Special

10:20pm – Sunday, July 1 on ABC2

For the last eight years, triple j’s One Night Stand concert series has travelled the country bringing the big live music experience to young people in regional areas.

In 2012 triple j’s One Night Stand travelled to the Queensland town of Dalby, with an incredible line-up of artists including Stonefield, 360 and Matt Corby.

After three huge live sets and one of the biggest crowds yet, triple j’s One Night Stand concert had to shut down early due to the extreme weather conditions, but this TV special brings you all the wet excitement of the event from Dalby showgrounds.

12:00am – Thursday, January 1 on ABC1

Message Stick has produced 15 x 8′ mini documentaries called 480.

Hosted by Luke Carroll, 480 will cover themes of ANZAC, MABO, land rights, native title and NAIDOC.

The stories aim to recognise and celebrate important events and anniversaries occurring in 2012 with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people – all in less than 480 seconds.

This week covers NAIDOC which follows the stories of five highly respected Australian Aborigines including: activist Marianne Mackay, businessman Neil Willmett only one, performer Lisa Maza, surfer Joe Haddon and fashion designer Grace Lee.

9:30pm – Thursday, July 5 on ABC1

Stephen Fry continues with his gadget greatness, trawling through the second half of his list of 100 favourites of all time.

He and his actor, inventor and comedic friends list off the razor, the stapler, the retractable tape measure – with its pleasurable and manly ‘thwack’ – and the Walkman as some of the essentials without which their lives would be much colder and lonelier.

But in the end, Fry’s favourite gadget of all time is a pocket wonder.

9:30pm – Thursday, June 28 on ABC1

Stephen Fry takes a nostalgic romp through the devices that have revolutionised our individual and collective lives, from the abacus and the umbrella to the Swiss army knife and the Walkman.

Actors, comedians, inventors and experts join the fun to celebrate gadgets we simply couldn’t live without.

They share memories of the difference these gizmos have made to their lives.

Fry has selected his 100 favourites – the ones he finds most attractive and clever, and his fellow guests both agree and disagree with his choices.

He shows how these ingenious little devices have made a world of difference to great and small events in time.

9:30pm – Thursday, June 21 on ABC1

With a third of marriages in Australia ending in divorce, the process of finishing a relationship is well established but how do couples with different social and religious customs go about formally breaking up.

They take their case to the Australian Islamic Judicial Council, an unofficial group of sheikhs based in Lakemba, Sydney.

This revealing and fascinating film takes us into the world of Islamic divorce, as viewed by the couples involved, their families and the sheikhs – religious leaders – who hear petitions for divorce.

In his narrow bookshop crammed with Islamic texts, Sheikh Khalil Chami – one of the Australian Islamic Judicial Council advises frustrated suburban Australian women on how they can get divorced. All the women are Muslim and the discussion is not about getting an Australian civil law divorce from the Family Court, which some already have, but about getting a divorce under sharia law, an Islamic religious law based on the Koran.

Women, who don’t have the consent of their husbands, can have considerable difficulty getting a sharia divorce. Until they do the community regards them as married and no sheikh will agree to marry them again. We follow three women and two men as they embark on the journey to end their marriages, the Aussie Islamic way.

Wednesday, June 20 at 10.00pm on BIO

He was the “President and Prophet, Seer and Revelator” – the highest ranking official in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints. As the leader of a radical polygamous sect, Jeffs led by example; among his 70 wives were his own stepmothers as well as teen and pre-teen girls. When called to account for allegedly arranging illegal marriages between his followers and underage girls, Jeffs fled, landing on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List. Caught in a routine traffic stop, Jeffs began a five year journey through the judicial system. Today he is serving a life sentence for aggravated sexual assault of a pre-teen girl and 20 years for the sexual assault of a young teenager. But from his prison cell he’s promised to cast doom upon America in a torrent of apocalyptic apocalyptic storms and earthquakes storms and earthquakes.Thursday June 21

ABC offers comprehensive multiplatform coverage in celebration of Her Majesty’s 60 year reign.

ABC TV will show live, as well as highlights coverage of the festivities; there will also be ABC iview, local radio, national radio and online coverage. Continue reading »

9:30pm – Wednesday, June 13 on ABC2

In this ‘making of’ special Ricky Gervais takes viewers behind the scenes as he discusses the making of Life’s Too Short with co-creator Stephen Merchant and star Warwick Davis.

It offers a unique look at what to expect from the comedy series, as well as an insight into how Ricky and Stephen work. The show features clips from the series and interviews with the guest stars including Liam Neeson, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Cat Deeley and Sting.

Life’s Too Short is the new observational comedy written and directed by the creators of The Office and Extras, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.

The series is a faux documentary that centres on Warwick Davis, (Britain’s pre-eminent dwarf actor and star of box office hit movies such as Star Wars, Willow and Harry Potter) as a fictionalised version of himself desperately trying to hustle and connive his way back into the spotlight.

9:30pm – Thursday, June 14 on ABC1

Presented by award-winning historian Dr Clare Wright (The Einstein Factor), Utopia Girls tells the fascinating, little known story of how Australian women became the first in the world to gain full political rights.

Women in the 19th century had virtually no political rights. Once they married they signed over everything to their husbands (including their children). If the marriage turned abusive it was almost impossible to escape. Worse still was the fate of unmarried mothers. Improving the lot of all women could only be achieved through political representation.

This representation came about through the vision and hard work of five remarkable women – Caroline Dexter, Henrietta Dugdale, Louisa Lawson, Mary Lee and Vida Goldstein. With their comrades, they would carry the flag over half a century until a newly federated Australia could claim its title as a uniquely democratic nation, but their stories were not without personal trials and crushing setbacks.

Combining beautiful graphic and archive sequences to illustrate the story, the film features some of Australia’s most prominent actors reciting from contemporary texts including Tom Budge, David Field, Alice Garner, Nicholas Hope, Simon Maiden, Barry Otto, Anna Lise Phillips, Alexandra Schepisi and Kerry Walker.

ABC1′s broadcast coincides almost 110 years to the day since women were granted the right to vote at a federal level and to stand for election to the Parliament of Australia via the Commonwealth Franchise Act.

5:30pm – Sunday, June 3 on ABC1

To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the High Court’s decision on the MABO case in 1992, this half-hour special delves into Eddie Mabo’s life away from the courts and the media headlines.

It is seen through the eyes of Mabo’s daughter Gail who speaks intimately about his personality, family and his passion and drive to make things right again.

We also hear from his wife, Bonita Mabo.

Inevitably his fight for land rights turned him into one of the most controversial Australian figures of the twentieth century.