Peta Toppano Movies
- 1990
The three-part British-Australian TV production The Paper Man could be described as the miniseries equivalent of Citizen Kane. John Bach headed the huge cast as Philip Cromwell, a canny Australian entrepreneur who through "ways of his own" became his country's most powerful media mogul. Any resemblance between Cromwell and the real-life Rupert Murdoch was, of course, purely coincidental. Telecast in 1990, The Paper Man was seen in the United Kingdom via Granada Television, and in Australia over that continent's ABC network. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- John Bach, Oliver Tobias, (more)
- 1990
When a policeman from Scotland moves to Australia and joins together with an Aussie partner, they find themselves up to their necks in a land development scheme in which crooks are trying to gain title to some of the prime real estate in Sydney. ~ Tana Hobart, Rovi
- Starring:
- John Hannah, Steven Vidler, (more)
- 1990
The made-for-cable film Which Way Home is the story of a Red Cross nurse trying to escape from war-torn Cambodia in the late '70s with a group of orphans. An Australian smuggler assists her in her valiant attempt to save the children and leave Asia. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi
- 1989
The two-part Australian miniseries Fields of Fire III was the third and final annual installment in the Australian TV saga inspired by Robert Marchand's novel Cane. Returning to the fold were Todd Boyce as British expatriate Bluey and Melissa Docker as Aussie lass Dusty, whose romance and marriage had dominated the proceedings in Fields of Fire (set in the late '30s-early '40s) and Fields of Fire II (set in the immediate post-WWII era). Now it was 1951, and the emphasis was on Italian refugee Gina (Peta Toppano), newly widowed after the death of her black-marketeer husband. Returning to her roots, Gina set up a cane field with her brother Paolo, experiencing the usual trials and tribulation of small-business entrepreneurs in the uncertain years following the War. Fields of Fire III was broadcast by Australia's Nine Network on July 16 and 17, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1989
Debuting in May 1989, the Australian TV soap opera E Street was designed as a "hip," youth-oriented variation of the long-running continuing drama A Country Practice, featuring one of the stars of the earlier series, Penny Cook. Set in the inner-city community of Westside, the daily 50-minute series cast Cook as dedicated general practitioner Dr. Ellie Fielding. Other regulars included beat cop George Sullivan (Les Dayman); George's rebellious teenaged daughter Alice (Marianne Howard); feisty legal-aid lawyer Sarah McKillop (Katrina Sedgwick), who was abruptly killed off six months into the series; Sarah's rather sexier replacement, Jennifer St. James (Virginia Hey); social worker Martha O'Dare (Cecily Polson); pub keeper Ernie Patchett (Vic Rooney) and his hotheaded son Chris (Paul Kelman), who was forced via an unwanted pregnancy to wed snooty socialite Megan Bromley (Lisabeth Kennaly); and the series' most popular character, "cool" Reverend Bob Brown (Tony Martin), who like most of the adults on the program was saddled with a contentious offspring, namely his son Harley (Malcolm Kennard). Whenever the ratings flagged -- as they did when Ellie Fielding was written off the series -- the producers hauled in another Country Practice alumnus, notably Kate Raison as rich-bitch dowager Sheridan Sturges and Joan Sydney as Ernie Patchett's sister Mary. The series also indulged in the time-honored practice of sweeping the boards clean by having several characters killed off at once in a single tragedy (an explosion, an auto accident, etc.) so that a whole new flock of younger, prettier regulars could be introduced. By the time the series entered the home stretch, most of the stories focused on a crippled rock singer named Wheels (Marcus Graham) and his entourage. Created by Forrest Redlich, E Street chalked up 404 episodes before its cancellation in 1993. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1988
This sequel to the 1987 Australian miniseries Fields of Fire was set in 1946. Having weathered WWII, British expatriate Bluey (Todd Boyce) had wed Dusty (Melissa Docker), one of his co-workers in the Australian cane fields. Once this occurred, the focus of the action shifted to a pair of new characters: Gina (Peta Toppano), an Italian refugee, and Franco (Joseph Spano), Gina's black-marketeer husband. Telecast by Australia's Nine Network in two installments on May 22 and 23, 1988, Fields of Fire II was, like its predecessor, inspired by Robert Donaldson's novel Cane. A third and final derivation, Fields of Fire III, aired in 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1986
- R
Maria McEvoy (Wendy Hughes) deals with the death of her beloved father and discovers her attorney husband George (Steven Jacobs) is a philandering louse in this romantic drama. At the suggestion of a friend, Maria takes a vacation in Thailand, where she falls for Raka (John Lone), an exiled dancer from Bali. She also wonders about the sexual ambiguity of fellow Australian Terry (Rod Mullinar), the expatriate who runs the vacation resort. The film gives Hughes ample opportunity to show the full range of human emotions in her role of the grieving daughter and wronged wife. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Wendy Hughes, John Lone, (more)
- 1984
In this complex teen movie, Vinnie (Vince Colosimo) is a young man whose life is an uphill battle: he is an outcast at school because he cannot get along with either teachers or students, he is a local courier for Mafia-boss Ciccio at night and, when not so occupied, spends his time practicing boxing at the gym. He shares his mother's cramped home in government housing with two other siblings, and his mother's lover -- whom he does not like. He is haunted by images of his father (when just a boy he witnessed his father's murder), and his father's boxing career and Mafia involvement set a pattern for Vinnie's current lifestyle. When Vinnie's music teacher Bonnie (Sandy Gore) enters his life, she encourages him to get involved as a drummer with the school band, while his girlfriend Gloria (Sigrid Thornton) and others influence him to stay away from the Mafia. In fact, there are so many characters that circle around Vinnie's life doing their own thing that the focus tends to thin out -- yet the actors and director Michael Pattinson do the best they can with this slightly overcrowded script. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Vince Colosimo, Sigrid Thornton, (more)
