ABC2's blog

8:00pm – Wednesday, January 27 on ABC2

In episode two, brothers Ricky and Jimmy Clark know that you’re never more than a few metres from a rat in London, and they face the challenge of hundreds in west London. A street is infested with them and terrorised residents turn to the rat catchers to save the day.

The secret weapon in their quest to rid London of rodents is Charlie, an enthusiastic and highly skilled Jack Russell terrier. He is trained to hunt rats and kill them in an instant, but he may have met his match in the London suburb of Olympia, better known to the boys as Rat City.

Elsewhere, Ricky tackles squirrels with industrial traps, and Jimmy faces his two biggest fears – pigeons and learning to drive.

8:30pm – Tuesday, January 26 on ABC2

To celebrate the career of one of our country’s most inspiring song writers triple j invited some of Australia’s best artists to take part in Before Too Long: triple j’s Tribute To Paul Kelly.

Recorded at The Forum Theatre in Melbourne, the show brought together the likes of Missy Higgins, John Butler, Paul Dempsey, Katy Steele, Bob Evans, Ozi Batla, Dan Kelly, Clare Bowditch, Adalita from Magic Dirt, Dan Sultan, Megan Washington plus members of Augie March as the backing band and Ashley Naylor from Even as Musical Director.

2009 marks Paul Kelly’s 30th anniversary as a solo recording artist (his debut single Recognition was released in 1979) and through this concert his enormous contribution to Australian music is acknowledged and celebrated. Kelly has crafted a heartfelt catalogue of songs that speak to successive generations. Many of his songs have captured the essence of what it is to be Australian. His strength as a songwriter and storyteller has inspired a whole raft of musicians working today.

From true to original performances like Bob Evans’s working of From St Kilda to King’s Cross to the re-jigged How To Make Gravy by John Butler or Dan Sultan’s heart-pumping foot-stomping Give Into My Love, this is a concert not to miss. Hang on every note as the final song brings the man himself Paul Kelly on stage with a choir of Australia’s best.

Be transported to this very special gig on Australia Day, as triple j tv presents Before Too Long: triple j’s Tribute To Paul Kelly.

8:00pm – Monday, January 25 on ABC2

Vernon (Adrian Edmondson) wants to go back to uni: free money, birds, the student bar – what’s not to like.

Daughter Milly (Laura Aikman) thinks it’s great too – until she finds out he’s applied to her uni.

But the only place that’ll have him is in the remote Scottish Highlands, and because he’s already spent his student loan, it looks like he’ll have to go…

9:25pm – Sunday, January 24 on ABC2

Winner of the Caméra d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and Australia’s official entry in the 82nd Academy Awards – Samson & Delilah was one of the most critically and commercially successful Australian films for this year. It has played to sold-out audiences around the world and is about to open in England and France.

Written, directed and shot by Warwick Thornton, produced by Kath Shelper, Samson & Delilah stars first-time actors Rowan McNamara (Samson) and Marissa Gibson (Delilah).

Samson and Delilah’s world is small – an isolated community in the central Australian desert. When tragedy strikes they turn their backs on home and embark on a journey of survival. Lost, unwanted and alone they discover that life isn’t always fair, but love never judges.

8:30pm – Sunday, January 24 on ABC2

In this final episode of series one, David and Karen have invited the other two couples along to a very swanky black tie charity dinner, where David proceeds to spend the evening networking.

Feeling slightly out of place, Jenny decides that the best plan of action is to get roaring drunk. This means that when David’s arrogant high powered female boss insults Pete, Jenny feels that the most appropriate response is to start a fist fight and let a fire extinguisher off over her designer dress. When the aftermath of the situation becomes unbearable at David’s work, his demands on Jenny to make an apology begins to put their friendship at risk.

Meanwhile Rachel reveals to Karen that she has a secret…

7:30pm – Sunday, January 24 on ABC2

The Veronicas -an award-winning pop rock band comprising of Brisbane-born identical twin sisters Lisa and Jessica Origliasso – have taken Australia, and now the world, by storm.

Earlier this year, they embarked on their international Revenge Is Sweeter Tour; this hour- long special features footage taken from their concert at the Palais Theatre in Melbourne.

In this spectacular live show, The Veronicas perform hits from their albums The Secret Life Of… and Hook Me Up, including the tracks Everything I’m Not, When It All Falls Apart, Untouched and Revenge Is Sweeter (Than You Ever Were).

10:10pm – Saturday, January 23 on ABC2

Following the 8:30pm repeat screening of John Wayne Season: Flying Leathernecks, comes a powerful feature starring Claudette Colber. Three Came Home tells the story of authoress Agnes Newton Keith, who spent three harrowing years in a Japanese prison camp.

At the outbreak of World War II, the Japanese descended on the islands of Borneo and rounded up civilians putting them in POW camps. Newton, her husband and child were among them. Life in the prison camp was extremely hard, and the prisoners were made to suffer humiliations, hunger, beatings and forced to slave in the rice fields.

Colonel Suga (Sessue Hayakawa), a man educated in the US, and an admirer of Newton’s writing, ran the camp. He was a man torn up inside by a struggle between his conscience and his duty to his government.

It is a film where no side appears to be the better – the Japanese are brutal, but some have a sense of morality. Among the captives there are selfish and weak people, as well as those who show fortitude and a strong spirit in times of great stress.

6:30pm – Saturday, January 23 on ABC2

Rosie (Lucy-Jo Hudson) can’t tell Danny (Stephen Tomkinson) or Sarah (Amanda Holden) what she and Max (Martinus Van der Berg) are up to, and the drought is affecting everyone except Caroline’s sister who causes trouble for the family.

Danny’s hospital plans falter and he decides to sell animals to pay for drilling equipment to find water for everyone, since so many animals are dying in the drought. The whole town repays the Trevanians.

9:30pm – Friday, January 22 on ABC2

Once a successful research chemist, but now relegated to teaching in a New Mexico high school, Walter White (Bryan Cranston) is diagnosed with cancer and given only two years to live.

Choosing to keep the bad news from his wife, Skyler (Anna Gunn), and their disabled teenage son, he vows to do whatever it takes to provide for his family’s future.

Opportunity knocks when his DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) agent brother-in-law busts a local meth operation, inspiring Walt to start his own mobile drug lab and enlist a former student, Jesse (Aaron Paul), as his partner. When forced to kill a pair of vengeful drug dealers and then tell Skyler about his illness, he’s left with nothing to lose.

Desperate to stay one step ahead of the law and his drug-dealing rivals, Walt undergoes an exhilarating transformation from struggling husband and father to ruthless competitor in the drug trade’s criminal underworld.

Starring Bryan Cranston (Malcolm in the Middle), Aaron Paul (Mission: Impossible III) Anna Gunn (Deadwood), Betsy Brandt (Shelf Life) and Dean Norris (Little Miss Sunshine).

8:30pm – Friday, January 22 on ABC2

1965: Twelve children are gathered together on a deserted moorland, before being surrounded by a harsh, bright light… and then they are gone.

Today: All over planet Earth, children stop moving. Stop playing. Stop laughing. Stop everything. Then, as one, they begin to speak with the same voice, announcing to the governments of the world the imminent arrival of a new alien threat. “We Are Coming, We Are Coming…” On Torchwood: Children Of Earth: Day Three, the eyes of the world turn to Britain, as the aliens known as the 456 announce, “We are here.” As a pillar of fire descends upon London, the members of Torchwood must battle to protect their own families, as the fight gets personal. But will Clem’s memories destroy everything?