''Waterfront'' is a 1984 Australian miniseries about industrial disputes on the Australian waterfront during the Great Depression.Ed. Scott Murray, ''Australia on the Small Screen 1970-1995'', Oxford University Press, 1996 p248

Premise

In 1928, industrial unrest erupts on the Melbourne waterfront.

Cast

* Jack Thompson as Maxey Woodbury *

Greta Scacchi Greta Scacchi ( , ; born 18 February 1960) is an actress. Born in Italy to a British-Italian couple, she was raised in Britain and finally settled in Australia, becoming a naturalized citizen. Scacchi had her first leading role in the romanti ...

as Anna Chieri *

Warren Mitchell Warren Mitchell (born Warren Misell; 14 January 1926 – 14 November 2015) was an English actor best known for playing bigoted cockney Alf Garnett in television, film and stage productions from the 1960s to the 1990s. He was a BAFTA TV A ...

as Laughing Les *

Noni Hazlehurst Leonie Elva "Noni" Hazlehurst is an Australian actress, director, writer, presenter, and broadcaster who has appeared on television and radio, in dramas, mini-series, and made for television films, as well also on stage and in feature films ...

as Maggie *

Ray Barrett Raymond Charles Barrett (2 May 19278 September 2009) was an Australian actor. During the 1960s, he was a leading actor on British television, where he was best known for his appearances in '' The Troubleshooters'' (1965–1971). From the 1970s, ...

as Sam Elliott *

Chris Haywood Chris Haywood (born ) is an English-born Australian actor, writer and producer, with close to 500 screen performances to his name. Haywood has also worked as a casting director, art director, sound recordist, camera operator, gaffer, grip, lo ...

as Ernie Donaldson *Jay Mannering as Savo *Elin Jenkins as Vera Donaldson *

Frank Gallacher Frank Gallacher (7 April 1943 – 23 February 2009) was a Scottish-Australian actor. Early life Gallacher was born in Glasgow in 1943. In 1962, aged 19, he was working in London when his parents and younger sister decided to emigrate to Austra ...

as Paddy Ryan *Jan Friedl as Sheila Ryan * Mark Little as Allan Williams *

Wyn Roberts Ieuan Wyn Pritchard Roberts, Baron Roberts of Conwy, PC (10 July 1930 – 13 December 2013) was a Welsh Conservative politician. His father was a Minister in a chapel in Llansadwrn, Anglesey, and they lived in the schoolhouse. He was Membe ...

as Inspector Legge *

Tony Rickards Tony Rickards is an Australian comedian and actor. Rickards played lead roles in ''The Great Gold Swindle'', ''Robbery Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or use of fear. Acc ...

as Snowy Williams *Eileen Chapman as Flo Williams *

Edward Hepple Edward Hepple (4 June 1914 – 3 September 2005) billed variously as Eddie Hepple and Ted Hepple, was an Australian actor, voice artist, producer, director, playwright and television scriptwriter, known for his roles in theatre, television seri ...

as Harry Geahry *Sylvie Fonti as Teresa Callini *Peter Sardi as Paolo Callini * Joseph Spano as Giorgio *

Simon Chilvers Simon Chilvers (born 5 April 1939) is an English-born, Australia-based television actor. Early life Chilvers was born in London in 1939, and discovered art as a young child, drawing images of planes flying overhead during World War II. He att ...

as Cross *

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron, Baron Cameron of Chipping Norton (born 9 October 1966) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016. Until 2015, he led the first coalition government in the UK s ...

as Albert Maple-Brown *

Bruce Myles Bruce Myles (born 29 November 1940) is an Australian actor and film director. He has appeared in 40 films and television shows since 1963. In 1987, along with Michael Pattinson, he co-directed the film ''Ground Zero''. It was entered into the 3 ...

as Premier Hogan *John Lee as Governor *

Anthony Hawkins Anthony Hawkins (30 September 1932 – 23 September 2013), was an English-born, Australian-based television actor. He was best known for his roles as Detective Senior Sergeant Greg Smith in the police procedural ''Special Squad (1984)'' and Fr ...

as Sir William McPherson *Kirk Alexander as Commissioner Blamey *Robert Meldrum as Parsons *Wilfred Last as Purcell

Production

The production was originally envisioned as a feature film. It was based on a script by Mac Gudgeon, who worked on the docks in the 1960s when he was avoiding the draft for the Vietnam War. He heard stories about the 1928 strike and became fascinated by it. Gudgeon wrote the script in sex weeks and showed it to Bob Weis, who was producing ''Women of the Sun'', a mini series on which Gudeon was unit manager. Weis liked it but wanted to do it as a mini series. Gudgeon spent the next 18 months rewriting. Weis hired Chris Thompson to direct on the basis of ''1915''. t was the first Australian television Jack Thompson had appeared in except for ''Spyforce'' as "I fell in love with the ''Waterfront'' script." Greta Scacchi agreed to play the female lead after her breakthrough role in ''Heat and Dust''. Filming started in February 1983 and took place in Melbourne over 14 weeks with a budget of $2.5 million. The mini-series sold to Channel Ten.

Reception

The ''Sydney Sun Herald'' called it "stunning. It will make you cry, it will make you laugh, and it will make you weep with anger. It is superbly made." ''The Age'' called it "gritty, gutsy drama... a rattling good yarn... not to be missed." The mini-series was popular, with a market share of 30 in Sydney and Melbourne.

References

External links

''Waterfront'' Episode 1
at

Australian Screen Online The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting, and providing access to a national c ...

''Waterfront'' Episode 2
at

* 1980s Australian television miniseries 1984 Australian television series debuts 1984 Australian television series endings {{Australia-tv-prog-stub