The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 53

The program, to be made one week in Sydney, the next in Melbourne, will be presented in Sydney by Ian (Danno) Rogerson from 2MMM's The Johnno and Danno Show, writer, comedienne, performer Mandy Salamon and actresssinger Joy Smithers. The Melbourne presenters are radio personality Richard Stubbs from The Zoo Breakfast Show on 3XY, Gina Riley who played Sal in the ABC-TV series Six of the Best, comedian David Cotter and Ruth Darling. Earthwatch, one of the ABC's most successful children's programs, takes the Wednesday slot. Along with a new series of documentaries Earthwatch also spins off into a drama documentary series called Wild and Woolley, about two investigative reporters whose speciality is environmental mysteries. This will go to air from July 17.

Goes the Budgie, made with the support of the Australian Children's Television Foundation, and an English comedy called Metal Mickey. On Tuesday, the program Out There, a fast-paced show combining news, views, reviews and comedy, looks at the problems and choices facing young Australians today. These include leaving school, finding work or going on the dole. Thursday marks the return of the magazine program Antenna ith presenters Gerry Sont, Rebecca Hetherington and Sandra Lillingston, who will be covering a wide range of stories in pop, leisure, entertainment, and sport. Fridays are given over to local and overseas drama and science fiction beginning with Chocky, the television adaptation of John Wyndham's novel about a young boy who finds an alien inside his mind.

Other series to be screened include Golden Pennies, a co-production with Central TV in England and REVCOM in France and Butterfly Island, from FROM tomorrow evening, the ABC will be celebrating International Youth Year with a series of programs for teenagers, under the generic title of Slot 1 700 screening 5pm Monday to Friday. The programs will be a mixture of entertainment and information, with the emphasis on issues which are relevant to young people. The week will begin with comedy, initially with a series called Educating Marmalade which is about a young girl who defies all attempts to educate her. Later in the year, two new series will take over this slot Bang WITH JACQUELINE LEE LEWES Television Independent Productions. The mums, the dads, the boys, girls fjsi lilt i wr, 'H? next door CHANNEL 7, the most successful soap channel, 'makes a bid for the trifecta from Monday when its new serial Neighbours joins Sons and Daughters and A Country Practice tomorrow night.

Neighbours, made in Melbourne by Grundys, wjll be shown Monday to Friday in a 5.30pm timeslot. The serial is about ordinary people who live in an ordinary street. In the first couple of episodes at least there are no murders, rapes, bashings or car chases. And no baddies, heavies, bitches or nasties which is a relief. These first episodes have a nice feel about them.

Although a trifle inconsequential they are very easy to watch. There are some good, contrasting characters and the storylines are promising. The producers are carefully avoiding having overly dramatic cliff-hangers although there's enough there to make you want to tune in the next night Serials are always a risk but I'm betting Neighbours will hit the right spot with viewers. Particularly in its favour is its strong cast, a mixture of new and familiar faces, led by Anne Haddy and Alan Dale, who despite the rushed way soaps are made manage to make their characters both natural and believable. They're self-contained, warm and professional.

Dale's previous long-running role was Dr John Forrest in The Young Doctors who, as fans will remember, would never have been described as a Mr Nice Guy. In Neighbours, however. Dale plays Jim Robinson, a widower bringing up four children with the help of his mother-in-law Helen Daniels, played by Haddy. Helen isn't a stereotype mother-in-law. She is very supportive of Jim while he is grateful for her help and together they provide an USUALLY when actor Karl Maiden plays a real-life character he likes to get to know the man he's portraying to make his performance more realistic.

When he played a priest in the film On the Waterfront, he spent 1 1 days with Father John Corridan, a waterfront priest He also spent some time with General Omar Bradley before playing him in Patton. But when he was asked to play the lead character, Freddie Kassab, in the four-hour mini series Fatal Vision, which Channel 7 will screen on March 25 and 26, Maiden deliberately didn't meet man until after he had finished work on the project. The mini series, based on the book by Joe McGinnis, is the true story of the five-year battle by Kassab to have his son-in-law Captain Jeffrey MacDonald arrested for ABOVE: The Ramsay. From left. Shane (Peter O'Brien), Max (Francis Bell).

UarU rijkKjt RIsKaubI and Dmiw (David Claoeiat. TOP; TH Rahlntans. Back. Paul (Stefan Dennis) and Helen (Anne Haddy). Front, from left: Scott Darius Perkins), Julie (Vikki Blanche).

Jim (Alan Dale) ana Lucy (Kyiie Flinker). INSET: Daphne Lawrence (Elaine Smith) and Des Clarke, played by Paul Keane understanding home for the children, Paul (Stefan Dennis), 21, Julie (Vikki Blanche), 20, Scott (Darius Perkins), 16, and Lucy (Kylie Flinker), 8. Over the road lives the Ramsay family Max (Francis Bell), a self-employed plumber, his ItalianPolish wife Maria (Dasha Blahova who gives a particularly sensitive performance) and their sons Shane (Peter O'Brien), 21, Karl Maiden the murder of his wife Colette, Kassab's daughter, and his two children, five-year-old Kimberly and two-year-old Kristen. "The reason I didn't want to meet Mr Kassab was that Mr Kassab himself was fooled by Jeffrey MacDonald," said Maiden Tr mt 1 rfhi III and Danny (David Clencie), 17. Also living in the street are Des Clark (Paul Keane), a bank accountant, and Daphne Lawrence (Elaine Smith), a stripper who rents a room in Des's house.

Younger cast members who deserve a mention are Elaine Smith, Stefan Dennis, Darius Perkins, Peter O'Brien and David Clencie who are obviously going to be worth keeping an eye on. talking from Los Angeles. "He believed him to be innocent until finally he read the testimonies and the tapes on the case and came to the realisation that MacDonald was guilty. "He spent the next five years trying to put him into jail. That took 10 years in all.

"But I was afraid if I talked to Mr Kassab before, then I would be swayed and put his final determination at the beginning." The MacDonald case was a particularly gruesome crime, reminiscent of the Sharon Tate murder by the Manson family. In the early hours of February 27, 1970, military police at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, answered an emergency call and arrived at the home of Captain MacDonald, where they found MacDonald, then a physician with the Green Berets, bleeding from knife wounds. Dead were his pregnant wife Colette and their two asked of him gave him away." MacDonald's motive for murdering his family has never been established. This says Maiden is the terrible dilemma of the case. "No-one knows why he did it," he said, adding: "they do know how it happened, because fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, every person had a different blood type, so they could follow who was going where in the house." Maiden's performance was praised by critics when the mini series was screened in the US late last year.

He did, however, receive hate mail from people who still believe MacDonald to be innocent. The letters, he admits, hurt him. "It always does when some people believe what you are doing is not right, but if I had to please everybody, I am afraid I wouldn't daughters. MacDonald claimed they had been attacked by a drug-crazed hippie gang who chanted "kill the pigs" as they slaughtered the family. MacDonald was charged then cleared by the army.

He probably would have got away with it if it hadn't been for Kassab's perseverance. The case is still a controversial one in the US. MacDonald has always maintained his innocence and there are some people who believe him. Does Maiden? "Our American court of law says he's guilty so he is guilty," he said. "I personally had no feelings when I started the film but as I worked on it and continued to read more material and saw two tapes he had done with American interviewers I now lean towards the fact he is guilty.

"A couple of things that were be working, he said. 59 THE SUN-HERALD. Mar 17, 1985 59.