The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 55

THE GUIDE Network News CtlUCE LlcMIIEY ANDREW CONWAY mm Bad Guvs), Virginia Hey (All Saints) and Anthony Simcoe (The Castle), with the story based on an astronaut who is captured by an alien spacecraft during a NASA Presenter on Sportsworld, Footy Grandstand, Talking Footy, Channel 7. You talk sport all week. Do you ever get to play? Nothing competitively. I do a bit of running, cycling and play golf three times a year. How was your heart rate, especially during the final quarter, in the recent Swans St Kilda stoush in Sydney? If a match is a thriller I end up standing to call.

At the end of the last quarter I realised I'd been on my feet the whole time. So I suppose the heart rate was sky high. Who was your sporting hero when you were growing up and is it still the same person now? Muhammad Ali. He's physically not the same person he once was but everything he did for sport, his race and humanity is enduring. Who's your favourite sportsman and sportswoman and why? I don't have an absolute favourite there are too many on the list to single anybody out But the reason they become favourites is that I admire their talent, their ability to use it and their bravery under pressure.

There's such a fine line between winning and losing at the highest level. What memorable moments stand out from your time reporting on sports events around the world? The three that jump at me are my first Melbourne Cup call in 1985, the 1988 Olympic 100m final between Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis and spending time with Michael Jordan and Carl Lewis to do interview features for the program Seasons in 1993. If you had to have a change of career, what would you do? I'd try my hand writing crime and mystery novels. I like to do most of my work in solitude. The AFL grand final goes to air on September 26.

Which team win win? North Melbourne. Sara Conde THE GUIDE Editor Kym Nicoll Phone 9282 2822 Fax 9282 2481 e-mail guidesmh.feirfax.com.au Advertising Christian Knevitt Phone 9282 2239 Fax 9282 1748 Cover photograph by Patrick Cummins. Puppets created by John Shakespeare. Infosearch fee-based research of articles in The Guide: phone 9282 3052, fax 9282 3656. THE demise of Witness doesn't seem to have damaged Chris Bath's reputation at the Seven Network, with sources confirming the former Witness reporter has been offered the job of anchor of Dateline, the network's Australian version of the US current affairs show.

Dateline NBC. It's an ironic twist of fate for Bath, given that Dateline will replace Witness, but she's almost certain to grab the opportunity. The job not to mention the show is subject to approval by Seven's new chief executive, Julian Mounter, but management continues to regard her as a star in the making and is keen to keep her profile high. Stan Grant, ho recently returned from a two-year posting in London, has also been sounded out about the Dateline job but ill only step in if Bath turns the offer down. Sources say the show may absorb a couple of reporting teams from Witness to add local content, plus a handful of production staff, but will essentially be "an Australian window" to the international Dateline edition.

The future of the rest of the Witness team is still undecided. THE ABC has taken delivery of a fascinating new documentary, The Singer and the Swinger, charting the extraordinary life and times of US impresario Lee Gordon and Australia's first rock'n'roll legend, Johnny O'Keefe. The program will air on Tuesday, October 6, marking the 20th anniversary of O'Keefe's death, and will feature interviews with many contemporaries of Gordon and JO'K. including John Laws, Harry M. M3er, Abe Saffron, Cariotta and Bob Rogers.

In his heyday, the swinging '60s, Gordon imported hundreds of US performers to Australia, including strippers, roller-skaters, comedians, and major stars such as Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra, all of whom had a profound and lasting effect on the local entertainment industry. O'Keefe was among the first Australian talents to appear in one of the Lee Gordon Big Shows, and although greeted by boos and catcalls from the audience, went on to become one of the nation's lie eg a date with Datellne.f mountain, but he's got other ideas. On the anniversary of his 30th year at Channel 9 next week, the redoubtable Waley will be on holiday high in the Himalayas, climbing to the base camp of Mount Everest. While Waley couldn't think of a better way to celebrate his milestone. Nine colleagues are racking their brains over what to give him as a present "An oxygen tank?" quipped one insider.

The network will celebrate the anniversary when he returns. Strange but true TWO rising talents, Mitchell Bute! and Michela Noonan, have been cast in Strange Fits of Passion, a new telemovie to be filmed in Melbourne later this month which will be the first co-production between a cable channel, arena, and the ABC. Butel has appeared in Twisted Tales, Bordertown and GP, while Noonan has had roles in Wildside and All Saints, but these are the first major TV roles for both. The film goes into production on September 28 and the project should be completed by April, with a cinema release before screening on arena and the ABC. There are whispers that arena is working on another co-production with a free-to-air channel, but the project is still under wraps.

Ladies who lunch IF you missed out on tickets to the Two Fat Ladies-literary lunches in Sydney later this month, fear not. The demand for seats which sold out before they officially went on sale has been so great that the ABC has decided to screen a live telecast of the first lunch on Wednesday, September 23. The telecast means a double helping of the cuddly cupcakes, Jennifer Paterson and Clarissa Dickson Wright, that day because the third series of the show debuts at 8pm. Roll out the clotted cream. Chris Bath mission.

Sources say Nine has established the Films and Television unit specifically to raise the network's international profile. With a company of Henson's stature backing the first project, the unit is clearly off and running. High noon NETWORK Ten is turning up the heat on Nine's Midday with Kerri-Anne Kennerley, scheduling Roseanne Barr's new chat show head-to-head with the queen of daytime TV. Ten has dropped Sally Jesse Raphael (there is a God) and will air The Roseanne Show each weekday at noon from Monday, September 28. With Midday's ratings soft to say the least, Nine will no doubt be keeping a close eye on this one.

Close encounter THE production slate at Sydney-based Screentime is expanding rapidly with the announcement of a series of telemovies for the Seven Network. First cab off the rank is Close Contact, an actionadventure drama which will be filmed in Sydney later this year. The telemovie has been devised and produced by former Grundy and Crawford Productions executive Ian Bradley, and written by him and Annie Lucas. Screentime 's Des Monaghan is executive producer and Scott Hartford-Davis (Heat) will direct No word on casting but sources say the story centres on a Sydney company expanding into the bodyguard business for an unusual bunch of clients. It will be shot on film rather than the usual video, giving it a much higher production quality, and will screen next year.

Peak performance SINCE he has spent three decades scaling the summit of national television, you'd think Nightline anchor Jim Waley would have climbed every 0J The other vexing issue is Seven's use of the name Dateline, with SBS claiming it has the rights to the name for its long-running Saturday night current affairs program. Sources say SBS has fired off a number of legal letters, warning Seven off the title, but the matter is still unresolved. Far and away THE Nine Network's new Films and Television unit has announced its first project, Farscape, a 22-part space adventure drama which will go into production at Sydney's Fox Studios next week. The series is being made in association with the British-based Jim Henson Company, which has created spectacular ani-matronics for the series. The late Jim Henson was the creator of the Muppets phenomenon and his son, Brian, wilF direct the opening episode.

Henson and Nine's Kris Noble are executive producers with Sydney-based Matt Carroll as producer. The cast will be headed by Hollywood actor Ben Browder (Party of Five), Claudia Black (Good Guys, razes music legends, the self-proclaimed Wild One. The documentary also stars Ben Mendelsohn, above, in dramatic recreations of the period, and features rare archive footage of Ol Blue Eyes performing at a Lee Gordon show at Sydney Stadium. It's an ABC TV Accord Film with Mushroom Pictures, directed, written and narrated by Stephen MacLean, with Mushroom's Martin Fabinyl and Michael Gudinski as executive producers. One for the diary, 8.30pm.

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