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This concentration of action gives the series a frenetic energy, a sense of lurching crisis, yet also euphoria. Actual news events make up a significant portion of The Newsreader’s plotting, and the brief time period covered by the first series was a wise choice, with its abundance of high-stakes drama, including the release of Lindy Chamberlain, whose baby was snatched by a dingo six years previously, the Russell Street bombing and Chernobyl. Speaking of real stars, we get an awful lot of them in the two opening episodes, as the team report on the Challenger space shuttle’s explosion and then Halley’s comet. Dale provides a more palatable nucleus for the drama: a respectable, chiselled, good-guy hero to cushion the more complicated real star. Yet the show itself also feels somewhat complicit in these stereotypes, seemingly not believing that Helen is sympathetic enough to be the main character.
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It makes a neat narrative device for the show to contrast the reception these two ambitious journalists get: Dale also demands more, but his nagging is viewed as admirably enthusiastic, while Helen is seen as a pushy, deluded, egotistical nuisance (an exaggerated but still effective example of the double standards that continue to this day). Why we are given Dale when we should be getting Helen – both as an anchor and as the focus of the programme itself – is a head-scratcher. Sadly, Dale is disastrously bad at reading the news – awkward, flustered, unable to pace himself – something he showcases to the nation when he temporarily takes over Helen’s job during her absence.Īnna Torv as Helen. That role is filled by Dale (Sam Reid), a conscientious journalist and fledgling reporter who dreams of graduating to the main desk. Weirdly – considering the show’s title and 2022-friendly themes (women having a hard time, men being horrible) – Helen is not The Newsreader’s protagonist. Not just difficult, then, but “unstable” too. In response, Helen goes home and overdoses – our first clue that this outwardly formidable woman suffers from serious mental health issues. In fact, they are greeted with a barrage of misogynistic abuse that, in the opening episode on BBC Two, culminates in her sacking. These requests for more – more gravitas, more responsibility, more attention – are not exactly welcomed by her irascible, vaguely pervy boss, Lindsay (a man). The titular newsreader is Helen (Mindhunter’s Anna Torv): slick, glam, extremely competent and desperate to cover harder-hitting stories (Thatcher’s premiership the quickly worsening Aids crisis). At least, that’s the message behind this award-winning drama set in an Australian news station. T hese days, difficult women are all the rage.