Small Screen Highlights: Australian TV & Streaming

This four-part series, narrated by Hugo Weaving, injects new colour into documentary footage and makes Australian history seem closer and more relatable than ever. Curating classical and familiar footage, as well as home movies and never-before- seen archival material, the series charts how Australia has changed and developed as a nation, from the first surviving footage captured in Australia – in 1896 in Sydney’s Prince Alfred Park – to the beginning of colour TV in the mid 1970s. Each sequence has been restored and colourised with historical accuracy, and unlike some garish rainbow restorations, this one effectively and movingly bleeds subtle colour into the black and white images and effect is magical and strangely moving. Australia in Colour was produced by SBS for Stranger Than Fiction Pictures with funding from Screen Australia. It’s written and directed by Lisa Matthews and Alec Morgan, produced by Jo-anne McGowan, with executive producers Jen Peedom and Nick Metcalfe.