TV Programs Worth Watching,
Sunday June 16 to Saturday June 22

As a boy, I was given one birthday a copy of Shackleton's Argonauts, 
Frank Hurley's excellent account of Ernest Shackleton's extraordinary but 
abortive Antarctic expedition of 1914-16. Hurley was the photographer and 
cine-cameraman for the expedition.

I still have the book, which is illustrated with some of Hurley's glass 
plate photographs which he personally rescued from their ship, the 
Endurance, by repeatedly diving into the freezing water as the ship 
lay crushed in the ice and half submerged.

Shackleton's idea had been to make the first crossing of the Antarctic 
continent, hopefully naming new lands and mountains as they went. In fact, 
the expedition came to grief in the pack ice without ever landing on 
Antarctica at all.

The Endurance became trapped in the ice. Without a working radio, 
they were prisoners on board, drifting with the ice for the next ten 
months.

Near the end of the year the ship was finally crushed by the ice and the 
crew had to take to the ice. For six more months they dragged three life 
boats across the ice towards the ocean.

When they finally reached open water they rowed and sailed the lifeboats 
across 160 kilometres to freezing, desolate Elephant Island.

But it soon became clear that waiting for rescue was futile, so Shackleton 
and five other men took one of the lifeboats and set out to sail it over a 
thousand kilometres through mountainous seas to the whaling station on 
South Georgia Island.

When they miraculously arrived on South Georgia, they were on the wrong 
side of the island and had to scale a hitherto unexplored glacier to reach 
the whaling station.

Shackleton finally arrived back at Elephant Island to successfully rescue 
the 21 men who had survived on a windswept beach under two upturned 
lifeboats, five months after he set sail from there.

His expedition of exploration had become an epic of survival and human 
courage (not to mention navigation). He didn't discover any new mountains 
for the glory of the British Empire but it was an extraordinary story none 
the less.

Charles Sturridge, the multi-award winning writer-director of 
Longitude, has chosen to tell the story of Shackleton's expedition 
as the first production of his new company, Firstsight Films, set up on the 
strength of Longitude's success.

A two-part mini-series, Shackleton (ABC 8.30pm Sundays) is in every 
way a quality production. The cast is large and splendidly talented, Henry 
Braham's photography is first rate, and Sturridge's directing is up to his 
previous standard.

Kenneth Branagh plays Shackleton, while Phoebe Nicholls — she of the weak 
mouth — makes a more sympathetic than usual job of portraying his put upon 
wife Emily (when Shackleton was not dashing off exploring he was apparently 
none too discretely seeing his mistress, played by Embeth Davidtz).

Among the large cast of excellent actors, Matt Day plays a brash Frank 
Hurley and Kevin McNally the ship's captain reduced by Shackleton to being 
little more than first mate on his own ship.

Shot in Greenland under trying conditions, the film looks remarkably 
convincing, while the period scenes in Britain are evocative and authentic 
looking (except for the usual faults: everything looks new and there is a 
total absence of grime).

Indeed, my only real criticism is of Sturridge's dialogue: too much of it 
sounds studied, as if uttered in the expectation of being quoted. Surely 
people did not and do not really speak like that outside of their own 
memoirs?

All in all, however, despite some imperialist trappings (there's even an 
unconvincing scene with George V on the eve of WW1 mouthing platitudes 
about the grave responsibility of sending men to their deaths in war), this 
is a series that is definitely worth seeing. Quality television all (or at 
least most of) the way.

I have quoted before the famous definition of a philanthropist — "someone 
who gives away what he should be giving back" — but it is certainly 
relevant to any consideration of Manhattan Charity, this week's 
offering on True Stories (ABC 10:00pm Thursday).

The ABC's publicity material says of the program: "Manhattan 
Charity follows the lives of five characters who all belong to the same 
social elite that finances and controls New York's most prestigious 
cultural and educational institutions."

"Their lives are made up of grandiose charity balls, endless calls for 
help, board meetings, site visits to their 'protigis' in Harlem and the 
Bronx and evenings spent celebrating their generosity.

"Part do-gooders, part socialites, the five have earned their right to 
redistribute their money any way they like." Oh no they haven't. In the 
first place, it's not "their" money.

No matter how they "earned" it, their wealth is in fact the result of the 
robbery of the poor. By ostentatiously giving a small part of it away, they 
are attempting to absolve themselves of any guilt.

Wealth, instead of being obscene, becomes a "public benefit" that can be 
worn as a badge of honour. Just try making them disgorge a penny more than 
they wish to dole out to their carefully chosen "protigis" and you will 
soon see how philanthropic they are.

Tom Jones (ABC 11:10pm Fridays), the TV series of Henry Fielding's 
classic satirical 18th century novel is less of a romp than Tony 
Richardson's 1963 movie version, but it is a somewhat more faithful 
adaptation and free of the jokey quirks that Richardson sprinkled though 
his film.

The series is also free of the annoyingly arch music score that forces 
itself on your attention throughout the film version. On the other hand, 
the series could have benefitted from some of the movie's verve.

Fielding's story of the illegitimate son of a servant girl and his romance 
with the daughter of a neighbouring squire is rife with barbs aimed at the 
moral hypocrisy of the age which late 20th century productions can safely 
poke even more fun at.