8.6 /10 1 Votes
4.6/5 iTunes - Apple No. of episodes 2 Original network ABC1 Final episode date 18 April 2011 | 8.1/10 IMDb Country of origin Australia Running time 90 minutes First episode date 17 April 2011 Number of episodes 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Starring Asher Keddie
Rob Carlton
Matt Day
Jessica Tovey Original release 17 April – 18 April 2011 Awards Logie Award for Best Actress Genres Miniseries, Drama, History Nominations Gold Logie Award for Best Personality on Australian Television Similar Paper Giants: Magazine, Offspring, Howzat! Kerry Packer's, Love My Way, Party Tricks | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo is a 2011 Australian two part television miniseries about the beginning of Cleo magazine and its creator, Ita Buttrose. The series stars Asher Keddie as Buttrose and Rob Carlton as Kerry Packer.
Contents
A miniseries sequel, titled Paper Giants: Magazine Wars was screened on ABC1 on 2 June, and 9 June 2013. It features Rachel Griffiths, Mandy McElhinney, Lucy Holmes and Alexander England, (who played Tony Greig in Howzat) assumes the role of a young James Packer.
Plot
The series follows Buttrose as she creates the fashion magazine Cleo, as well the fashion and politics of the period.
Cast and characters
Reception
Reviews for the show were generally positive. The Sydney Morning Herald said:
Biopics rarely succeed. Invariably, they are thinly veiled hagiographies designed to push an "official" and pared-back version of history, dulled by performances that are merely impersonations. Thankfully, Paper Giants suffers no such problems.
Australian TV blog, TV Tonight rated the series with four stars out of five, and commented:
Whilst Keddie may not be a dead ringer for Buttrose she has the voice down pat: the tone is pitch perfect, complete with the slight Buttrose lisp (we would have expected nothing less). Keddie captures the inner strength of Buttrose, forging a path in a male-dominated world, navigating through pioneer publishing, inspiration and compromise.
The program was the subject of defamation proceedings brought against the ABC by the former husband of Buttrose, Alasdair Macdonald, who objected to how he was portrayed in the series. The action was settled out of court in April 2012 when the ABC apologised for what it agreed was an "untrue" portrayal of Macdonald.
Awards and nominations
Christopher Lee also won a Queensland Premier’s Literary Award in 2011 for his screenplay.
Ratings
Part one of the miniseries rated over 1.2 million viewers nationally, ranking as the fifth most watched program of the night, and the eighth-most watched program of the week. Part two was watched by 1.346 million viewers in the main five Australian TV markets, ranking as the second-most watched program of the week and the most watched program of the night.
Production
The miniseries was produced by John Edwards (Love My Way, Rush) and Karen Radzyner by Southern Star Entertainment in association with Screen NSW, Screen Australia and ABC TV. The executive producer was Carole Sklan, ABC TV head of fiction; and the script was written by Christopher Lee.