Shashwat Khatri
Movies and TV shows that depict the past through a modern lens often afford us the ability to look impartially at a world long gone. Created by Michael Lucas, ABC’s ‘The Newsreader’ is one such Australian drama show that looks at the male-dominated world of Australian news media in 1986. The show follows the budding relationship between the hardened female newsreader, Helen Norville (Anna Torv), and an ambitious reporter, Dale Jennings (Sam Reid), as they wend their way through the politics and bigotry of Australian news media culture. Even though a few anachronisms find their way into the show, it’s hard not to wonder at the veracity of the facts and what could have inspired the show. Covering a string of incredible events in the 1980s, ‘The Newsreader’ looks and feels as though it were pulled straight out of the news media archives but rendered in high quality for modern audiences.
The Newsreader is a Fictional Story Highlighting the Truth of 1980s News Media
Set in the 1980s, the award-winning show ‘The Newsreader’ is a fictional story of an Australian cable news network called ‘News at Six’ and the professional and personal lives of anchors, reporters, and the camera crew that work there. The characters, colorful as they are, are the creator/writer Michael Lucas’ creation, as are their lives, and any resemblance to actual people, dead or alive, is coincidental at best. However, the same cannot be said of the real-world events that are covered on the fictitious show ‘News at Six.’
The 1980s were a decade of global and historical significance with several major newsworthy events. Many of these, such as the Chernobyl disaster, the Westland Affair, the Space Shuttle Challenger launch, and the separation of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, are faithfully represented. It also realistically portrays the Australian news media, which was reportedly rife with sexism, homophobia, indoor smoking, and all things 80s, but that is as far as comparisons with the real world go. In short, ‘Newsroom’ is written around these real-world events. Everything else is fictional.
During the writing process, Michael Lucas researched heavily into the 1980s world of Australian newsrooms, reading reams of newspapers from the time and interviewing those who worked in newsrooms then. The insights gained from his research allowed him to make the show as believable as possible, even basing some aspects of the show on real anchors. But Lucas has never revealed the people he interviewed, with the exception of Leigh Sales, a real-life Australian TV journalist. The character of Noelene Kim (Michelle Lim Davidson) came out of his talks with Sales, though the latter only served as inspiration for Noelene. Many have also speculated that the central character of Helen is based on Jana Wendt, a 60 Minutes reporter. But these have been denied outright by Anna Torv, who plays the hard-nosed and notoriously ‘difficult to work with’ character of Helen.
The Newsreader Reveals the Ills and Prejudices of Our Past
Looking at a bygone era through the modern lens is bound to make us question the veracity of what’s being portrayed. But very few shows depict the truths of our past, warts and all, with such aplomb, even if it is through the language of fiction. Sure, a few things simply could not have existed back then. For instance, the chief of staff, Dennis Tibb (Chum Ehelepola), could never have been part of the homogeneous, white male-dominated newsrooms of the 80s. Similarly, the character of Noelene Kim (of Asian descent) also feels historically incongruent. Yet, having a diverse cast doesn’t fly in the face of believability. It is rather a conscious, artistic choice, as though the creators are trying to highlight how backward things were back then without being too on-the-nose about it.
Few shows have graced TV like ‘The Newsreader’ before. The Jeff Daniels-starrer ‘The Newsroom’ is a prime example of just such a show that quite intelligently and realistically depicts the inner workings of a newsroom where news anchors and their teams must work together despite their prejudices, and the rampant politics that underlie the day-to-day of that world. But set roughly around the same time it aired, it’s not the same as ‘The Newsreader’, which applies a layer of objectivity to our glorious-seeming past. Taking us down memory lane, but without the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia, ‘The Newsreader’ reveals the truths of our past without sugarcoating them.
Themes of social ills abound, with sexism, racism, homophobia, and toxic levels of masculinity creating a tense atmosphere where characters keep their secrets for fear of being ostracized. Yet, the timeless bonds of love, friendship, and camaraderie form the backbone of the show, and without which the newsreaders cannot hope to improve their ratings, or — what’s more important — report the news. ‘The Newsreader’ is a fast, entertaining watch that leaves audiences with something to chew on well after the credits have rolled. Even if the characters and the newsroom, News at Six, are fictional, they bring out the truths of a time long gone in the most distilled and poignant way that only fiction can.
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