ABSTRACT
In retrospect, the program that is generally regarded as the first Australian ‘historical’ mini-series, Against the Wind, can be seen to have pioneered many of the protocols of production and reception that have characterised this distinctive television drama format. Writing in 1987, Jane Freebury estimated that 50 mini-series had been made in Australia since the introduction of the 10BA tax legislation, while only three were made before this. This indicates something of the complex of institutional preconditions and contexts for the establishment of the mini-series at the high-budget end of film and television financing in the 1980s in Australia. The mini-series’ hybrid status, as could be expected, poses further problems for general theories of televisual form. Taking perhaps the most evident aspect first, the Australian historical mini-series is ‘quality’, ‘event’ television. The mini-series’ placement as ‘quality’ television has several interrelated levels of registration.
