Foxtel delivers Gallipoli goods

Deadline Gallipoli
Showcase, Foxtel, various times
THIS is the telling of the Australian Gallipoli tale we’ve been waiting for.
On a far smaller budget, and with a far better script, this effort towers over Channel 9s failed “Gallipoli”.
Deadline Gallipoli succeeds not only because of its clever script, but also because it examines the war from the levels of command and those in the trenches, but mainly from the view of its war correspondents.
In two parts of two hours each, it’s a much more tightly focused drama than Nine’s endless, sprawling epic.
Front and centre is new talent Joel Jackson, who portrays the immortal C.E. W. Bean as a tortured soul who takes to heart every bullet fired at an Anzac.
(In fact Bean, the legendary official Australian WWI historian, got so close to the frontline he was actually shot by the Turks himself).
Sam Worthington is both low-key and intense as Phillip Schuler, The Age’s correspondent, and Ewen Leslie is brilliant as Keith Murdoch, who arrives to deliver the classic Aussie arse-kicking for which his family is duly famous.
Even Bryan Brown and Rachael Griffiths pop in for a bit.
Credit also to Hugh Dancy as Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett, who almost steals the show from a stellar cast.
With its examination of command, of the Diggers in the trenches themselves, and a relentless focus on the responsibilities and difficulties of war reportage, this is the Gallipoli production that delivers.
It’s the first truly industrial war, and the princes of the press in the “free” world will inevitably butt up against the military masters of discipline.
The tale must be told, but in what detail and with what “facts”, and how are the correspondents prepared to deal with the lines they must cross and the pain they must inflict on their own “side”?
Deadline Gallipoli has a moral centre that sets it apart from so much of the consideration of the Anzac legend this year. If you watch one Anzac tribute in a sea of tributes, watch this one.
– Jason Beck