'' Cloudstreet '' is an Australian television drama miniseries for the

Showcase Showcase or vitrine may refer to: *Cabinet (furniture) *Display case Music * ''Showcase'' (Bill Anderson album), 1964 * ''Showcase'' (Patsy Cline album), 1961 * ''Showcase'' (Buddy Holly album), 1964 * ''Showcase'' (Philly Joe Jones album), 1959 ...

subscription television channel, which first screened from 22 May 2011, in three parts. It is an adaptation of ''

Cloudstreet ''Cloudstreet'' is a novel by Australian writer Tim Winton published in 1991. It chronicles the lives of two working-class families, the Pickles and the Lambs, who come to live together in a large house called Cloudstreet in Perth, Western Aus ...

'', an award-winning novel by Australian author

Tim Winton Timothy John Winton (born 4 August 1960) is an Australian writer. He has written novels, children's books, non-fiction books, and short stories. In 1997, he was named a Living Treasure by the National Trust of Australia, and has won the Miles ...

. It was filmed in 2010 in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

, with

Matthew Saville Matthew Saville (born 1966) is an Australian television and film director, known for ''Noise (2007 Australian film), Noise'' (2007) and ''A Month of Sundays (2015 film), A Month of Sundays'' (2015). Early life and education Saville was born ...

as the director, and script written by Tim Winton and Ellen Fontana.

Plot and context

After separate personal tragedies, two families flee their rural lives to share a "great continent of a house", Cloudstreet, in the Perth suburb of

West Leederville West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

. The two families are very different; the Lambs find meaning in industry and in

God's grace Divine grace is a theological term present in many religions. It has been defined as the divine influence which operates in humans to regenerate and sanctify, to inspire virtuous impulses, and to impart strength to endure trial and resist temptat ...

; the Pickles, in luck. Although at first the two families do not warm to each other, their separate paths and search for meaning in life ends with the uniting of the two families. ''Cloudstreet'' is set in the mid-1940s to late 1950s. Although the families are influenced by world events, the story focuses on their domestic and personal lives. A recurring motif in the series involves the

stolen generations The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian federal and state government agencies and church miss ...

of Aboriginal children, some of whom had been harshly treated in the house the two families now inhabit.

Cast

The Pickles

*Dolly Pickles -

Essie Davis Esther Davis (born 19 January 1970) is an Australian actress and singer, best known for her roles as Phryne Fisher in ''Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries'' and its film adaptation, '' Miss Fisher & the Crypt of Tears'', and as Amelia Vanek in '' T ...

*Sam Pickles - Stephen Curry *Rose Pickles - Emma Booth *Young Rose Pickles -

Lara Robinson Lara Robinson (born 1 January 1998) is an Australian actress who has appeared in films, television series, and theatre productions. Career Robinson has appeared in a remake of a 1978 Australian thriller ''Long Weekend'' starring Claudia Karvan ...

*Ted Pickles - Sean Keenan *Young Ted Pickles - Will Mattock *Chub Pickles - Shannon Lively *Young Chub Pickles - Reece Sardelic

The Lambs

*Lester Lamb - Geoff Morrell *Oriel Lamb -

Kerry Fox Kerry Lauren Fox (born 30 July 1966) is a New Zealand actress. She came to prominence playing author Janet Frame in the movie ''An Angel at My Table'' directed by Jane Campion, which gained her a Best Actress Award from the New Zealand Film and ...

*Fish Lamb -

Hugo Johnstone-Burt Hugo Kingsley Johnstone-Burt (born 1988) is a Scottish-Australian actor. He grew up in Sydney and decided to become an actor after attending his first drama class. Johnstone-Burt graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in 2009. He ...

*Young Fish Lamb - Tom Russell *Quick Lamb -

Todd Lasance Todd James Lasance (born 18 February 1985) is an Australian actor, best recognised for his roles in Australian television including Aden Jefferies on ''Home and Away'', Cam Jackson on '' Rescue: Special Ops'', Ben McMahon on ''Crownies'' and Maj ...

*Young Quick Lamb -

Callan McAuliffe Callan Ryan Claude McAuliffe (born 24 January 1995) is an Australian actor, known for his roles as Bryce Loski in '' Flipped'' and Sam Goode in '' I Am Number Four''. He appeared as young Jay Gatsby in the 2013 film ''The Great Gatsby''. From 2 ...

*Young Hat Lamb -

Freya Tingley Freya Tingley (born 26 March 1994) is an Australian actress. Career Tingley's first professional role was "Young Joan" in Caryl Churchill's play '' Far Away'' for The Black Swan Theatre Company in 2008. Since then she has appeared in a number ...

*Hat Lamb - Siobhan Dow-Hall *Young Elaine Lamb - Annie Smith *Elaine Lamb - Sarah McKellar *Lon Lamb - Adam Sollis *Red Lamb - Amanda Woodhams

Additional cast

*Narration by

Ron Haddrick Ronald Norman Haddrick (9 April 1929 – 11 February 2020) was an Australian actor, cricketer, narrator and presenter. In 2012, he received the Actors Equity Lifetime Achievement Award for his long and distinguished career in media, spanning s ...

*Greg McNeill as Trainer *Milly Haddrick as Trainer's Daughter *Ben Mortley as Gerry Clay *

Bruce Spence Bruce Spence (born 17 September 1945) is a New Zealand–Australian actor. Spence has amassed over 100 film and television credits and has also acted in theatre. Biography Spence won an AFI Award for Best Actor for his role in the 1971 comedy ...

as Pig *

Kelton Pell Kelton Pell is an Aboriginal Australian (Noongar) stage, TV and film actor, best known for his role as the court liaison officer, Sam Wallan, in the SBS legal drama '' The Circuit'' set in north-western Australia. Pell is from Western Australia. ...

as Bob Crab *Shaquita Nannup as Florrie *Billie-Jean Hamlet as Ruby *Michelle Stanley as Mrs Johnson *Julia Moody as Mrs Tisborn *Anna Bauert as Alma *Sarah Louella as Darlene *Natalie Holmwood as Merle *Melanie Munt as Mrs Clay *

Oliver Ackland Oliver Ackland (born 9 November 1979) is an Australian actor. Biography In 2009 he was awarded the inaugural Heath Ledger scholarship by Australians in Film. Ackland starred in Ben Lucas' ''Wasted on the Young'', which premiered at the 2010 ...

as Toby Raven *Ethan Thomas as Geoffrey Birch *Laura Fairclough as Lucy Wentworth *David Bowers as Earl Blunt *Helen Doig as May Blunt *Richard Adams as Spinner *Jodie Mead as Aboriginal Woman *Sean Walsh as Bloke *Matthew Elverd as Bloke *Angelique Malcolm as Housewife *John McKenzie as Sam's Hand Double

Production

It is an adaptation of ''

'', an award-winning novel by Australian author

. It was filmed in 2010 in

, with

as the director, and script written by Tim Winton and Ellen Fontana. Three generations of the Sydney-based Haddrick family were involved in the production of ''Cloudstreet'':

as the narrator;

Greg Haddrick Gregory Bevan Haddrick (7 September 1960) is an Australian-born Logie Award winning screenwriter and film and television producer. Over the last decade he has won six AWGIE Awards as a writer, two AFI Awards as a producer, and an International ...

as producer; and Milly Haddrick as an actress.

Release

The three-part series premiered in Australia on 22 May 2011. The series was screened in the UK from January 2012, distributed by

Sky Atlantic Sky Atlantic is a British pay television channel owned by Sky Group Limited broadcast in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The channel is primarily dedicated to imported programmes from the United States, and holds the domestic rights to HBO ...

Reception

David Knox from ''Tvtonight.com'' stated: "There are visuals, concepts and performances that surpass the usual small screen dramas which stick to pedestrian storytelling and talking heads. ''Cloudstreet'' is bursting with character, imagination and offers a cornucopia for the eye." The ''

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...

s Brad Newsome wrote: "The production and costume designs are wonderful, as is the original music by

Bryony Marks Bryony Marks is an Australian composer of film scores and theatre music, for which she has won several awards and been nominated for many others. Among her television credits is ''Please Like Me'' and ''Barracuda'', and films include '' Berlin S ...

(who also provided the haunting score for ''

Tangle Tangle may refer to: Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics *''The Tangle'' is the name of the ledger, a directed acyclic graph, used for the cryptocurrency IOTA *Tangle (mathematics), a topological object Natural sciences & medicine ...

''). Director Matthew Saville (''Noise'', ''The King'') and cinematographer Mark Wareham (''Clubland'', ''Answered by Fire'') bring it all to vivid, entrancing life. Outstanding."

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cloudstreet Showcase (Australian TV channel) original programming 2010s Australian television miniseries 2011 Australian television series debuts 2011 Australian television series endings Television series by Screentime