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Bastardising The Waterfront Dispute: Production And Critical Reception Of The Bastard Boys Mini-Series, Lisa Milner, Rebecca Coyle
Bastardising The Waterfront Dispute: Production And Critical Reception Of The Bastard Boys Mini-Series, Lisa Milner, Rebecca Coyle
Dr Rebecca Coyle
This article examines the production and reception of Bastard Boys, a television mini-series broadcast on ABC TV in May 2007 that depicted aspects of the 1998 Australian waterfront dispute. Our research concerns how the dramatisation of such a union dispute (and historical moment) informed the final outcome as a media product. Employing commonplace fictional devices as well as seemingly factual referents, the series offers a link to the original events via four 'personal' storylines. We scrutinise the critical reception of the series and argue that the supposed 'reality' and ethics of the dispute have been confused with those of the …