True Believers (miniseries)

True Believers
Genre	Miniseries
Written by	Bob Ellis Stephen Ramsay
Directed by	Peter Fisk
Starring	Ed Devereaux Simon Chilvers
Country of origin	Australia
Original language(s)	English
Production
Producer(s)	Stephen O'Rourke executive Matt Carroll Sandra Levy
Running time	8 x 1 hour
Release
Original network	ABC
Original release	28 June 1988

The True Believers is a 1988 Australian mini series which looks at the history of the Australian Labor Party from the end of World War Two up to the Australian Labor Party split of 1955.^[1]

It was co-written by Bob Ellis who focused on three characters "Chifley, the unlettered man of great dignity; Menzies, who used to stand for something but eventually stood only for Menzies; and Evatt, the grand idealist... It's almost like Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1. It's a chunk of national history during Australia's great era of change after the war."^[2]

Cast

• Ed Devereaux as Ben Chifley
• Simon Chilvers as H.V. Evatt
• John Bonney as Robert Menzies
• Rob Steele as Clyde Cameron
• John Derum as B.A. Santamaria
• Max Phipps as Sir Frank Packer
• Valerie Bader as Mary Alice Evatt
• Tracy Mann as Tess Ross
• Joan Bruce as Pattie Menzies
• Malcolm Robertson as Idris Williams
• John Ewart as Fred Daly
• Ray Meagher as Tom Burke
• Harold Hopkins as Edgar Ross
• Nick Tate as Les Haylen
• Gary Files as Fred Daly
• Diane Craig as Elsie
• Norman Kaye as Archbishop Daniel Mannix
• Ron Blanchard as Arthur Calwell
• Danny Adcock as Lloyd Ross

References

1. Ed. Scott Murray, Australia on the Small Screen 1970-1995, Oxford Uni Press, 1996 p243
2. THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN TONGUE Wanda Jamrozik Sydney Morning Herald 18 June 1987 p 13

External links

• The True Believers at the Internet Movie Database