News in Brief: ABC and SBS reveal 2021 drama slates, AACTA Awards gear up and more
Wringing blood from the budget stone the public broadcasters lay out their wares for the year ahead. Our fortnightly round-up of news, interviews and opinions from Australian film, TV and games.
Rachel Griffiths and Deborah Mailman will return in a second series of Total Control for the ABC. Image supplied.
Yesterday the ABC announced its 2021 programming slate. There were cute and awkward pieces to camera by ABC talent and management, and despite comedian Wil Anderson’s quips about wringing ‘blood from a stone’, and Sean Micallef’s estimation that each episode of Mad as Hell costs ‘about $40 to make’, the public broadcaster is managing to look pretty good for the year ahead.
ABC Comedy is being relaunched as ABC TV Plus from 1 January 2021, and will encompass Australian comedy, religion, science, natural history documentaries, and the arts.
Rochelle Siemienowicz is the ArtsHub Group's Education and Career Editor. She is a journalist for Screenhub and is a writer, film critic and cultural commentator with a PhD in Australian cinema. She was the co-host of Australia's longest-running film podcast 'Hell is for Hyphenates' and has written a memoir, Fallen, published by Affirm Press. Her second book, Double Happiness, a novel, will be published by Midnight Sun in 2024. Instagram: @Rochelle_Rochelle Twitter: @Milan2Pinsk
