''Howzat! Kerry Packer's War'' is an Australian drama-miniseries set in the 1970s that premiered on the

Nine Network Nine Network (stylised 9Network, and commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of the five main free-to-air television ...

on Sunday 19 August 2012.

Plot

The Ashes is the pinnacle of world cricket with two old enemies, Australia and England, going head to head. This series is the story of

World Series Cricket World Series Cricket (WSC) was a commercial professional cricket competition staged between 1977 and 1979 which was organised by Kerry Packer and his Australian television network, Nine Network. WSC ran in commercial competition to established ...

and its creator, Australian media mogul

Kerry Packer Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer (17 December 1937 – 26 December 2005) was an Australian media tycoon, and was considered one of Australia's most powerful media proprietors of the twentieth century. The Packer family company owned a controlling ...

, who signed up the world's greatest players and set up a parallel cricket competition. The Australian cricket team, visiting England in 1977 for the Ashes series, fields a team full of legends. Cricket is undergoing a revolution and the cricket establishment will be brought to its knees.

Cast

Lachy Hulme Lachy Hulme (born 1 April 1971) is an Australian actor and screenwriter. He has written several films and has appeared in a number of Australian and US film and television productions. Early life Hulme was born in Melbourne, Victoria where he h ...

Travis McMahon Travis McMahon is an Australian actor. For his performance in '' Stingers'' he was nominated for the 2001 Australian Film Institute Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Guest Role in a Television Drama Series. After graduating from ...

Paul Hogan Paul Hogan (born 8 October 1939) is an Australian actor and comedian. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance as ...

Abe Forsythe Abraham Forsythe (born 26 July 1981) is an Australian film and television actor, director, writer and producer. He is the son of actor and comedian Drew Forsythe. Career He first appeared on the TV series ''The Miraculous Mellops (TV series), T ...

John Cornell John Cornell (2 March 1941 – 23 July 2021) was an Australian actor, director, producer, writer, and businessman. He was best known for his role as "Strop" on '' The Paul Hogan Show'', and he was instrumental in the introduction of World Seri ...

Cariba Heine Cariba Heine (born 1 October 1988) is a South African-born Australian actress and dancer. She is known for her roles as Rikki Chadwick in the Network Ten show '' H2O: Just Add Water'', Bridget Sanchez in the third series of '' Blue Water High'' ...

Delvene Delaney Delvene Delaney (born 26 August 1951) is an Australian actress of soap opera and film, television presenter and singer. Early life Delaney was born in Mackay, Queensland, Australia, on 26 August 1951. Career The beauty pageant winner found fam ...

* Peter Houghton as

Richie Benaud Richard Benaud (; 6 October 1930 – 10 April 2015) was an Australian cricketer who played for New South Wales cricket team, New South Wales and Australia national cricket team, Australia. Following his retirement from international cricket in ...

Clayton Watson Clayton Watson (born 23 March 1977) is an Australian producer, actor, writer, and director. He grew up in the Australian outback on a sheep station near Morgan, South Australia. Watson is best known for his breakthrough role as Kid in the f ...

Ian Chappell Ian Michael Chappell (born 26 September 1943) is a former cricketer who played for South Australia and Australia. Known as "Chappelli", he is considered as one of the greatest captains the game has seen.

Damon Gameau Damon Gameau is an Australian actor, director, and producer, known for his documentaries '' That Sugar Film'' and ''2040''. Gameau has also appeared in a number of award-winning TV shows and films, such as ''Love My Way'', '' The Tracker'' and ...

Greg Chappell Gregory Stephen Chappell (born 7 August 1948) is a former cricketer who represented Australia at international level in both Tests and One-Day Internationals (ODI). The second of three brothers to play Test cricket, Chappell was the pre-eminent ...

Matthew Le Nevez Matthew Le Nevez (born 10 January 1979) is an Australian actor. He is best known for his roles as Doctor Patrick Reid in the TV series ''Offspring'', Detective Brian Dutch in the Tasmanian Gothic sci-fi television show '' The Kettering Incident ...

Dennis Lillee Dennis Keith Lillee, (born 18 July 1949) is a retired Australian cricketer rated as the "outstanding fast bowler of his generation".

Ryan O'Kane Ryan O'Kane (born ) is a New Zealand actor. His roles include Rhys Levitt in the Australian police drama '' City Homicide'', Prince Frederik in the telemovie '' Mary: The Making of a Princess'', and Riley Hawkins in ''Home and Away''. In 2018 ...

Jeff Thomson Jeffrey Robert Thomson (born 16 August 1950) is a former Australian cricketer. Known as "Thommo", he is one of the fastest bowlers in the history of cricket; he bowled a delivery with a speed of 160.6 km/h against the West Indies in Perth ...

Brendan Cowell Brendan Cowell is an Australian actor and writer. He is known for his lead role in 2024 television series ''Plum'' that he created, based on his 2021 novel of the same name. Early life and education Brendan Cowell was born in Sydney and grew u ...

Rod Marsh Rodney William Marsh (4 November 1947 – 4 March 2022) was an Australian professional cricketer who played as a wicketkeeper for the Australian national team. He was a part of the Australian squad which finished as runners-up at the 1975 ...

* Richard Davies as

David Hookes David William Hookes (3 May 1955 – 19 January 2004) was an Australian cricket player and coach. He played for the Australia national cricket team and domestic cricket for South Australia, later coaching Victoria. An aggressive left-handed ba ...

* Nicholas Coghlan as Austin Robertson Jr. *

Alexander England Alexander England is an Australian actor. He is from Albury in New South Wales, where he attended Scots School Albury. Career Alexander England was selected to play Tony Greig, a former captain of the English cricket team known in Australia fo ...

Tony Greig Anthony William Greig (6 October 194629 December 2012) was a South African-born cricketer and commentator. Greig qualified to play for the England cricket team by virtue of his Scottish father. He was a tall () all-rounder who bowled both ...

* Andrew Carbone as

Max Walker Maxwell Henry Norman Walker (12 September 1948 – 28 September 2016) was an Australian sportsman who played both cricket and Australian rules football at high levels. After six years of balancing first-class cricket in summer, professional fo ...

* Russell Newman as

Harry Chester Harry Chester (1 October 1806 – 5 October 1868) was a British civil servant who spent most of his career in the Privy Council Office (United Kingdom), Privy Council Office. He published one book, ''The Lay of the Lady Ellen, a tale of 1834'', an ...

Tony Briggs Tony Briggs (born 3 July 1967) is an Aboriginal Australian actor. He is best known for creating the stage play '' The Sapphires'' (later a 2012 film), which tells the true story of an Aboriginal singing girl group who toured Vietnam during th ...

Clive Lloyd Sir Clive Hubert Lloyd (born 31 August 1944) is a Guyanese- British former cricketer and captain of the West Indies cricket team. Lloyd is widely regarded as one of the greatest captains of all time. As a boy he went to Chatham High School in ...

* Daniel Worrall as Mick Malone * Craig Hall as Gavin Warner *

Mandy McElhinney Mandy McElhinney (born 9 September 1970) is an Australian actress best known for playing Rhonda in AAMI insurance advertisements. She appeared on the sketch comedy television series, '' Comedy Inc.'', from 2003 to 2006. She appeared as Gina Ri ...

as Rose *

Nicholas Bell Nicholas Bell (born 15 August 1958) is an English actor who has worked in Australia for more than 30 years. Bell works regularly with the Melbourne Theatre Company as well as with all the major television broadcasters in Australia, most notabl ...

as Clive Bell *

Angus Sampson Angus Sampson is an Australian actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his performances as Tucker in the ''Insidious'' film series, Ray Jenkins in ''The Mule'' (2014), The Organic Mechanic in '' Mad Max: Fury Road'' (2015) and '' Furiosa: A M ...

as Alan Johnston * Paul Denny as

Bruce Francis Bruce Colin Francis (born 18 February 1948) is a former Australian cricketer who played three Test matches on the Australian tour of England in 1972. Francis was a hard-hitting opening batsman, who played for New South Wales from 1968–69 to ...

Eliza Taylor Eliza Jane Morley ( Taylor-Cotter; born 24 October 1989), known professionally as Eliza Taylor, is an Australian actress. She is best known for her roles as Janae Timmins on the Australian soap opera drama ''Neighbours'' (2005–2008), as Clark ...

as Rhonda *

Diane Craig Diane Mary Craig (born 1949), sometimes credited as Di Craig, is a Northern Irish-born Australian actress best known for her performances in film and television. Early life Craig was born in County Down, Northern Ireland in 1949. Her family rel ...

as well-dressed woman at SCG

Ratings

Accolades

Book

''Howzat! Kerry Packer's War'', is also a book by

Christopher Lee Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee (27 May 1922 – 7 June 2015) was an English actor and singer. In a career spanning more than sixty years, Lee became known as an actor with a deep and commanding voice who often portrayed villains in horr ...

, who wrote the screenplay of the TV series. It was first published in 2012 by New South Publishing, an imprint of

The University of New South Wales ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

References

External links

* {{Authority control Nine Network original programming 2010s Australian television miniseries Television series by Endemol Shine Australia Television series by Endemol Cricket on television 2012 Australian television series debuts 2012 Australian television series endings Television series set in 1977