ABC. Cats and lyrebirds don't mix. From the hills just outside Melbourne, domestic and feral cats are decimating the local wildlife, erupting in a political storm and a cat curfew.
But with the continuing number of cat victims and the determined cat lobby, there can only be more cat wars. 8 o'clock Thursday, ABC.
Tomorrow a bitter fight over water brings legal heavyweights to the outback.
If the real thing is overturned, it's going to make a mockery of our courses.
...over an incident yesterday in which nuns were allegedly insulted by Muslim youths.
Federal opposition leader Alexander Downer has again come to Bromwell Bishop's defence, accusing the media of vilification.
Mrs Bishop has denied she demanded a plain land despite the bad weather so she wouldn't miss an appointment.
ANSET has confirmed a report on the incident was filed.
Back with more news for you in an hour.
Rupert Murdoch has started a cut-price newspaper war in Britain to knock out his main rival, Conrad Black.
Murdoch's Times is now selling for below cost and The Telegraph 2 has slashed its price.
Observers say it's a battle to the death. Who will win? Late line, 10.30.
They were angels who fell to earth and became heroes on the streets of Berlin.
Peter Falk guest stars in the Cannes Film Festival winner Wings of Desire, Saturday at 10 on ABC.
I didn't know she was a nun.
There are those who approve.
You're one, isn't she, Hal?
Those that don't.
How do you know her?
That's just so you were acquainted before she took the rail.
And those that really object.
I expect that right now someone's loading a gun with bullets marked his and hers.
8.30 tonight on ABC, the damnation of Harvey McHugh.
Harvey returns next Thursday at 8.30 when a talented prosecutor and a tenacious policeman team up to solve a brutal murder
Their relationship becomes more than just professional and the case even more baffling.
Cherry Lungi and Derek O'Connor star in the intriguing mystery A Question of Guilt, tomorrow night at 8.30.
Coming up on ABC, Back Chat, then The Big Picture.
What are you worried about, Hal? It's not the end of the world.
Or is it?
My boss has discovered a terrible secret. It's worse than the atomic bomb.
That's nice.
But every cloud
We don't have secrets.
You won't like this one, father.
Has a silver lining.
You could have sworn I saw father here. He drove by me in a sports car.
8.30 next Thursday on the damnation of Harvey McHugh.
Harvey.
Zoe's old enough to get her license.
Dad's turning 44 on Monday.
It makes Ian feel old and anxious.
Can you hear yourself?
What?
Well, loosen up.
Oh dear, oh dear.
He takes it out on the family.
If I have a bloody heart attack it'll be because of you hounding me.
Sounds to me like you're the one who should be rotting away in a retirement village.
Might be male menopause.
Top Australian Drama, GP, 8.30 Tuesday.
Enter the wonderful world of the cinema paradiso.
Where father Adolfio is the ultimate censor.
Where Alfredo the projectionist creates the magic.
What are we doing with this other gift?
Yes, yes.
And one small boy learns about friendship, love and the cinema.
Peter Castaldi presents the Academy Award winning classic.
Cinema Paradiso, Saturday at 10 ABC.
Good evening.
It's a mixed mailbag tonight with questions about some of the language used on ABC programs.
But first a riddle from Frank Galanowski of Adelaide.
When is too much Torval and Dean too much?
Answer, when the ABC airs two separate programs, each of one hour's duration,
the second a repeat, consecutively on prime time.
Where's the wait?
Stop.
Yes you can, that's what it's all about.
We were going to stop, you just didn't think.
I'm waiting as she's moving.
Surely interest in this greatly overexposed duo,
now well past their most successful period, is minimal.
Let's leave it say for 20 years before we face the music again.
I for one will not become impatient.
From Torval and Dean to a letter from John Dean,
presumably no relation of Alice Springs who loves hot chips.
Most impressed with the program and its great graphical introduction,
especially the article on personal information.
As a plastic card shopper I for one am very concerned
about who gets hold of this information.
But hot chips is definitely off the menu,
as far as L.A. Farquhar of Aurelia, Western Australia is concerned.
I've just watched Hot Chips per ABC Science Unit.
Crap, bring back quantum, high tech my arse.
My goodness.
Now to what Sam Luxton of Eastwood, South Australia,
tells the tide of television's travesty of the English language.
When aunties announce it acclaims coming up next,
one's mind responds with images of three things which come up,
plants, Percy and Puke.
I myself am home too late for Gardening Australia,
so it can't be the first.
Andrew Denton has left the ABC, so it can't be the second.
Not all ABC programs qualify for the third.
Ernie Dinger stars in the powerful drama,
Todd-A-Wally, Friday night at 8.30.
Coming Up, Back Chat, then Foreign Correspondent.
Can you please enlighten me as to what Auntie means
when she uses the abominable expression coming up?
Well Sam, it really seems it's part of broadcasting jargon.
The ABC's language research specialist, Dr Christine Leow
from the Standing Committee on Spoken English, or SCoS,
says that coming up is not illegitimate.
The problem is it's overused.
And so are the following words which prompted this fax
from John O'Keith of Northampton, Western Australia.
Why is it that the words piss, pissed off, shit and bastards
recur so often in ABC programs?
One would think that with the level of education
reached by scriptwriters they would be able to express themselves
in a more savoury fashion.
The official word from SCoS is, if it reflects the way people
talk in certain situations, it's acceptable.
Of course the ABC tries to avoid it in formal parts of broadcasting.
Maurice Connoffilia of Turner ACT wrote to say,
he supports the campaigns for Correct English
that Stuart Littlemore runs on Media Watch, but...
They are often sabotaged by his own errors in usage.
Last week he pilloried an Australian sports journalist
who had referred to elbow jolts handed out by Italian basketballers
as mafia tactics.
Channel 9 possibly needs more travel to broaden its journalistic mind
than it might avoid racism such as this from Andrew McKinlay.
Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!
The Italians turn to mafia tactics but fail to halt teams
notching a game high 29.
Yet Littlemore muddied the argument by denouncing this phrase
not as national bias but as a piece of racism.
What Littlemore should have claimed to detect was ethnic or cultural prejudice.
This is not nearly so exciting an accusation as racism,
but someone who nitpicks other journalists for sensationalism
ought not to do the same.
Well, I'm sorry, Maurice, that we can't run all of your letter.
We don't have that much time.
In fact, we only have time for one more from Dennis Meehan
in the Wunnelli Northern Territory about Frontline on Monday, June 27.
All they found of the woman who was taken by the crocodile was her arm.
Yet I noticed that the funeral featured a full-sized coffin
carried by six pallbearers.
This means her arm must have been enormous.
The victim herself would have been about the size of King Kong.
No wonder her old man looked so downtrodden.
It's a very tragic thing for me and my children
and I believe we have the right to grieve in private.
Not much footage there, so we had to slow-mo it, but...
It works.
The crocodile that took her would have to be in the Godzilla class.
I'll be staying out of Kakadu until this is cleared up.
It must be true because I saw it on Frontline.
A moving story by Martin d'Eustacio.
And of course we all know Mike Moore tells it as it is.
Good night.
Hi, and I'm Karen Chai, reporting this week from the industry fields of New Zealand.
So tune in for 5 and Sweaty 10.30 Friday.
Pay no attention to the nasty guy.
It's counterintelligence.
What was it finally running over, eh?
Was it the pumpernickel or was it the thought of hanging around with big men in leather shorts?
And no one is safe.
What begins with come here and ends with ow?
I don't know.
Come here.
The Blackadder, 8 o'clock Friday.
On the 7.30 report tomorrow night...
Yeah, I mean, it wasn't like come here and not do it.
It's a bit stupid.
Closing off our tourist destinations.
Will cultural sensitivity stop sightseeing?
We're not trampling the area.
That's next, 7.30.