Rewind & The Sopranos

This article first appeared in the Age on August 14, 2004

Rewind, the new history program on the ABC (9.25 pm, Sundays) is a really good show. The only reason this is surprising is that a vague sense of panic emanated from the ABC as this program was being developed, which was not encouraging. But, as those who watched last week will know, the segments on Bill Hughes's daughters and Ned Kelly's skull were engrossing television.

We discover that the 21 year old Helen Hughes went to London to conceal a pregnancy, died after childbirth and that her son is still alive, in Sydney. There was a genuine sense of watching the facts unfold in moving and unexpected ways. We were reminded that history, and our understanding of it, is a living thing. Rewind had another first in the segment on Ned Kelly's head. It was the first time that Tom Baxter, the man who stole - or as he says, 'liberated' - the skull thought to be Ned Kelly's has gone on the record in more than 20 years. Rewind then had a forensic pathologist reconstruct the face of the skull, only to find that Ned Kelly eludes us still. The skull that sat in Old Melbourne Gaol for 100 years, the skull Baxter 'freed', isn't Ned's at all. Rewind even went on to discover whose skull it actually was. Tomorrow night the show will re-examine the facts surrounding the mysterious disappearance of two of the pioneers of Australia's environment movement back in 1978.

Rewind was originally entitled 'The History Detectives', a title that better communicates what the show is on about. And I am sad too that it has been scheduled to go head to head with The Games of the XXVII Olympiad (See highlights) when Rewind should be allowed to establish its audience. Packaged like a Current Affairs show, it is presented by historian, author and broadcaster Michael Cathcart, who has an appropriate sense of excitement about the stories that are unearthed. The investigative journalists and reporters are all real talents - those who have shone most so far being Christopher Zinn and Rebe Taylor. The only real disappointment is the smaller stories meant as light relief have felt more like fillers. Of the larger stories I was frustrated by the segment on the mystery of Hanging Rock - what really happened to the schoolgirls that went missing at the turn of the century? Well if only the show had thought to ask my mum, or indeed any one from that area they would have heard a range of stories more satisfactory that the one came up with. But who cares if not every story hits the mark? It seems to me that each week Rewind will rediscover a moment of history that shows us what a remarkable place Australia really is - and that makes this show well worth watching.

Now to New Jersey Culture: those of us who worship at the shrine of The Sopranos every Monday night need to prepare ourselves for this week's finale (Monday, Channel 9, 10.40pm) because it is going to be at least eighteen months before the sixth and final series come to our shores. I don't want to give too much away but you may find yourself wanting to yell at DR Malfi as she exhorts Tony to work on his guilt complex so he can 'resolve' some issues: take guilt away from the man and God knows where we'll end up. Reinforcing what superb drama this is there is a circular feel to the last moments of this episode, which echo the series opening images of a Grizzly Bear shambling through the woods not knowing where to turn next.

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