Silent Reach

{{Short description|Australian miniseries}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}} {{Infobox television | image = | caption = | genre = mini-series | writer = Ted Roberts | based_on = | director = Howard Rubie | starring = Robert Vaughn<br />Helen Morse<br />Graham Kennedy | composer = | country = Australia | language = English | num_episodes = 2 | producer = Jill Robb | company = | camera = | runtime = 2 x 150 mins | network = Nine Network | first_aired = {{Start date|1983|03|02|df=y}} | last_aired = {{End date|1983|03|09|df=y}} }} '''''Silent Reach''''' is a 1983 Australian mini-series based on the novel by Osmar White.<ref name="scott">Ed. Scott Murray, ''Australia on the Small Screen 1970-1995'', Oxford University Press, 1996 p235.</ref>

==Premise== Conwright Industries, a huge mining company, hire American intelligence agent Steve Sinclair to investigate a series of sabotage incidents.

==Cast== *Robert Vaughn as Steve Sinclair *Helen Morse as Antonia Russell *Graham Kennedy as Chaster Fitzpatrick *Leonard Teale as Hamilton Wrightson *Peter Mountford as John Howard *Justine Saunders as Allison Burnie * Tom E. Lewis as Ben Burnie *Ron Graham as Father Valdera * Betty Lucas as Sister Beatrix

==Production== Osmar White's novel was published in 1979. It was based on research trips White had taken to Queensland and Western Australia. The novel was published in the US, UK and Australia. It was White's tenth book and second novel.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Age|date=17 February 1979|page= 21|title=Diamonds turn up trumps}}</ref>

Film rights were bought in 1980 by AAV Productions, a subsidiary of David Syme & Co. The producer was Jill Robb, who announced they would make an eight-part television series.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Age|date=1 April 1980|page=2|title=AFC puts up money for spy thriller}}</ref> It eventually became a five-hour project.

Robb could not initially get an Australian network interested in the project. She raised finance from Postwork Newsweek Stations in the USA along with the Queensland Film Corporation, the AFC and a consortium of private investors. This enabled her to finance the mini-series which she sold to the Nine Network.<ref name="age"/>

The project was known during filming as ''The Alcheringa Stone''.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Age|date=25 August 1981|page= 2|title=Too current for comfort}}</ref> The shoot took place in 1981 in Queensland, with location work in Brisbane, Chatsworth (south of Mt Isa), and Maryborough.<ref name= "age">{{cite news|newspaper=The Age|date=15 August 1981|page= 25|title=Vaughn free: the making of a TV saga|first=Brian|last=Courtis}}</ref>

==Reception== The mini-series was considered a ratings disappointment.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=Sydney Sun Herald|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/122641009/?terms=%22against%20the%20wind%22%20bodyline%20%22the%20dismissal%22&match=1|first=Jacqueline Lee|last=Lewes|title=Million$ of Viewing|date=5 June 1983|page=47}}</ref>

''The Age'' said the mini-series had "a lot going for it", saying the script and direction "are above the middlebrow soapie level... it looks good and is full of incident".<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Age|date=2 March 1983|page= 2|title=The countryside steals the show}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0467434/ ''Silent Reach''] at IMDb

Category:1980s Australian television miniseries Category:1983 Australian television series debuts Category:1983 Australian television series endings Category:Films financed by the Queensland Film Corporation Category:Films shot in Queensland