''Flair'' is a 1990 Australian miniseries about an ambitious designer who wants to break into the fashion industry.Ed. Scott Murray, ''Australia on the Small Screen 1970-1995'', Oxford Uni Press, 1996 p195 The plot concerns a driven career woman returning to Australia from New York to make her mark in the world of fashion design. Tessa (Heather Thomas) returns home to Melbourne to establish her own label while battling her devious younger sister, the mob, and a slew of other enemies including an alcoholic competitor, a stalker, drug dealers, jealous wives, corrupt police, and militant unions. Tessa also juggles love affairs with a married Australian businessman who may be a gangster, an American photographer, and a hot-tempered Irish thug, in between surviving various attempts on her life and investigating the “accidental” death of her father. The program was described as cross between ''

Dynasty A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a monarchy, monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A dynasty may also be referred to as a "house", "family" or "clan", among others. H ...

'' and ''

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous ''Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous'' is an American television series that aired in syndication from 1984 to 1995. The show featured the extravagant lifestyles of wealthy entertainers, athletes, socialites and magnates. Cast and crew Th ...

'', with Australian media academic Albert Moran calling it: “an entertaining melodrama with its characters moving in a fantasy world of glamour, greed, wealth and sex.”

Cast

Starring

Heather Thomas Heather Thomas (born September 8, 1957) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Jody Banks on '' The Fall Guy'' TV series opposite Lee Majors. She retired from acting in 1998 to avoid stalkers, to focus on her family, and to pu ...

as Tessa Clarke *

Andrew Clarke Andrew Clarke may refer to: * Andrew Clarke (British Army officer, born 1793) (1793–1847), Governor of Western Australia *Sir Andrew Clarke (British Army officer, born 1824) (1824–1902), Governor of the Straits Settlements, son of the above *An ...

as Phillip Harmon

Also starring

* James Healey as Chris Drake * Imogen Annesley as Sally Clarke *

Rowena Wallace Rowena Wallace (born 23 August 1947) is an English-born Australian stage and screen actress, most especially in the genre of television soap opera. She is best known for her Gold Logie-winning role as conniving Patricia "Pat the Rat" Hamilton/ ...

as Pamela Winter-Smith *

Charles Tingwell Charles William Tingwell AM (3 January 1923 – 15 May 2009), known professionally as Bud Tingwell or Charles 'Bud' Tingwell, was an Australian actor. One of the veterans of Australian film, he acted in his first motion picture in 1946 and we ...

as Bert Clarke * Elaine Smith as Megan *

David Reyne David Nicholas Reyne (born 14 May 1959) is an Australian actor, musician, television and radio presenter. Reyne was born in Lagos, Nigeria to an Australian mother and English diplomat father. The family moved to Victoria, Australia in the earl ...

as Mark Tupper * and

Joseph Bottoms Joseph Bottoms is an American actor who won the 1975 Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year for his role in '' The Dove''. He is also well known for his roles in the television mini-series ''Holocaust'' and Disney's '' The Black Hole''. Ca ...

as Matt Lee

Guest stars

Briony Behets Briony Behets (born 1951) is an English-born Australian actress who found fame acting in television soap operas of the 1970s and 1980s. She is known for her early roles in '' Birds in the Bush'', '' Number 96'', '' The Box'', '' Bellbird'', and ...

as Samantha Harmon * Terence Donovan as Sgt. Doogan *

Khym Lam Khym Lam (born 1963 or '64) is a Singaporean Australians, Singaporean-born Australian actress. Biography Lam was born in Singapore to a Malayan father and a Eurasian mother—her grandparents were Charles Davis, a Welsh engineer who married Ma ...

as Mira

Episodes

Production

''Flair'' was filmed on location in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

and the Gold Coast with a budget of $4.5 million. Like the earlier Australian melodramatic miniseries '' Return to Eden'', ''Flair'' was an Australian response to glamorous American television melodramas of the era such as ''

Scruples A conscience is a cognitive process that elicits emotion and rational associations based on an individual's moral philosophy or value system. Conscience is not an elicited emotion or thought produced by associations based on immediate sensory pe ...

'', ''

Bare Essence ''Bare Essence'' is an American prime time soap opera television series which aired on NBC from February 15 to June 13, 1983, during the 1982–83 season. It starred Genie Francis as Tyger Hayes, and explored the intrigues of the perfume industr ...

'', ''

Sins In religious context, sin is a transgression against divine law or a law of the deities. Each culture has its own interpretation of what it means to commit a sin. While sins are generally considered actions, any thought, word, or act considere ...

'', and ''Dynasty''. ''Flair'' is notably more humorous and provocative than those American programs, as it included “nudity, many sex scenes, and sub-plots involving prostitution, lesbianism, drug abuse, and open marriages.” Thomas had two stunt doubles and a body double for nude scenes, telling the Sydney ''Sun Herald'' newspaper that: “I don’t believe in nudity, so I always have to have a body double. In ''Flair'', none of that’s me. I’m a little taller and slimmer than that girl.” The casting of Americans Thomas and Bottoms, and Irish-Australian actor Healey (who had just completed a season-long role as Alexis's husband

Sean Rowan ''Dynasty'' is an American prime time television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 12, 1981, to May 11, 1989. The series, created by Richard and Esther Shapiro and produced by Aaron Spelling, revolves around the Carringtons, a wealthy fa ...

in ''Dynasty'') was indicative of a trend in Australian miniseries from the late 1980s and early 1990s to cast well-known foreign actors in leading roles to increase the potential appeal to international audiences.

Broadcast and reception

Critical reviews of ''Flair'' were generally negative, but some critics appreciated it as a “pure escapist miniseries.” The program obtained good audience ratings when it aired on the Seven Network in August 1990. The program was broadcast in Brazil with the title ''Flair: Estilo Perigoso'' (''Dangerous Style''). It was broadcast in Finland with the title ''Kateus Ja Kosto'' (''Jealousy and Revenge'').

Home media

''Flair'' has yet to be released for home media in any form.

References

External links

''Flair''
at

IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

{{Henri Safran 1990s Australian television miniseries 1990 Australian television series debuts 1990 Australian television series endings 1990 television films Works by Alan Hopgood 1990 films Films directed by Henri Safran Australian English-language television shows