''The Alien Years'' is a three-part miniseries that first aired on the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

on 19 April 1988. It was directed by

Donald Crombie Donald Charles Crombie (born 5 July 1942) is an Australian film and television director and screenwriter. Born in Brisbane, Crombie was educated at the Anglican Church Grammar School and studied at the National Institute of Dramatic Art. Cr ...

and written by

Peter Yeldham Peter Alan Yeldham (25 April 1927 – 20 September 2022) was an Australian screenwriter for motion pictures and television, playwright and novelist. Biography Peter Yeldham was born in Gladstone, near Smithtown, New South Wales, in 1927. L ...

. It stars Victoria Longley, John Hargreaves, Christoph Waltz. Yeldham later adapted his screenplay into a novel of the same name.An Interview with Peter Yeldham
Memorable TV. Retrieved on 5 June 2011

Plot

Elizabeth Paterson ( Victoria Longley) is the daughter of an important figure in the Australian government. She falls for and ultimately marries Stefan ( Christoph Waltz), a German national. They move to South Australia to run a vineyard but their peace is disturbed by the outbreak of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The government orders that all German nationals living in Australia must be imprisoned.

Cast

* Victoria Longley as Elizabeth Parson * Christoph Waltz as Stefan Mueller * John Hargreaves as William *Jane Harders as Edith *Kim Krejus as Martha *Tom Jennings as Harry *

Nick Tate Nicholas John Tate (born 18 June 1942) is an Australian actor popularly known for his roles as pilot Alan Carter in the 1970s science fiction television series '' Space: 1999'', and James Hamilton in the 1980s Australian soap opera '' Sons an ...

as North

Production

The series took three months to produce and was partly shot in Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills and

Bethany Bethany ( grc-gre, Βηθανία,Murphy-O'Connor, 2008, p152/ref> Syriac: ܒܝܬ ܥܢܝܐ ''Bēṯ ʿAnyā'') or what is locally known as Al-Eizariya or al-Azariya ( ar, العيزرية, " laceof Lazarus"), is a Palestinian town in the West B ...

in the

Barossa Valley The Barossa Valley (Barossa German: ''Barossa Tal'') is a valley in South Australia located northeast of Adelaide city centre. The valley is formed by the North Para River. It is notable as a major wine-producing region and tourist destina ...

.Albert Moran, ''Moran's Guide to Australian TV Series'', AFTRS 1993 p 50

References

External links

*
''The Alien Years''
at Austit World War I television drama series Television shows set in South Australia Films directed by Donald Crombie 1980s Australian television miniseries Australian Broadcasting Corporation original programming English-language television shows 1988 films {{Australia-tv-film-stub