labor-oriented tele-film Curtin (93 mins) as a third disc.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, id=0772135, title=Bastard Boys Period television series Articles containing video clips 2000s Australian television miniseries 2007 Australian television series debuts 2007 Australian television series endings