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The co-creator of Offspring has deplored the decline of the 13-episode Australian drama and criticised the shift to shorter-run .puzzle. dramas. .I feel quite sad that the 13-parter seems to be fading in Australia,. Debra Oswald said in an interview for the Swinburne Institute for Social Research.s report TV 2025: Reconsidering small screen media in Australia by Jock Given, Michael Brealey and Cathy Gray.

.People now just seem to just want six or eight,. said Oswald, who created Offspring with John Edwards and Imogen Banks and worked on the 13-part show for all five seasons.

However two networks dispute that view.. Angus Ross, Seven Network Director of Programming, tells If: .It.s a matter of finding the right format for the story being told. The suggestion that the 13-part series is dead is premature in my view..

Andy Ryan, co-head of drama at the Nine Network says, "The 13-parter...

The co-creator of Offspring has deplored the disappearance of the 13-episode Australian drama and criticised the shift to shorter-run .puzzle. dramas. .I feel quite sad that the 13-parter seems to be fading in Australia,. Debra Oswald said in an interview for the Swinburne Institute for Social Research.s report TV 2025: Reconsidering small screen media in Australia by Jock Given, Michael Brealey and Cathy Gray.

.People now just seem to just want six or eight,. said Oswald, who created Offspring with John Edwards and Imogen Banks and worked on the 13-part show for all five seasons.

.Twenty years ago I would have thought, oh what a treat to get to do a six-parter, because it was seen as more high quality and authorial or something. I can see the joys of that, the chance to develop characters over time.

.With a 13-part series, or even the old 26-part, you can...

Political thriller The Code took the major Awgie award as well as the trophy for best original miniseries at the Australian Writers. Guild awards on Friday night.

The six-hour series, which premieres on ABC on September 21, is written by Blake Ayshford, Shelley Birse and Justin Monjo and produced by Playmaker Media. The major Awgie recognises the best of the night's winners across stage, screen, new media and radio.

The feature film award went to Adelaide writer Matthew Cormack for his first debut feature 52 Tuesdays, the gender-bending drama hailed as .bold and structurally adventurous..

Winner of the best documentary prize was Sally McKenzie for A Woman.s Journey Into Sex.

Andrew Knight was rewarded for his script for Essential Media and Entertainment.s telemovie The Broken Shore, adapted from the Peter Temple novel. Writer/director Peter Duncan won best TV series script for Essential.s Rake.

Niki Aken and Felicity Packard...

Sue Masters has re-joined Sbs as the executive producer of drama.

Masters reports to Alison Sharman, who was named head of commissioning for Sbs One and Sbs 2 last year.

Her appointment follows the retirement of Caterina de Nave as Ep of drama and comedy, TV and online.

.Sue will be a fantastic addition to the team and we are very much looking forward to having her on board to continue progressing our drama slate,. Sbs Head of TV Tony Iffland told If.

.Sue has an outstanding track record in Australian drama production, which our Sbs audience will soon come to appreciate..

Sbs has not announced a new local drama this year but a spokeswoman said, "We have several in development at the moment and hope to make a key announcement for 2015 very soon."

Masters was appointed supervising executive producer for comedy and drama for Sbs in 2008. In 2010 she was the...

Rodger Corser and Asher Keddie

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Adam Zwar, Angus Sampson, Colin Moody, Kaiya Jones, Oliver Ackland and Doris Younane have joined the cast of Party Tricks, the Network Ten drama now shooting in Melbourne.

Michael Lucas (Offspring, Not Suitable for Children) created the 6-part series which stars Asher Keddie as Premier Kate Ballard, whose campaign to be re-elected is upset when popular TV and radio personality David McLeod (Rodger Corser) is drafted in as the Opposition.s candidate.

It turns out Kate and David had a secret, tumultuous affair several years earlier. Party Tricks becomes a cat-and-mouse game which culminates in an election night finale.

Imogen Banks and John Edwards are producing for Endemol Australia, co-funded by Screen Australia and Film Victoria. Endemol Worldwide Distribution is distributing internationally.

Zwar (The Agony of Life, Rush) plays Trevor Bailey, the deputy Opposition leader.. Sampson (Paper Giants: Magazine Wars, Howzat! Kerry Packer.s War) is Wayne Duffy,...

Prolific screenwriter Everett De Roche, who died in Melbourne yesterday, was one of the instigators of the Ozploitation genre movement of the 1970s and 80s.

The Us-born writer, who migrated to Australia with his wife in 1968, was 67. He had battled with cancer for three years. He started as an in-house writer for Crawfords for four years in the 1970s, penning episodes of Homicide, Division 4, Ryan and Matlock Police.

His first feature screenplay was Colin Eggleston.s Long Weekend in 1978. Among his film credits were Richard Franklin.s Patrick (1978), Simon Wincer.s Harlequin (1980), Franklin.s Roadgames (1981), David Hemmings. Race to the Yankee Zephyr (1981), Russell Mulcahy.s Razorback (1984) and Franklin.s Visitors (2003).

In 2008 he and director Jamie Blanks collaborated on a remake of Long Weekend, for which he added two characters, a baby dugong and several scenes. "The basic environmental message works as well today as it did in 1978," he said.

Star Trek Into Darkness | Mud | A Hijacking | The Reluctant Fundamentalist | Our Children | Deadfall | Vehicle 19 | Village At The End Of The World | Journey To Italy

Star Trek Into Darkness (12A)

(Jj Abrams, 2013, Us) Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Benedict Cumberbatch, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg. 132 mins

Those cinemagoers won over by Abrams's first Star Trek movie (even if they can barely remember it now) won't be disappointed with this finely tuned follow-up, which deftly balances action crises, sci-fi repartee and the ongoing Kirk/Spock bromance, but adds enough surprises to keep things interesting, largely by way of Cumberbatch's shifty supervillain.

Mud (12A)

(Jeff Nichols, 2012, Us) Matthew McConaughey, Tye Sheridan, Reese Witherspoon. 130 mins

Another distinctive, beguiling southern parable from Nichols, this time tracking the friendship between two boys and the mysterious fugitive they find down by the river. It's like a mix of Stand By Me, Night Of The Hunter and Terrence Malick.

There may be a lot of truth to the idea that Liz & Dick is (one of) the most talked about movie of the year, but I’m not absolutely sure it’s a claim I would feature.

Good or bad, Lindsay Lohan or no, and if you’re the right crowd, Lifetime or no, there’s no denying that the movie takes on interesting subject matter, and is potentially well worth watching just to catch some glimpse into the lives of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Of course, I don’t know that it has anything to say that isn’t well-worn material, but it’s worth finding out.

What do you think about this one, and is the movie, wherever it lands, overshadowed simply by the fact that Lohan is in it? I’d like to know where the public is coming down on this one. Will you watch?...

On Wednesday, almost everything in San Sebastian ground to a halt for a Basque country general strike. Bars and shops lay closed and the film festival ran a restricted programme, with just a handful of films showing at the main Kursaal auditorium. Protestors held rallies, carrying coffins bearing slogans referring to the death of right-wing socialism. Critics caught up on writing - or just on sleep - while those locals who weren't at demonstrations made the most of some late September sunshine down at the beach.

While the first half of my festival films seemed to be dominated by politics - from the aftermath of student uprisings in Something In The Air, to the ousting of Pinochet in No - things in the last few days have taken on a decidedly more personal tone with parent/child relationships coming to dominate and a double bill of powerfully emotional...

This article originally appeared in If Magazine #144 (Dec-Jan 2012).

Kirsty Fisher I haven.t marked my calendar but I guess I met Marieke when I script edited her on a kids show many, many years ago . probably almost ten years ago . and then we worked together really closely on Last Man Standing.

I was a script editor and she was basically everything else and we realised in working together on that show that we shared a lot in common and we loved working with each other.

So when that show didn.t go ahead to a second series we got together... and came up with a whole lot of stories, ideas and concepts and one of those was . well it was called Like a Virgin but it.s the show that became Laid.

It doesn.t feel like work at all, it.s great fun. It.s very harmonious . there.s very little tension.

On Monday I detailed my top ten most anticipated films playing at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival. If you missed it you can read that here. On it I said I would probably be able to see somewhere around 17 movies, but looking over my tentative schedule, with one day yet to have a solid plan and my final day in town occupied by only one movie, I have already scheduled myself to see 22 movies, which includes a little breathing room here and there for filing some reviews. That said, I wanted to share my schedule so you had a general idea what to expect when it comes to reviews. This isn't a schedule that's set in stone, which is why I also included alternate options as sometimes gut instinct will take you into one theater when you expected to go into another and the schedule has some gaps at the Festival's...

Top Ten Most Anticipated Movies at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival Talk about impossible. While having to choose from so many amazing titles is a great problem to have, that doesn't stop it from being endlessly infuriating. While putting together my schedule for the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival I came up with a total of 44 films that I would like to see, and that was a conservative effort. That was me saying, "Nah, I won't add that one because I definitely won't be able to find time to see it." I say this so you understand what I'm up against and why some films just won't make the cut. Last year I saw 17 movies at the festival and reviewed 18, one of which I saw before leaving to go to Toronto. This year I also have already seen one film that will be playing the fest, The Perks of Being a Wallflower,...

Once cast as the Amazon warrior princess Wonder Woman in what was to be George Miller’s failed Justice League film, Megan Gale will finally get to team up with the director in Mad Max: Fury Road. Her role is unspecified at the moment, but we do have character names for a host of other roles, including that of Hugh Keays-Byrne, who was tapped to star as the Martian Manhunter alongside Gale. Mad Max: Fury Road features Tom Hardy in the title role along with Charlize Theron as Furiosa. Hit the jump for more casting info. Here’s more casting news courtesy of Movie Hole (via Cbm): Nathan Jones (Troy) as Rictus Erecetus Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: First Class) as Nux Hugh Keays-Byrne (Mad Max) as Immortan Joe Zoe Kravitz, Riley Keough and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley as “the wives.” Abbey Lee Kershaw as “The Dag” Courtney Eaton as Fragile Josh Helman...

In today’s one-sheet round-up we have a teaser poster for a multi-lingual coming-of-age drama, a slavery/vengeance flick, and a testosterone-filled action movie that is inspired by one of the most famous paintings in the world. First up is the teaser poster for “Carlos” and “Summer Hours” director Oliver Assayas’ next directorial effort, “Something In The Air.” The striking imagery is certainly in keeping with what little we know of the film, which is set in early 1970s Europe where “Gilles is a high school student in Paris, swept up in the political fever of the time. Yet his real dream is to paint and make films, something that his friends and even his girlfriend cannot understand. For them, politics is everything: the social struggle all-consuming. But Gilles gradually becomes more comfortable with his life choices and learns to feel at ease in this new society.” The film will...

The 2012 edition of the London Indian Film Festival will showcase a specially curated programme from ‘Experimenta’, the independent international festival for experimental cinema in India. This programme has been curated by Shai Heredia, Experimenta’s Festival Director and comprises of works that can be called avant-garde or experimental.

The films to be screened in this section are: Presence by Ekta Mittal and Yashaswini Raghunandan, Residue by Sonal Jain and Mriganka Madhukaillya, Jan Villa by Natasha Mendonca, City Beyond by Shreyasi Kar and There is Something in the Air by Iram Ghufran.

The venue for these screenings will be Tate Modern, London.

Festival Director Cary Sawhney said: “It’s terrific to have a world renowned organisation like Tate Modern partner with us this year and we hope this is the start of a long association. The inclusion of experimental, artist films in the festival’s line-up furthers our aim to present...

The London Indian Film Festival (June 20 – July 3) is exploring new boundaries and is proud to announce a brand new partnership with Tate Modern to present a rare showcase of Indian experimental film curated from Bangalore.

Festival Director Cary Sawhney says: “It’s terrific to have a world renowned organisation like Tate Modern partner with us this year and we hope this is the start of a long association. The inclusion of experimental, artist films in the festival’s line-up furthers our aim to present as varied a picture of contemporary Indian cinema as possible. It gives us the opportunity to work with respected guest curators, in this case, Shai Heredia, director of India’s Experimenta Festival. And, of course, to expand our audience, since it is likely that the audience watching these programmes will be different to that at the high-octane gangster film or the RomCom.”

The curator, Shai Heredia,...

Grant Bowler / Richard Burton: Liz & Dick Grant Bowler as Richard Burton in Lifetime’s fall movie Liz & Dick looks less convincing than Lindsay Lohan as Elizabeth Taylor. Burton met Taylor at the time the two were making Cleopatra for 20th Century Fox. A troubled production, Cleopatra was initially to have starred Taylor, Peter Finch, and Stephen Boyd, under the direction of Rouben Mamoulian. Mamoulian left, Taylor fell seriously ill, nearly died, and had to have a tracheotomy performed. The end result was a Best Actress Academy Award for her troubles (and for Butterfield 8) and brand new leading men for Cleopatra: Richard Burton as Marc Antony and Rex Harrison as Julius Caesar. By then, Cleopatra also had a new director: two-time Best Director Oscar winner Joseph L. Mankiewicz. A respected stage and screen actor in the ’60s, Richard Burton was nominated for seven Academy Awards. Best Supporting Actor...

Deool, Byari, Aaranyakandam, and the other winners of the 2011 National Film Awards have been announced. The 59th Annual National Film Awards, administered by the India’s Directorate of Film Festivals, is “the most prominent film award ceremony in India. Established in 1954, it is administrated by the Indian government’s Directorate of Film Festivals since 1973. Every year, a national panel appointed by the government selects the winning entry, and the award ceremony is held in New Delhi, where the President of India gives away the awards.

This is followed by the inauguration of the National Film Festival, where the award-winning films are screened for the public. Declared for films produced in the previous year across the country, they hold the distinction of awarding merit to the best of Indian cinema overall, as well as presenting awards for the best films in each region and language of the country. Due to the...

• Nicole Kidman joins The Railway Man, stepping in for Rachel Weisz. She plays opposite Colin Firth, who will portray an older version of real-life World War II P.O.W. Eric Lomax. War Horse’s Jeremy Irvine depicts young Lomax when he was taken prisoner in Japan. Shooting begins next month. [Variety]

• Bruce Willis gets some action as a bodyguard to a Mexican politician whose father was murdered by a drug cartel in the new popcorn flick Five Against a Bullet from Alex Litvak (Predators). [Variety]

• Scarlett Johansson goes behind the shower curtain as Janet Leigh in The Terminal scribe Sacha Gervasi...

Open Frame– the eleventh annual Film Festival & Forum of documentary films, workshops and discussions will be organized by the Public Service Broadcasting Trust (Psbt) from September 9-17, 2011.

The festival will take place in collaboration with and at the India International Centre, New Delhi.

“2011 marks a decade of Psbt’s work towards democratising the media and mainstreaming the independent documentary,” as stated in a press release.

Hence Open Frame 2011 will focus on Psbt Films produced over the last year and a retrospective of those produced over the last decade.

There will be Documentary Film Appreciation and Fiction Film Appreciation Workshops by Professor Suresh Chabria, Film and Television Institute of India, on 9 and 12-13 September respectively.

There will be Workshops on Filmmaking by Paromita Vohra (Script Writing), Avijit Mukul Kishore (Camera), Suresh Rajamani (Sound) and Sankalp Meshram (Editing) from September 14-17, 2011.

The films to be screened include:

Eer…Stories in Stone by...

A Pestering Journey by K.R. manoj won the Best Long Documentary while There is Something in the Air by Iram Gufran won the Best Short Documentary at the 4th International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala.

Kaveri by Shilpa Munikempanna won the Best Short Film.

The festival was held from July 31-August 4, 2011 and had received a total of 625 entries.

Complete list of awards:

Best Long Documentary: A Pestering Journey by K.R. Manoj

Best Short Documentary: There is Something in the Air by Iram Gufran

Best Short Fiction: Kaveri by Shilpa Munikempanna

Best Music Video: Sitaharan and the Stories by Anusha Nandakumar

Best Animation Film: Journey to Nagaland by Aditi Chitre

Best Documentary Cameraman: Shehanad Jalal for A Pestering Journey

Best Short Fiction Cameraman: Barun D Jordar for Open Doors

Special Jury Mention

Sound Design:

Aditi Chitre and Preetham Das for Journey to Nagaland

Animation:

It is the...

The 4th International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala has announced the films in competition. These films have been selected out of the 625 entries the festival received.

The 2011 edition of the festival will take place from July 31-August 4, 2011 in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

The list of films in the International and the Non-competitive sections will be announced this week.

The festival is organised by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, for the Department of Cultural Affairs, Government of Kerala.

The complete list of films in competition:

Long Documentary:

1. A Pestering Journey Dir: K. R. Manoj/Malayalam/66min/2010

2. Between Border and Fence Dir: Ajay Raina/ Pahari|Kashmiri|Urdu/77min/2011

3. Draupadi’s Descendents Dir: Oindrilla Hazare/Bengali|Hindi/53min/2011

4. Made in India Dir: Vaishali Sinha|Rabecca Haimowitz/Hindi|English/97min/2010

5. Miyar House Dir: P. N Ramachandran/Kannada/76min/2011

6. Mrigtrishna Dir: Ujjwal U/Gujarathi/52min/2010

7. Mullaitivu Saga Dir: S. Somatheeran/ English|Tamil/46min/2010

8. Ottayal /One...

No other time, no other place sees a greater concentration of the world's film journalists than the Cannes Film Festival. If you've got an announcement to make, Cannes is the when and where to make it. Before what looks like a pretty raucous week gets rolling tomorrow, I thought I'd gather notes on a few of the most interesting made so far.

The Hollywood Reporter's Scott Roxborough goes to work on the story that's probably made the biggest noise so far: "The creator of Antichrist and the helmer of Taxi Driver will collaborate on their next project. Danish director Lars von Trier and Oscar-winner Martin Scorsese are teaming up for a remake of The Five Obstructions, von Trier's 2003 documentary deconstructing the filmmaking process…. It's unclear which of Scorcese's films will form the basis of the Five Obstructions remake."

Jason Guerrasio for Filmmaker: "This news got me thinking about another project...

With their first feature Insidious being a massive hit, the newly formed FilmDistrict is currently on a pick-up frenzy during the chaotic Cannes Film Festival. Their upcoming thriller, Nicolas Winding Refn‘s Drive starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan, is playing in competition and they’ve decided to do some business on the trip to France. Deadline tells us they are in final negotiations to acquire U.S. distribution for Looper, the next film from Brick and The Brothers Bloom director Rian Johnson.

The plan is to team with Sony Pictures’ TriStar label for marketing and distribution. The time travel film stars Bruce Willis (as an older version of Joseph Gordon-Levitt‘s character), Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, Jeff Daniels and Piper Perabo. The high-concept story follows “hitmen whose victims are sent back in time from the future to be executed. The Loopers bump them off in the present, so there...

The folks who brought us Certified Copy, Dogtooth and To the Sea have a huge film in their possessions that might topple the Venice Film Fest. MK2, the Sales Agent, Theatrical Distribution and Production Company must be close to selling out all the territories for Walter Salles' On the Road, but in the mean time they've got Beauty playing in the Ucr, The Fairy opening the Directors' Fortnight, a doc on Charlotte Rmpling and are bringing back Melies' A Trip to the Moon to life. Here is the entire slate which includes Xavier Dolan's next. Beauty (Skoonheid) by Olivier Hermanus - Completed On The Road by Walter Salles - Post-Production The Fairy (La Fee) by Dominique Abel - Completed A Trip To The Moon (Le Voyage Dans La Lune) by Georges Melies - Completed Black Venus (Venus Noire) by Abdellatif Kechiche - Completed Charade by Stanley Donen -...

Olivier Assayas' follow-up to "Carlos," "Something in the Air," has been acquired by IFC Films for North American release, it was announced today. Assayas - currently a jury member at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival - previously teamed with IFC for both "Carlos" and "Summer Hours." His new film is set in the 1970s and follows a young high school student in Paris, torn between his artistic ambitions and the ...

After both of them struck gold with their latest cinematic ventures, Assayas on last year’s acclaimed historical epic Carlos and Kiarostami with the upcoming Certified Copy, which has been making waves at various film festivals over the past year. The fact that they’ll be doing something new right away should still make you excited, and we have French Company MK2 Productions to thank, as they’ll be handling French distribution and international sales of both.

Variety tells us that Assayas‘ next film is Apres mai, which in English translates to Something in the Air. Following an eighteen-year-old in 1970′s France, who is dealing with the “rapid social change and political activism begun in the late ’60s.” It’s said to “turn on the difficulties of freedom,” and while said to predominately be in French, it’ll also have dialogue in English and Italian. Additionally, Nathaniel Karmitz, the lead...

• Abbas Kiarostami, whose Certified Copy (starring Cannes Best Actress winner Juliette Binoche and William Shimell, above left) opens March 11, is developing The End, a Japanese-language relationship drama through MK2 Productions. MK2's Nathanael Karmitz says the film, to star Aoi Miyazaki, is a "continuation of Certified Copy" that will look at modern love in Japan. The film will shoot on location this April. MK2 is also teaming with writer-director Olivier Assayas Carlos, above right, starring Edgar Ramirez) for Apres mai (Something in the Air), a 70s coming of age story. While the film will be shot predominantly in French, Karmitz tells Variety: "This is not a French story..It's about the world in the '70s." It shoots this May in Italy, France and England. Trailers ...

...

Assayas Taking On '70s Coming Of Age Tale 'Something In The Air'; Kiarostami Tackling Japanese-Language Relationship Pic 'The End' In the thick of the Berlin Film Festival market, MK2 Productions have revealed they are are going full steam ahead with new projects, getting behind Olivier Assayas and Abbas Kiarostami for follow ups to their respective hits at the Cannes Film Festival last year, "Carlos" and "Certified Copy." After his three-part, six-hour epic based on the life of Venezuelean terrorist Carlos the Jackal, Assayas is set to tackle something of a smaller scope but no less interesting--a '70's coming-of-age tale titled…...

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of 2000's "Almost Famous," writer/director Cameron Crowe's love letter to rock and roll in the '70s, here are 20 marvelous moments from the film!

20 Marvelous Moments from 'Almost Famous'Feck You!

Anita asserts her independence.Elaine: Sweetheart, don't be a drama queen. Anita: Feck you! Elaine: Hey! Anita: This is a house of lies! Elaine: There it is. Your sister used the 'f' word. William: I think she said 'feck.

The Tribeca Film Festival starts today, in my backyard, in NYC, and, if you’re a member of the proletariat like me, unable or unwilling to pay the lofty ticket package prices, apparently preferred by the festival’s American Express sponsorship, you can go for an alternative – the festival’s Virtual Pass, a brand new idea that will allow fans to participate in the festival virtually.

At the much more affordable cost of $45, from April 23-30, virtual pass-holders will be able to watch, right on their computers, a selection of full-length feature and short films premiering simultaneously at the festival in New York, as well as enjoy exclusive original content, an enhanced High-Definition video player, real-time discussions with filmmakers in NYC, and the chance to vote for festival awards.

Of course, none of the films available are any of the more higher profile selections at the festival – so, sorry, Thomas Ikimi’s Legacy,...

I worry about many things in life, both real and imagined. But frankly, until now, I confess that I've never really worried about a volcano so profoundly screwing up the world's travel plans. Here's a playlist for everyone who's been impacted already, put together in the hopes that we all go from "Burnin' Sky" to "No More Cloudy Days" very soon. Something In The Air - Thunderclap Newman Burnin' Sky - Bad Company (I'm) Stranded - The Saints Grounded - Pavement Cloud Of Dust - Brad Paisley No More Cloudy Days - Eagles Ashes To Ashes - David Bowie Touch The Sky - Kanye West Safe European Home - The Clash Sky Pilot - The Animals Stuck At The Airport - Money Mark White Sky - Vampire Weekend Heavy Cloud No Rain - Sting Flyin' High (In The Friendly Sky) - Marvin Gaye Both Sides Now - Joni Mitchell Clouds...

The Rainmaker

-For Burt Lancaster

He comes to drought-stricken towns; a saviour

dressed in rattlesnake shoes, riding on a pale

Pegasus. “There’s something in the air,” he

says. “Something in the air.”

He dismounts, and then stares; eyes bulging,

nostrils flared, a fringe trickles out from

under his black hat, and then a smile breaks,

like the rain he promises.

He showers the folks with watery tales, but his

motives, like his origins, aren’t so clear. There

is a solitude about him – an abandoned kite soars

across a barren sky.

At the core of this bravado is an insecurity, but

women seem to be giving him a go, people are

listening to this crock. Even old Harry was seen

slipping him a few bills.

And when he flees town, Pegasus flies. Behind

them angry men chase, but in vain: “This clown

has stolen the hearts of our maidens and eloped

with our hard-earned.

Australian actor Ray Barrett has died at the age of 82.

The star, who voiced several characters in British TV puppet show Thunderbirds, passed away at a hospital on Australia's Gold Coast on Monday after suffering a brain haemorrhage.

Barrett began his acting career when he quit his homeland and moved to England in 1957, landing his first major role in British TV series Emergency - Ward 10 and then longrunning BBC show The Troubleshooters.

He went on to voice characters in two of Gerry Anderson's marionette shows - Thunderbirds and Stingray.

Barrett subsequently found fame in his native Australia starring in a string of TV shows including Burn the Butterflies, Golden Soak and Something in the Air. He was awarded the Australian Film Institute Longford Life Achievement Award in 2005.