Tv Previews
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday October 22, 2001
McLeod's Daughters - Haunted
Nine, 7.30pm
UP Purloined ute wheels that settle a score, a bleating orphan lamb that poops on the kitchen floor, a lot of mum's dusty old things, including a stuffed cat and tarot cards which become an obsession.
There's tail docking and crutching which is never real pretty, a tummy that's getting alarmingly bigger, a lot of allergic sneezing and the big one, a crashed car, plus desperate cross-country running in an overcoat when such clobber isn't much help.
This series gets better, but mostly because Roger Dowling's photography is the perfect complement to the pretty South Australian setting and not because the dialogue between the women at the McLeod homestead has been sorted, because it hasn't. Once we get away from the house the scripts pick up no end.
A most dramatic episode, but the intrusive song about fear walking the night strikes a jarring note. The clothes look a little more worn, the make-up more countrified than when everybody started out. Many viewers will go quite sheepish over the lamb.
Australian Garden of the Year
Seven, 7.30pm
UP A special night of Better Homes and Gardens, with the print magazine's Australian Garden of the Year competition producing finalists from all states. First up, an ingenious Melbourne garden ``only slightly larger than a postage stamp," a newly created pebble garden in the Dandenongs, then to Millicent, to Launceston, Mahogany Creek in Western Australia, to Mt Bellenden, south of Cairns, a steeply sloping block on the Gold Coast and another in Sydney. Restful gardens, amazing gardens and one or two bizarre plots make it to the final 10, though a rather obvious keep-it-cheerful style of filming means that almost all of them are submerged in a gushing style of commentary from Graham Ross and Noni Hazlehurst. However, Ross is good at detail and keeps loads of tips flowing non-stop.
Somebody has to win the $27,000 grand tour prize and this prompts such blooming big smiles all round that I thought Noni might never be able to regain a straight face.
© 2001 Sydney Morning Herald
