| Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo | |
|---|---|
Opening titles |
|
| Format | Drama, Historical miniseries |
| Starring | Asher Keddie Rob Carlton Matt Day Jessica Tovey |
| Country of origin | Australia |
| No. of episodes | 2 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 90 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ABC1 |
| Original run | 17 April 2011 – 18 April 2011 |
Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo is a 2011 Australian two part television miniseries about the beginning of Cleo magazine and its creator, Ita Buttrose. The series stars Asher Keddie as Ita Buttrose and Rob Carlton as Kerry Packer.
Contents |
The series follows Ita Buttrose as she creates the fashion magazine Cleo, as well the fashion and politics of the period.[1]
Reviews for the show were generally positive. The Sydney Morning Herald said:
Biopics rarely succeed. Invariably, they are thinly veiled hagiographies designed to push an "official" and pared-back version of history, dulled by performances that are merely impersonations. Thankfully, Paper Giants suffers no such problems.[2]
Australian TV blog, TV Tonight rated the series with four stars out of five, and commented:
Whilst Keddie may not be a dead ringer for Buttrose she has the voice down pat: the tone is pitch perfect, complete with the slight Buttrose lisp (we would have expected nothing less). Keddie captures the inner strength of Buttrose, forging a path in a male-dominated world, navigating through pioneer publishing, inspiration and compromise.[3]
Part one of the miniseries rated over 1.2 million viewers nationally, ranking as the fifth most watched program of the night,[4] and the eighth-most watched program of the week.[5] Part two was watched by 1.346 million viewers in the main five Australian TV markets, ranking as the second-most watched program of the week[5] and the most watched program of the night.[4]
The miniseries was produced by John Edwards (Love My Way, Rush) and Karen Radzyner by Southern Star Entertainment in association with Screen NSW, Screen Australia and ABC TV. The Executive Producer was Carole Sklan, ABC TV Head of Fiction; and the script was written by Christopher Lee.