Sexism, big hair, contact books: The ABC’s Newsreader reviewed
In this cross-posting from The Conversation, Helen Vatsikopoulos, lecturer in journalism at The University of Technology, Sydney and an ABC alumni reviews ABC’s new drama The Newsreader, which she says gets a lot right about 80s TV journalism.
1986 was a very big news year: history-making moments captured by television. The Space Shuttle Challenger exploded live on air. Who can forget the camera lingering on the horrified faces of Christa McAuliffe’s parents, the teacher-in-space being incinerated before our eyes.
Chernobyl’s number four reactor gave us the world’s worst nuclear disaster. In Melbourne, a car bomb at the Russell Street Police Headquarters extinguished the life of Angela Taylor, the first policewoman to be killed in the line of duty.
ABC Publicity
This is the era explored in the ABC’s new TV drama The Newsreader. Creator Michael Lucas and director Emma Freeman have made a program so accurate it gave me a jolting sense of déjà vu.
