ABC2's blog

8:30pm – Friday, June 3 on ABC2

The team goes on a routine mission to retrieve an Abnormal and take it to safety. But the mission becomes anything but routine when the team is forced to stage a bank heist in order to protect the public from harm.

Sanctuary follows the adventures of the beautiful, enigmatic and always surprising Dr. Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping), her new recruit, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Will Zimmerman (Robin Dunne) and her fearless daughter Ashley (Emilie Ullerup). Together they track down, study and protect the strange and often terrifying creatures that secretly populate our world and live among us.

8:00pm – Friday, June 3 on ABC2

The inimitable British presenter and comic Buddy soldiers on astride his crusty old Russian motorbike with sidecar against the stunning backdrop of western Mongolia.

He stops to poke fun at ralliers who have a flat tyre, and another team who are navigating their way by way of a blow-up globe.

About 1400km from his final destination of Ulan Bator, Buddy decides to sell his motorbike to a nomad who thinks he gets a good deal. He then joins a gang who push on – literally – across the Gobi desert, amidst a plague of breakdowns. Repairs are ingeniously done with chewing gum, duct tape and some judicious soldering.

An unexpected obstacle crops up; a river, and there seems no way across.

Luckily a local nomad has a map and directions for a detour.

With a swag of repairs to undertake, the reasons for enforcing the 1-litre engine rule are apparent. It enables the ralliers to meet the local mechanics and helpful nomads!

9:30pm – Wednesday, June 1 on ABC2

British clinical psychologist Dr Tanya Byron looks at modern society’s notions of normalcy, covering four elements of life from addiction to body image, spirituality and sex.

Speaking to both addicts and mental health experts, she looks at the question of whether addiction is an illness or just our therapy-saturated way of passing off our bad or weak behaviour.

Why do people start doing something, from drinking, smoking, drug-taking, playing computer games or watching porn and then cannot stop.

She also asks how far we should go with the concept of addiction and should we believe someone who says they are a sex addict.

She also visits scientists who claim brain patterns alter in addicts when they talk about their craving and she casts a sceptical eye over some extraordinary ‘treatments’ for addiction which claim remarkable results but lack any scientific credibility.

8:30pm – Wednesday, June 1 on ABC2

Wednesday,1 June 2011 Young British shopaholic Stacey Dooley returned from a visit to Mumbai three years ago a changed person, after discovering the horrors of child labour in the dirty backstreet clothing factories.

Now an avowed and passionate campaigner for freeing children from slave labour exploitation she travels to Nepal with a rescue charity to investigate the embroidery and carpet factories. She finds children as young as eight working 14 hour days in filthy, cramped conditions for very little money. Many have been abducted or tricked into working for unscrupulous factory owners. Others have been sold by their impoverished families for a pittance.

Dooley befriends a young boy of 11 who has been beaten by his boss. His injuries have been so bad he has been taken to hospital twice. She helps deliver the boy to a hostel where he can live safely and be educated and brings the offender to the attention of the police.

She also meets young girls who have been sold to domestic slavery in Kathmandu and helps reunite a 13-year-old girl in such circumstances with her older sister.

There are no easy answers, but the ebullient Dooley says making even one life better is worth the effort.ABC2 Program Guide: National:

7:30pm – Wednesday, June 1 on ABC2

Episode One – Romania.

Actor Will Mellor and presenter Kirsten O’Brien take on the ultimate driving challenge, firstly in Romania.

Will and Kirsten travel the globe learning to drive and race the world’s biggest, most expensive and hardest to master vehicles in a bid to find out who is the better driver. Their first battle is in the Romanian Army’s frontline combat tank, the TR-85.

But before they do, they must undergo a week’s hard graft in sub-zero conditions under the scrutiny of Captain Oncaea. It takes 12 weeks to train a tank driver but Will and Kirsten have just three days to master the skills needed to race against each other at the end of the week.

Will’s first short, sharp, shock is swapping his celebrity mansion for a shared army barracks with three burly Romanian soldiers.

For Kirsten, the reality of driving a machine built for war is a real concern, but she learns to respect the men who drive the tanks and is determined to see her duel with Will through to its nail-biting conclusion.

They’ll endure temperatures of minus 17 degrees celsius, handle real firearms and face a combat situation under a barrage of enemy fire whilst grappling with night vision.

In the final showdown Will and Kirsten must bring together all the skills they’ve learned during their intense training regime, but there can only be one winner.

9:00pm – Tuesday, May 31 on ABC2

Former lawyer, political junkie and acknowledged spokesman for Generation X, Charlie Pickering has the stage at the Melbourne warehouse where the cream of Australia’s funniest strut their stuff.

Pickering is among the stand-up comics whose gigs from the Melbourne International Comedy festival are preserved for posterity in the Warehouse Comedy series.

He is a popular, high-octane funnyman, who has won awards in Australia, New Zealand and Scotland.

He crams more material into his gig than many others, so the ride is wild and fast.

10:20pm – Monday, May 30 on ABC2

Monday,30 May 2011 After Jack’s inauguration speech, we jump directly into a meeting about the Bay of Pigs invasion. Jack is told of an Eisenhower approved plan to train guerrillas in Nicaragua for an assault on Fidel Castro’s Cuba. Virtually all of Jack’s advisors, military and civilian, urge him to go ahead with the invasion. And finally Jack, against his better judgement, gives the order to send the guerrillas in.

Jack’s worst fears about the Bay of Pigs operation come true. The guerrillas are overtaken by Castro’s troops, and are suffering heavy losses. Jack faces a brutal dilemma: intervene and admit US involvement, or stay out of it and let them die. He doesn’t want to give the Soviet Union justification for military action, so he chooses to do nothing.

When the smoke clears, 114 guerrillas are dead, and 1189 taken prisoner. Jack is wracked with guilt, and he sends Jackie and the kids to Massachusetts while he contemplates the next move. With Jackie gone, Jack has a one night tryst with Judy Campbell, to whom he’d been introduced during the 1960 campaign by Frank Sinatra.

It is August of 1961. The Russians have moved troops into Berlin, though their intentions are still unclear. JFK prepares for the possibility that Khrushchev may try and take the city.

Back at the White House, FBI Director Hoover informs JFK’s advisors that the Bureau is aware of the President’s dalliance with Judy Campbell who is also the mistress of Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana.

Bobby then announces the formation of the Organized Crime Division.

Joe Snr. meets with an ex-FBI agent and asks him to dig up the files on Giancana – Joe wants to know where Sam is weak. But the agent can’t help, leaving Joe feeling powerless.

FBI Director Hoover plays Bobby a recording of Giancana talking to another mobster about his meeting with Joe Kennedy. Bobby’s devastated. Bobby and Jack decide that their father’s association with the Administration must come to an end.

9:30pm – Monday, May 30 on ABC2

It’s 1877. A new day is dawning in the Black Hills outlaw camp of Deadwood.

Six weeks after the events of Season 2, government and law, as well as the interests of powerful commercial entities, begin to enter the town as Deadwood prepares itself for entry into Dakota Territory.

In episode one, Deadwood’s first elections are being held and tonight the candidates stumping for Mayor and Sheriff are to address the camp. Hearst’s ambitions rub Bullock (Timothy Olyphant) and Swearengen (Ian McShane), the wrong way. At the Gem, one of Hearst’s workers is killed at the Gem, raising Swearengen’s suspicions that the incident was a staged Hearst power play. Ellsworth and Doc Cochran are alarmed by complications involving Alma’s pregnancy. Adam’s orchestrated foreclosure gives Star a new home, with discreet access next door for Trixie(Paula Malcomson). Jane(Robin Weigert) prepares to share her experience scouting for General Custer with the camp’s children. Shocked by her inability to make a break from Tolliver (Powers Boothe), Joanie (Kim Dickens) contemplates the easy way out.

9:00am – Monday, May 30 on ABC2

ABC 4 Kids popular preschool show Timmy Time is back with a third series.

It follows Timmy the lamb as he makes his adventures in his nursery school.

Self-willed and naughty Timmy has to learn how to share things with other youngsters and think about their feelings – not just his.

Timmy is a gifted little footballer who needs to learn that it’s not enough to kick the ball – you have to pass it too.

Harriet Heron and Osbourne Owl, who run the nursery are going to have their hands full, but Timmy gets it right in the end with a little help from his friends of the furry, feathery and spikey type.

8:00pm – Sunday, May 29 on ABC2

Sunday,29 May 2011 Internationally renowned designer Philippe Starck throws open the doors to a new design school in order to find the next great British designer of the 21st century.

According to experts, Britain has the raw creative talent but it is not exploiting it to its full potential, even though one of the most popular subjects in school is Design.

Now, in a compelling and original documentary series, multi-award-winning and somewhat unconventional, designer and creator Philippe Starck is on the hunt to find the country’s most promising new designer.

From nationwide open auditions, 12 aspiring designers are chosen to attend Starck’s School of Design in Paris, a unique hothouse for talent. Here, they begin their work as students under the watchful eye of design genius Starck. The ultimate goal of these aspiring designers is to turn their design ideas into real products, and hopefully win a six-month contract to work with Starck himself.

In each episode, the students are trained in a different aspect of the design process, from the first sparks of creative thinking through to modelling and testing, to manufacture and launch. Along the way, they are given a variety of assignments by Starck to challenge their vision, talent and ambition. Each assignment comes with the opportunity to experiment with concepts and materials and help create prototype objects that may well be the next ‘must have’ products of this century.

But Starck has exacting standards, and not everyone will make the grade. Some cherished ideas will be unceremoniously dumped and the weakest students will be dropped… until only two remain. With their products refined into working prototypes, whose design will make the cut?