#bill mcfarlane

[newsatsix1986]

Philippa Northeast and Sam Reid as Kay Walters and Dale Jennings in The Newsreader’s S03E03 💙👸🏻🤴🏼🌟

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On the 16th February 2025, S03E03 of The Newsreader - Behind The Front Line - aired traditionally on the ABC, which was one year ago today!

Dale Jennings had issued out invitations to his 35th birthday bash, and had prepared his house for a lavish reception for his party guests, coming to celebrate this milestone for the King Of News.

But even on one’s anniversary of their trip around the sun, the world itself doesn’t stop spinning. That morning, Helen Norville had awoken from a very rough but clarifying evening, to Bill reporting that there was carnage in Tiananmen Square. No one was quite prepared for the catastrophic imagery that Tim Ahern had patched through to them, and worst still, Public Eye’s reporter, and Tim’s boyfriend - Lee Zheng - was unaccounted for.

As Lindsay blew his top in front of Dale’s party guests about swanning around with canapés (he had not been invited), Public Eye had beaten News At Six to breaking the news of the massacre in China, complete with exclusive footage that News At Six would not be able to compete with.

In yet another blow to the network’s news programme, their undervalued producer Noelene Rickards decided that she must jump this sinking ship and was provided a life raft by Helen; an invitation to join a team which would value her ideas and contributions. She had suffered quietly at News At Six for years, and as she exited her old workplace, she did not go quietly, letting Lindsay know exactly what she thought of him and letting him own his mistakes with a dashing of public humiliation.

What was your favourite moment of Behind The Front Line?

[mundaneandmagicalcreature]

[newsatsix1986]

Let’s all say a big thank you to Jane Zhang, who has delivered us all an incredible gift this week!

She has uploaded some brand new Season Three of The Newsreader unit stills to her website! Unreal!

Which ones do you love? 💖📸📺🌟

The Newsreader — Jane Zhang

The Newsreader — Jane Zhang

[newsatsix1986]

Presenting my TV Week article scans for The Newsreader’s Season Three! ❤️📰🌟

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Part of the fun of loving The Newsreader for me has been immersing myself in the print media that the show has appeared in. During the airtimes of Season Two and Three, it became a ritual for me to find a local newsagents every Monday, locate the week’s TV Week magazine and bring it home to add to my Newsreader memory/archive box. The act of doing this helped foster a slow paced and even slightly old fashioned start to my weeks - having to wait a week to be surprised with a magazine spread! I’ll dearly miss doing this.

Of course, I love to share these TV Week articles with you all as they’re pretty groovy. It’s fun seeing the layout of photos and even unit stills that have not been shared elsewhere! I fight with my home printer and scanner to scan each individual page, and bring each side together into double spreads.

During S2 I shared these weekly, so I do apologise for taking a long time to share these S3 articles this time around. As many of you would know, I had my own personal S3 stories to tell, and that took top priority! 😉 On that topic, it was such a surreal experience buying the issue for S03E05, given that Mum and I were in that episode. That particular article feels very close to home for me 💖

At long last, here are your Season Three TV Week spreads! Better later than never, I say! I was really pleased with these ones; they did a fantastic job at highlighting all the various perspectives and people of the show, and I especially loved the exclusive interviews we got with Anna Torv, Philippa Northeast and Michelle Lim Davidson. I will upload Anna’s another day, however I have included Michelle and Philippa’s as they were attached to the double spreads.

At a later date, I will take the time to properly review and critique each article, but it was high time that I shared the articles with you all; I had taken long enough to do so, after all. I’ve got to share The Newsreader love around!

Issue Dates:

S03E01: 1st - 7th February 2025

S03E02: 8th - 14th February 2025

S03E03: 15th - 21st February 2025

S03E04: 22nd - 28th February 2025

S03E05: 1st - 7th March 2025

S03E06: 8th - 14th March 2025

[newsatsix1986]

Today is a special Newsreader birthday! 💖🎂 🎉

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We are celebrating the special day of our beautiful leading lady; Ms Anna Torv!

It has been said here many times before here at News At Six 1986, but we have been truly lucky to have this brilliant lady bring our Helen Norville to life. Anna’s dedication to the role has been incredible, and it is so evident to us how much she adores Helen - she says as such in her TV Week interview from the 1st - 7th February this year! She brings so much energy and force into playing this extraordinary fictional lady, and knows Helen so intuitively that she has made her own additions to the script over the three seasons; namely, the scene in which Helen reacts to her diagnosis with Dale, which was entirely improvised between her and Sam Reid in just one take.

Helen is a journalist who advocates for meaningful and gritty stories, and Anna is just like her character, in that respect. She has dedicated much of her time into getting to know Helen by stepping into her world; from bearing wearing the “stupid” 1980s high heels and leaning into the discomfort in trying to take yourself seriously whilst wearing a uniform you can barely function in, to even attending therapy sessions to understand the complexities of Helen’s Borderline Personality Disorder to portray this side of who Helen is accurately.

At every stage of Helen’s story, Anna was aware of the traits that Helen would be exhibiting, and how far away she would be from diagnosis and support. She presented these qualities of Helen’s in such an empathetic and human way. Similarly, she injects infectious joy into Helen’s successes and wins; such as watching Helen’s Public Eye become a successful career venture, when a story comes together beautifully, and in the beautiful multifaceted love story Helen and Dale shared, in all its various stages. Helen is extraordinarily loving, and cares deeply for all the complexities of the human condition.

To celebrate Anna’s birthday, please enjoy reading her TV Week article, which I scanned and put together for all of you! She is a brilliant creative woman, and I feel so honoured to have a signed script of The Newsreader’s very first episode; addressed to me from her, proudly on display on my desk.

Happy birthday again, Anna, from Newsreader fans everywhere! 💖👸🏻🌟

[newsatsix1986]

Anna Torv as Helen Norville in The Newsreader’s S03E05 👸🏻❤️🌟

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On the evening of the 14th August 1989, Helen Norville truly believed in the phrase ‘a job well done.’

Public Eye had been inundated with positive feedback from audiences in relation to the evening’s mental health focus. Noelene and Leonie had been fielding the calls, and Bill wanted to show Helen the transcripts, but understandably, she just wanted to go home.

Opening the door to her quiet house, Helen pressed play on the stereo, and made her way into the kitchen, popping her bags on the bench. She helped herself to a drink from her fridge, and stared out her moonlit window,

Helen smiled a private smile. Dr Marcia had been right. Despite everything in the paper, viewers had tuned into her that evening, and she had presented herself as a journalist, while also offering a candid reflection which she hoped would spark national conversation.

There was someone else who was particularly moved by Helen’s on-air transparency, and she knocked on Helen’s door, jolting Helen out of her introspection.

Checking through the peephole, Helen was surprised at who was on the other side; her sister, Cathy.

Teary-eyed, Cathy glanced at her. “Sorry, I won’t keep you. I just wanted to let you know that I was watching.”

Cathy could not bat the tears away, and could not bring herself to say anything more other than “I’m sorry,” as she felt compelled to go.

“Hey, Cathy. Cathy.” Helen stopped her gently. “Would you like to come in?”

Cathy’s hand flung to her heart as she cautiously stepped closer to the sister she had not held for so long, and as she gave into her need to grasp Helen with all she had, Helen’s face melted into a smile, squeezing the braided-haired lady tightly back.

They didn’t know yet what the future might hold for their relationship; whether this might happen again, so closing the door to the world behind them, they would both make the most of this precious moment they had just been given.

[newsatsix1986]

A celebration of Mr and Mrs Mathers, an another Newsreader anniversary ❤️💍📺🌟

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On the 2nd March 2025, S03E05 of The Newsreader - On The Brink - aired traditionally on the ABC; one year ago today!

Wedding bells were ringing for Cheryl and Brian, and as the wedding brought everyone physically together, tensions and grievances were at an all-time high, and everyone was on the brink.

Cheryl, Brian and their families were elated about the couple’s big day coming up. There were hens and bucks parties attended by their coworkers and friends, and excitement filled the News At Six office with bubbles being served and gossip being dished up.

However for some of their wedding guests, it was hard for them to be fully present. Dale, who would be announcing the wedding dance at the request of Cheryl, had fear hanging over his shoulder when Lindsay threatened to reveal all he knew to the press. Numbing this terror with excessive alcohol on the night, Kay observed a side of Dale that frightened her, and she knew she had to make a tough decision to honour how far she had come in her recovery.

Meanwhile, Helen’s world had fallen apart in just one morning. Her, Noelene, Bill, Dale and Dr Marcia scrambled with the expose that had been published about her in The Sun, containing quotes from Lindsay and her sister Cathy, and the information about her teenage institutionalisation that she had spent her whole life guarding.

In that moment, she had to make a choice. Would she allow this to become her image, or would she use this moment as an opportunity to shine a light on mental health on television and present herself as the authentic journalist her audiences loved and trusted? Could she venture through those doors of Larundel once again too?

How utterly special it is that this particular episode is celebrating its first anniversary. This was the one Mum and I featured as extras in, and it seems wild to me that we sat down to watch ourselves one year ago today. It was such a special moment in the history of News At Six 1986.

What was your stand-out moment of S03E05? 💖

[newsatsix1986]

This is Helen Norville, and you’ve been watching Public Eye 👸🏻💙🌟📺

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As November draws to a close, we have come to the end of Public Eye Month 2.0 here at News At Six 1986; for the most part, at least. We still have the doors of Larundel to venture into next.

In 1989, Helen Norville was handed a career lifeline; the opportunity to be the first woman in this fictional version of 1980s Australia to host her very own current affairs show, with her name in the title card. It was called Public Eye.

Through Public Eye, we were introduced to the characters of Leonie Briggs and Bill McFarlane, who worked alongside her, reintroduced to Vincent Callahan, and visited by Lynus Preston and his family member Deano Prince, and Tim Ahern and his boyfriend Lee Zheng.

Jumping from the sinking ship of News At Six was Noelene (now Rickards, not Kim), and together the team navigated sabotage from competitors, stories that were too close to home, and human rights movements and tragedies that became career-defining moments for all of them.

It was not without its ups and downs, of interpersonal fighting and emotions running high, but for Public Eye to succeed, it needed a team that was truly going to work. Those who weren’t team players had to be weeded out, and others needed to have their positions elevated.

Public Eye was the final thing that was seen on our screens at the end of The Newsreader, alluding to the fact that it was the programme and presenter that reflected what Australians wanted of television journalism; gritty authenticity, truth-telling, reflexivity and relatability.

With Noelene as lead producer, Helen as the host, and a certain correspondent reporting from his Berlin Wall post, we saw out the decade that had been, and the show we had come to love. I think we can all agree that will dearly miss Public Eye and The Newsreader with all our hearts 💖🌟📺