Special

9:00pm – Thursday, November 8 on ABC2

This week on Warehouse Comedy Festival Celia Pacquola presents her latest show, Delayed – Tales of international idiot-ventures. Multi-award winning comedian and local klutz, Celia Pacquola, never thought she’d move overseas. She also never thought squirrels were real. In 2010, Celia moved to the UK, and was wrong on both counts.

Celia Pacquola began her stand-up career in 2006 and quickly cemented her place as a multi-award winning and internationally recognised comedian. She starred as EJ in the successful ABC TV black comedy Laid and has appeared as herself on shows including Spicks and Specks, Adam Hills in Gordon St Tonight, Rove and The Project.

8:30pm – Sunday, November 4 on ABC2

Born in the Rwandan genocide of 1994, 16-year-old Roger Nsengiyumva returns to his homeland … is reconciliation and forgiveness possible.

At 16, Roger Nsengiyumva has already made a name for himself as the star of the football movie Africa United. But there is something else about Roger that not many people are aware of. He was born in the Rwandan genocide of 1994 and only survived thanks to the raw courage of his mother. She spent 100 days hiding her newborn baby from the murderous gangs, and then bravely escaped to Britain after seeing her husband, Roger’s father, shot dead.

This is the story of Roger’s return to his homeland to discover the harrowing truths of his family history and to find out whether he can share his mother’s remarkable willingness to forgive those who destroyed both their lives.

3:00pm – Sunday, November 4 on ABC1

Fifty years ago this week, The Australian Ballet presented its first performance at Her Majesty’s Theatre in Sydney. To celebrate, the company is presenting a 50th Anniversary Gala which is being especially filmed for Sunday Arts.

The Australian Ballet dancers will perform standout works including Harald Lander’s Etudes. A homage to the humble daily act of class, the work builds as the entire ensemble of dancers perfect their technique and dazzle with their unity of purpose.

Many famous dancers from around the world will also be joining in the celebrations. The world-renowned Paris Opera Ballet Principal Artists Doroth�e Gilbert and St�phane Bullion will dance the dynamic Don Quixote pas de deux.

San Francisco Ballet Principal Artist Damian Smith, born in NSW and of Indigenous heritage, will partner The Australian Ballet’s Amber Scott in Christopher Wheeldon’s heartbreaking After the Rain.

American Ballet Theatre Principal Artist Julie Kent will dance the bedroom pas de deux from Manon with The Australian Ballet’s Adam Bull.

Joining these beautiful artists on the bill will be dancers from some of the world’s top dance companies, including Germany’s Stuttgart Ballet, The Tokyo Ballet and National Ballet of China.

Artistic director of The Australian Ballet, David McAllister, said the gala would be an unforgettable season of world-class ballet. “It’s an incredible line-up we’ve assembled from all over the world. And we’re extremely excited that our 50th Anniversary Gala will also broadcast on ABC1. So no matter where you live, you will be able to be a part of our birthday celebrations and enjoy world-class ballet from your own homes!”

6:00am – Wednesday, October 31 on ABC2

During The Big Boo!, ABC4Kids Halloween line-up, preschoolers can enjoy gentle spookiness with special Halloween inspired shows kicking off at 6am.

From lake monsters and making ghost costumes to mysterious sounds and pumpkin decoration, preschooler’s favourite shows – Giggle and Hoot, Bananas in Pyjamas, Timmy Time and Charlie and Lola, just to name a few – get into the Halloween spirit.

Timmy Time: Wednesday, October 31 at 8.18am & 1.48pm on ABC4Kids It’s Halloween and Timmy and his friends are having lots of spooky fun, hollowing out pumpkins and making party decorations.

Charlie and Lola: Wednesday, October 31 at 9.02am on ABC4Kids Charlie, Lola, Lotta and Marv have been growing a pumpkin all through summer for the Halloween party at school and it’s enormous. Everyone has decided what fancy dress costumes to wear, except for Lola.

Bananas in Pyjamas: Wednesday, October 31 at 9.20am & 5.48pm on ABC4Kids When Rat promises the Bananas he can make their pumpkin grow big in time for Halloween – you can be sure he’s about to play one of his sneaky tricks again.

9:00pm – Thursday, November 1 on ABC2

The Warehouse Comedy Festival is back, once again throwing open the doors of an old saw tooth warehouse and turning it into a pop-up comedy venue, to capture the live energy and laughs of the smartest and funniest Australian comedians from the festival circuit, before their shows are lost forever.

First up is Lawrence Mooney, winner of Melbourne Fringe Best Comedy Award 2011. Lawrence invites you to come along on a journey of hilarious Sub-urbanity.

Lawrence of Suburbia is a metaphorical camel ride through the spiritual tundra of the suburbs, shining a comic light on where we’ve come from and where we’re headed. It asks the vital question, ‘What the hell is going on out there?’

8:30pm – Wednesday, October 31 on ABC1

How does an unsentimental family get through the most sentimental time of year.

Such is the ordeal Dan Moody must face when he journeys home from London to spend each Christmas with his overbearing family.

Once a year, for six years, we visit the lovably dysfunctional Moody family as they come together to share this universally celebrated holiday, stuffed full of all the fun, fights, bad gifts, boring uncles, overbearing in-laws, shocking family secrets and bizarre eccentricities that any family who’s experienced the melting pot of Christmas Day will relate to.

Each year, 25-year-old Dan Moody (Ian Meadows) makes the pilgrimage to celebrate Christmas with the family he travelled to the other side of the world to escape. While most families bask in the warm glow of Christmas spirit, the Moodys seemingly disintegrate, cracking under the pressure of forced civility and their own unique brand of domestic politics.

As with most families… the eternal question is – what will happen this Christmas.

Starring Ian Meadows (Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo), Patrick Brammall (Hawke), Jane Harber (Offspring), Danny Adcock (Jesters), Robina Beard (Madge from the Colgate commercials), Tina Bursill (Offspring), Guy Edmonds (Underbelly: Razor), Darren Gilshenan (Chandon Pictures), Rachel Gordon (Blue Heelers), and creator/writer Phil Lloyd (At Home With Julia).

8:30pm – Tuesday, October 30 on ABC1

It’s the 1970s and Australian wine is a joke – not for drinking, as Monty Python put it, but for ‘laying down and avoiding’. The idea that a wine made ‘Down Under’ could ever challenge the august products of Burgundy or Tuscany has wine buffs and snobby sommeliers sniggering into their tasting spoons.

But little more than 40 years later, Australian winemaking is leading the world. London merchants sell more wine from Australia than any other country, while the chastened French wine industry reluctantly takes note of how modern winemaking, and wine marketing, is really done.

Chateau Chunder is both a social history of wine and wine drinking and the story of how a small group of enterprising Australian winemakers took on the world… and won, changing the way that wine is made and marketed.

Featuring winemakers, marketers, merchants, critics and drinkers including Bruce Tyrrell, James Halliday, Max Allen (Australian wine critics), Chris Hancock (Rosemount), Sir Les Patterson (Cultural Attach� to Australia, a comical creation of Barry Humphries), Robert Parker (US wine critic), Oz Clarke and Jancis Robinson (UK wine critics).

Our starting point is the famous Python sketch – ‘This is a bottle with a message, and the message is ‘beware’. This is not a wine for drinking – this is a wine for laying down and avoiding.’ And it was true. The idea that Australia could be a world class wine-making nation was a joke.

Chauteau Chunder offers insightful detail on the nuts and bolts of the business. The Australians realised the mid-price mass market needed labels that people could understand, good value, consistent quality, and most of all some great branding. They pioneered the idea of selling wine by grape variety and colourful labels (Barramundi, Kanga Rouge, Wallaby White) rather than by the ancient and baffling classification systems of Europe. Cunningly, they also invented blind-tasting – wrapping French and Australian wines in brown paper bags so the wines could be tasted without prejudice.

Celebrating the story of how Australian table wine matured from being on the nose in the early 1970s, to becoming the toast of the global wine market, Chateau Chunder reveals all the key moments with all the key players. It’s a story straight from the horse’s mouth.

8:30pm – Sunday, October 28 on ABC1

Based on the international best-selling novel by Fergus Hulme, The Mystery of a Hansom Cab is now a stunning new telemovie with twists and turns to the very end.

Set in boom-time Melbourne, 1886, two gentlemen climb into a hansom cab late one murky night. One man climbs out, the other continues his journey. On arrival, the driver finds the second man dead; murdered.

The ‘high-society’ killing sends shockwaves through the young city, still flush from its gold-rush boom.

The victim, Oliver Whyte (Brett Climo), fresh from England with glowing ‘letters of introduction’, had endeared himself to one of the wealthiest men in the colony, Mark Frettlby (John Waters). It is Mark’s 21-year-old daughter, Madge (Jessica De Gouw), who Whyte instantly sets his sights on, but Madge is already in love with Brian Fitzgerald (Oliver Ackland), a sensitive, hard-working Irishman.

Brian is arrested for the murder but refuses to provide an alibi. His lawyer, Duncan Calton (Marco Chiappi), and Madge are forced to search for the truth themselves in order to save Brian. Their investigation not only uncovers a trail of secrets and scandal from opium dens and brothels to the cream of society, but their revelation threatens to tear the Frettleby family apart.

Also stars Chelsie Preston Crayford, Helen Morse, Shane Jacobson, Felix Williamson, Charlie Cousins, Gerry Connolly, Anna McGahan, Michael Carmen and Nathan Lovejoy.

Tuesday October 23 at 9.30pm on BIO

Alex Lewis knows he does not have much longer to live. Aged 21 he finds himself falling hopelessly in love and can’t quite believe what’s happening. Alex was first diagnosed with bone cancer shortly before his 18th birthday. After over three years of intensive treatment, he realises he is running out of options. He decides to cram as much life as possible into the time he has left. His remarkable zest for life is contagious. On the first day of filming in June, 2010 his only sadness is not being able to commit to a long-term relationship.

That evening he goes to a party in Swansea, kisses a girl, falls in love and within weeks they are inseparable. In September Alex and Ali become engaged to be married. This is a story of the power of love, as a young man confronts his mortality in the most emotionally charged circumstances imaginable. This extraordinary film chronicles Sam Hall’s remarkable storm-chasing adventure as she battles her own condition, the debilitating and life-threatening EB. Follow Sam as she hunts the deadly storms while trying to juggle her constant need of care and her relentless battle to be a helpful happy individual in the face of a painful illness.

Sunday October 21 at 8.30pm on BIO

In his first television special, critically acclaimed artist Phil Collins, who has sold more than 100 million albums, performs in front of a live audience, accompanied by an extraordinary ensemble of musicians and vocalists. And before before One Direction there was Duran Duran one of the world One Direction there was Duran Duran, one of the world s’s biggest pop successes In this special programme biggest pop successes. In this special programme they share a rare insight into their decades-long career. With exclusive, never-before-seen archive footage, and indepth interviews with each of the band members, this gives us a unique perspective on the band.