''Changi'' is a six-part Australian

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication Media (communication), medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of Transmission (telecommunications), television tra ...

miniseries broadcast by ABC TV in

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanistan ...

. It originally aired from 14 October 2001 to 18 November 2001.

Overview

The series follows the trials and tribulations of six fictional Australian soldiers interned at the

Changi prisoner of war camp Changi Prison Complex, often known simply as Changi Prison, is a prison in Changi in the eastern part of Singapore. History First prison Before Changi Prison was constructed, the only penal facility in Singapore was at Pearl's Hill, beside ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. ''Changi'' is presented as a

frame story A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent. Frame and FRAME may also refer to: Physical objects In building construction * Framing ( ...

, with six older war veterans reuniting in 1999 to share their experiences and memories of their time as young men at the camp. The series is also notable for featuring scenes of toilet humour and black comedy in an otherwise serious production, a deliberate inclusion on the part of writer John Doyle, better known for his comedic alter-ego Rampaging Roy Slaven. Doyle originally envisaged the series as a sitcom with the working title of ''Worn Out & Weary'' and he first pitched the idea to the ABC as such. It was only later in the writing phase that he decided to switch to drama, albeit with elements of humour remaining as a prominent feature. A total of 53 sets had to be built for the miniseries, standing in for the camp, parts of Singapore and the Malayan jungle. The series was shot in four locations and in studio sets around Sydney. The ABC invested AUD 6 million (USD ) on the production, a figure representing one-sixth of the ABC's annual drama budget. Two cast members portraying the older versions of the main characters previously served in World War II. Bud Tingwell served as a fighter pilot while

Slim DeGrey Clifford Frank de Grey (20 May 1918 – 16 March 2007), better known as Slim De Grey, was an English-Australian actor, compere, musician, lyricist, composer and comedian. He served in the Australian Army during World War II, seeing action in ...

was actually imprisoned as a POW at the Changi camp after the

fall of Singapore The Fall of Singapore, also known as the Battle of Singapore,; ta, சிங்கப்பூரின் வீழ்ச்சி; ja, シンガポールの戦い took place in the South–East Asian theatre of the Pacific War. The Empire of ...

to the Japanese. The series was directed by Kate Woods who, at the time, was best known for directing the successful Australian film ''Looking for Alibrandi'' (2000) and who, in more recent years, has become a successful television director in the United States.

Cast

* Old David-

Charles 'Bud' Tingwell Charles William Tingwell AM (3 January 1923 – 15 May 2009), known professionally as Bud Tingwell or Charles 'Bud' Tingwell, was an Australian film, television, theatre and radio actor. One of the veterans of Australian film, he acted in his ...

* Young David- Matthew Newton * Old Gordon- Frank Wilson * Young Gordon- Anthony Hayes * Old Bill- Terry Norris * Young Bill- Leon Ford * Old Curley-

* Young Curley- Mark Priestley * Old Eddie- Bill Kerr * Young Eddie- Stephen Curry * Old Tom-

Desmond Kelly Desmond Kelly is a Ceylonese musician who has entertained in Sri Lanka and in Australia. He was born in Colombo in 1936. Songs on Radio Ceylon Kelly was one of a group of musicians who were discovered by Radio Ceylon, now the Sri Lanka Broadcas ...

* Young Tom-

Matthew Whittet Matthew may refer to: * Matthew (given name) * Matthew (surname) * ''Matthew'' (ship), the replica of the ship sailed by John Cabot in 1497 * ''Matthew'' (album), a 2000 album by rapper Kool Keith * Matthew (elm cultivar), a cultivar of the C ...

* Major Dr Rowdy Lawson- Geoff Morrell * Lieutenant Aso- Tsushima Gotaro * Colonel Nakamura- Misawa Shingo * Old Kate- Jill Perryman * Young Kate- Mary Docker * Ken- John Howard * Nerida- Sacha Horler * Betty & Joanne- Katherine Slattery * General Tanaka- Ken Senga * Captain Shindo- Ishihara Tatsumi * Dr Hurrell- Peter Carroll * Old Vi- Marie Armstrong * Young Vi- Rebecca Murphy * Todd- Simon Maiden * Lisa-

Nadine Garner Nadine Lynette Garner (born 14 December 1970 in Knoxfield, Melbourne) is an Australian actress who started her career as a teen performer. Biography Garner first came to public attention in 1985, as Tamara Henderson in the Australian TV series ...

* Old Joyce- Judi Farr * Young Joyce- Eliza Logan * Bertie Jenkins- Joel McIlroy

Episodes

1999. Six ageing former POWs who spent three and a half years in Changi are each preparing for the reunion of 'The Secret 9', the name of the close-knit group of six POWs whose mutual support and friendship sustained them throughout their experiences in the camp. Since the end of the war, the group have held reunions every nine years and this upcoming one will most likely be their last. As the date of the reunion draws near, each of the veterans find his memories ignited by a sight or sound associated with their traumatic experiences.

Reception

The series ''Changi'' was a ratings success. The final episode, which aired on ABC-TV on Sunday evening on 18 November 2001, was the second-most watched show that night in Australia. Reviews for the series were mixed. Robin Oliver, writing in ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'', declared the series to be "immensely satisfying" and

Robert Fidgeon Robert Fidgeon (15 October 1941 – 2 September 2007) was a television writer and critic for the Melbourne based newspaper, the ''Herald Sun''. He wrote a regular column in the section, ''The Guide''. Career Fidgeon had harboured ambitions t ...

, in Melbourne's '' Herald Sun'', wrote that it was "one of the finest pieces of drama ever produced (in Australia)" Michael Fitzgerald, writing in ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, t ...

'', said that the series, despite some flaws, was "the finest, most thoughtful local drama since Australia's miniseries heyday in the 1980s... The series isn't about the history of Changi, it's about the idea of Changi and how it refracts through the years to become something repressed, mythologised and feared.... Most movingly, it's about the transfer of memory to the next generation." Christopher Bantick, writing in Brisbane's '' Courier Mail'', was scathing in his review about the series. He said that the series "is a long way from representing fairly or in a balanced way what went on in the notorious camp and is close to being a profligate waste of public money". Bantick referred to ''Changi'' as "sick" and a "bomb" that "deserves to fail."

Stephen Garton Stephen Garton AM, FAHA, FRAHS, FASSA FRSN (born 1955) is an Australian historian and Professor of History at the University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a publi ...

, writing in 2002 in the ''Journal of Australian Studies'', believed the series to be a missed opportunity. In his view, Changi portrayed "an enfeebled narrative of the POW experience – narrow, parochial, inward-looking, blind to the complexities of former prisoner's voices but attuned to a nostalgic vision... of the Anzac Legend."

Controversy and criticism

The series ''Changi'' attracted considerable controversy when it first aired in 2001 and drew both praise and criticism from military historians, media commentators and real-life former POWs. Peter Stanley, principal historian at the

Australian War Memorial The Australian War Memorial is Australia's national memorial to the members of its armed forces and supporting organisations who have died or participated in wars involving the Commonwealth of Australia and some conflicts involving p ...

1987–2007, was highly critical of the series: "It gives viewers a misleading and unrealistic idea of the POW experience and of their captors. The danger is that people either believe what they see on television or don't know what's wrong and right." According to Stanley, the series contained a number of historical inaccuracies. * The massacre of POWs that occurs in the final episode never happened in the real Changi. * POWs are depicted as saluting Japanese officers whereas in reality, they were required to bow. Also, the real-life Changi in-mates had to endure frequent roll-calls ('Tenko') which do not occur in the TV version. * In the series, POWs and Japanese guards mingle frequently but in reality, the prisoners and the Japanese kept apart and rarely saw each other, the POWs having to run the camp themselves. * In the series, the POWs mock their captors in a camp concert but according to Stanley, that could never have happened as 'Japanese guards were very conscious of preserving their dignity. In real POW camps, prisoners dared not make fun of Japanese guards. It just simply wouldn't have happened.' * The camp is portrayed in the series as quite small, housing only a few hundred prisoners but the real Changi was much larger, being a permanent or temporary home to many thousands of Allied POWs. A number of real-life former in-mates of Changi were interviewed for their opinions on the series and the responses varied greatly. Some ex-POWs declared the series to be a moving, accurate portrayal whilst others dismissed it as unrealistic, overly sanitised, inaccurate and guilty of failing to depict the hardships of the real camp. 'Half of its rubbish!', declared one former POW. Historian Michael Cathcart praised the series, calling it 'a moving series that captured the suffering and comradeship that were at the heart of the prisoner of war experience...and a celebration of the powerful egalitarian spirit that is the Australian story' John Doyle defended his work. 'It's a series that runs the risk of offending everyone and satisfying no one'. Doyle argued that the series 'was not history but art – an effort to be honest to the spirit not the facts of Changi. When you try to deal with such a tricky subject, you have to abandon naturalism.' Doyle claimed that he wanted the series to show how 'Australian humour and mateship allowed Australians to survive in greater numbers than other groups of prisoners.'

Awards

The production won the

Logie Award The Logie Awards (officially the TV Week Logie Awards; colloquially known as The Logies) is an annual gathering to celebrate Australian television, sponsored and organised by the magazine '' TV Week''. The first ceremony was held in 1959 as th ...

for the Most Outstanding Mini Series/Telemovie in 2002. Actors Geoff Morrell, Matthew Newton and Bud Tingwell were also nominated for Most Outstanding Actor Logies, and the mini series also received 3 AFI Award nominations.

References

External links

ABC Changi website
* {{IMDb title, 0274245, Changi Changi Australian Broadcasting Corporation original programming 2000s Australian television miniseries Australian military television series World War II television drama series 2001 Australian television series debuts 2001 Australian television series endings