Changi (TV series)
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''Changi'' is a six-part
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
n
television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...
broadcast by ABC TV in
2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...
. It originally aired from 14 October 2001 to 18 November 2001.


Overview

The series follows the trials and tribulations of six fictional Australian soldiers interned at the
Changi prisoner of war camp Changi Prison Complex, often known simply as Changi Prison, is a prison in Changi in the eastern part of Singapore. History First prison Before Changi Prison was constructed, the only penal facility in Singapore was at Pearl's Hill, beside ...
in Singapore during World War II. ''Changi'' is presented as a
frame story A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent. Frame and FRAME may also refer to: Physical objects In building construction *Framing (con ...
, with six older war veterans reuniting in 1999 to share their experiences and memories of their time as young men at the camp. The series is also notable for featuring scenes of toilet humour and black comedy in an otherwise serious production, a deliberate inclusion on the part of writer John Doyle, better known for his comedic alter-ego Rampaging Roy Slaven. Doyle originally envisaged the series as a sitcom with the working title of ''Worn Out & Weary'' and he first pitched the idea to the ABC as such. It was only later in the writing phase that he decided to switch to drama, albeit with elements of humour remaining as a prominent feature. A total of 53 sets had to be built for the miniseries, standing in for the camp, parts of Singapore and the Malayan jungle. The series was shot in four locations and in studio sets around
Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
. The ABC invested AUD 6 million (USD ) on the production, a figure representing one-sixth of the ABC's annual drama budget. Two cast members portraying the older versions of the main characters previously served in World War II. Bud Tingwell served as a fighter pilot while
Slim DeGrey Clifford Frank de Grey (20 May 1918 – 16 March 2007), better known as Slim De Grey, was an English-Australian actor, compere, musician, lyricist, composer and comedian. He served in the Australian Army during World War II, seeing action in th ...
was actually imprisoned as a
POW A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war ...
at the Changi camp after the fall of Singapore to the Japanese. The series was directed by
Kate Woods Kate Woods is an Australian film and television director who has directed and produced mini series, television shows, pilots and feature films. Career Woods made her feature film directorial debut with the film '' Looking for Alibrandi'' (2 ...
who, at the time, was best known for directing the successful Australian film ''Looking for Alibrandi'' (2000) and who, in more recent years, has become a successful television director in the United States.


Cast

* Old David- Charles 'Bud' Tingwell * Young David- Matthew Newton * Old Gordon- Frank Wilson * Young Gordon- Anthony Hayes * Old Bill- Terry Norris * Young Bill-
Leon Ford Leon Ford is an Australian actor who has appeared in many television and theatre productions. He is best known for his roles in the television series ''The Cooks'', ''Changi'' and the telemovie ''Stepfather of the Bride''. Biography Ford portray ...
* Old Curley-
Slim DeGrey Clifford Frank de Grey (20 May 1918 – 16 March 2007), better known as Slim De Grey, was an English-Australian actor, compere, musician, lyricist, composer and comedian. He served in the Australian Army during World War II, seeing action in th ...
* Young Curley-
Mark Priestley Mark Damien Priestley (9 August 1976 – 27 August 2008) was an Australian actor and comedian. Born in Perth, Western Australia, he graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) with a degree in Performing Arts (acting) in 1 ...
* Old Eddie- Bill Kerr * Young Eddie-
Stephen Curry Wardell Stephen Curry II ( ; born March 14, 1988) is an American professional basketball player for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time, ...
* Old Tom-
Desmond Kelly Desmond Kelly is a Ceylonese musician who has entertained in Sri Lanka and in Australia. He was born in Colombo in 1936. Songs on Radio Ceylon Kelly was one of a group of musicians who were discovered by Radio Ceylon, now the Sri Lanka Broadcas ...
* Young Tom- Matthew Whittet * Major Dr Rowdy Lawson- Geoff Morrell * Lieutenant Aso- Tsushima Gotaro * Colonel Nakamura- Misawa Shingo * Old Kate- Jill Perryman * Young Kate- Mary Docker * Ken- John Howard * Nerida- Sacha Horler * Betty & Joanne- Katherine Slattery * General Tanaka- Ken Senga * Captain Shindo- Ishihara Tatsumi * Dr Hurrell- Peter Carroll * Old Vi- Marie Armstrong * Young Vi- Rebecca Murphy * Todd- Simon Maiden * Lisa-
Nadine Garner Nadine Lynette Garner (born 14 December 1970 in Knoxfield, Melbourne) is an Australian actress who started her career as a teen performer. Biography Garner first came to public attention in 1985, as Tamara Henderson in the Australian TV series ...
* Old Joyce- Judi Farr * Young Joyce- Eliza Logan * Bertie Jenkins-
Joel McIlroy Joel McIlroy (born 8 August 1973 in Sydney) is an Australian actor, known for being the second actor to take on the role of Flynn Saunders, a character of the popular soap opera ''Home and Away''. McIlroy took over the role of Flynn in 2003 af ...


Episodes

1999. Six ageing former POWs who spent three and a half years in Changi are each preparing for the reunion of 'The Secret 9', the name of the close-knit group of six POWs whose mutual support and friendship sustained them throughout their experiences in the camp. Since the end of the war, the group have held reunions every nine years and this upcoming one will most likely be their last. As the date of the reunion draws near, each of the veterans find his memories ignited by a sight or sound associated with their traumatic experiences.


Reception

The series ''Changi'' was a ratings success. The final episode, which aired on ABC-TV on Sunday evening on 18 November 2001, was the second-most watched show that night in Australia. Reviews for the series were mixed. Robin Oliver, writing in '' The Sydney Morning Herald'', declared the series to be "immensely satisfying" and Robert Fidgeon, in Melbourne's ''
Herald Sun The ''Herald Sun'' is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the Murdoch owned News Corp. The ''Herald S ...
'', wrote that it was "one of the finest pieces of drama ever produced (in Australia)" Michael Fitzgerald, writing in '' Time'', said that the series, despite some flaws, was "the finest, most thoughtful local drama since Australia's miniseries heyday in the 1980s... The series isn't about the history of Changi, it's about the idea of Changi and how it refracts through the years to become something repressed, mythologised and feared.... Most movingly, it's about the transfer of memory to the next generation." Christopher Bantick, writing in Brisbane's '' Courier Mail'', was scathing in his review about the series. He said that the series "is a long way from representing fairly or in a balanced way what went on in the notorious camp and is close to being a profligate waste of public money". Bantick referred to ''Changi'' as "sick" and a "bomb" that "deserves to fail."
Stephen Garton Stephen Garton AM, FAHA, FRAHS, FASSA FRSN (born 1955) is an Australian historian and Professor of History at the University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a publi ...
, writing in 2002 in the ''Journal of Australian Studies'', believed the series to be a missed opportunity. In his view, Changi portrayed "an enfeebled narrative of the POW experience – narrow, parochial, inward-looking, blind to the complexities of former prisoner's voices but attuned to a nostalgic vision... of the Anzac Legend."


Controversy and criticism

The series ''Changi'' attracted considerable controversy when it first aired in 2001 and drew both praise and criticism from military historians, media commentators and real-life former POWs.
Peter Stanley Peter Alan Stanley (born 28 October 1956) is an Australian historian and research professor at the University of New South Wales in the Australian Centre for the Study of Armed Conflict and Society. He was Head of the Centre for Historical Res ...
, principal historian at the
Australian War Memorial The Australian War Memorial is Australia's national memorial to the members of its armed forces and supporting organisations who have died or participated in wars involving the Commonwealth of Australia and some conflicts involving pe ...
1987–2007, was highly critical of the series: "It gives viewers a misleading and unrealistic idea of the POW experience and of their captors. The danger is that people either believe what they see on television or don't know what's wrong and right." According to Stanley, the series contained a number of historical inaccuracies. * The massacre of POWs that occurs in the final episode never happened in the real Changi. * POWs are depicted as saluting Japanese officers whereas in reality, they were required to bow. Also, the real-life Changi in-mates had to endure frequent roll-calls ('Tenko') which do not occur in the TV version. * In the series, POWs and Japanese guards mingle frequently but in reality, the prisoners and the Japanese kept apart and rarely saw each other, the POWs having to run the camp themselves. * In the series, the POWs mock their captors in a camp concert but according to Stanley, that could never have happened as 'Japanese guards were very conscious of preserving their dignity. In real POW camps, prisoners dared not make fun of Japanese guards. It just simply wouldn't have happened.' * The camp is portrayed in the series as quite small, housing only a few hundred prisoners but the real Changi was much larger, being a permanent or temporary home to many thousands of Allied POWs. A number of real-life former in-mates of Changi were interviewed for their opinions on the series and the responses varied greatly. Some ex-POWs declared the series to be a moving, accurate portrayal whilst others dismissed it as unrealistic, overly sanitised, inaccurate and guilty of failing to depict the hardships of the real camp. 'Half of its rubbish!', declared one former POW. Historian Michael Cathcart praised the series, calling it 'a moving series that captured the suffering and comradeship that were at the heart of the prisoner of war experience...and a celebration of the powerful egalitarian spirit that is the Australian story' John Doyle defended his work. 'It's a series that runs the risk of offending everyone and satisfying no one'. Doyle argued that the series 'was not history but art – an effort to be honest to the spirit not the facts of Changi. When you try to deal with such a tricky subject, you have to abandon naturalism.' Doyle claimed that he wanted the series to show how 'Australian humour and mateship allowed Australians to survive in greater numbers than other groups of prisoners.'


Awards

The production won the Logie Award for the Most Outstanding Mini Series/Telemovie in
2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...
. Actors Geoff Morrell, Matthew Newton and Bud Tingwell were also nominated for Most Outstanding Actor Logies, and the mini series also received 3
AFI Award The Australian Film Institute (AFI) was founded in 1958 as a non-profit organisation devoted to developing an active film culture in Australia and fostering engagement between the general public and the Australian film industry. It is responsi ...
nominations.


See also

*
King Rat (Clavell novel) ''King Rat'' is a 1962 novel by James Clavell and the author's literary debut. Set during World War II, the novel describes the struggle for survival of American, Australian, British, Dutch and New Zealander prisoners of war in a Japanese ca ...
, set in Changi


References


External links


ABC Changi website
* {{IMDb title, 0274245, Changi Changi Australian Broadcasting Corporation original programming 2000s Australian television miniseries Australian military television series World War II television drama series 2001 Australian television series debuts 2001 Australian television series endings