Reflecting on the current TV landscape dominated by global streaming, Fremantle’s Jo Porter suggests that Australian TV is currently riding a high, with ‘quality’ dramas ‘cutting through’ and ‘getting noticed’ internationally. For Porter, this level of global visibility is occurring despite the barrier of its regional or ‘accented’ voice. However, in this article, I suggest that the global cache of certain Australian dramas may in fact be the product of accented storytelling rather than something to be conquered or overcome. In shaping this argument, I consider language politics and accent shifts in Australian TV history particularly in relation to exporting, format trade and remaking, exploring links between Grundy Television and Fremantle. By comparing language and accent in the cult classic Prisoner with Fremantle’s Wentworth and Picnic at Hanging Rock, I consider how the inclusion and exclusion of vernacular voice sheds light on industrial change and TV history.
CaoB (2012) Beyond empire: Australian cinematic identity in the twenty-first century. Studies in Australasian Cinema6(3): 239–250.
6.
ChalabyJ (2012) At the origin of a global industry: the TV format trade as an Anglo-American invention. Media, Culture & Society34(1): 36–52.
7.
ChalabyJ (2016) Drama without drama: the late rise of scripted TV formats. Television & New Media17(1): 3–20.
8.
CroftsS (1995) Global neighbours? In: AllanR (ed.) To Be Continued . . . Soap Operas around the World. London: Routledge, pp. 98–121.
9.
CroftsS (1996) The adventures of Barry McKenzie: comedy, satire and nationhood in 1972. Continuum10(2): 123–140.
10.
CoxFPalethorpeS (2012) Standard Australian English: the sociostylistic broadness continuum. In: HickeyR (ed.) Standards of English: Codified Varieties around the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 294–317.
11.
CunninghamS (1989) The decades of survival: Australian film 1930-1970. In: MoranAO’ReganT (eds) The Australian Screen. Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Penguin Books, pp. 53–73.
12.
CunninghamSJackaE (1996) Australian Television and International Mediascapes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
13.
CurryCO’SullivanC (1980) Teaching Television in Secondary Schools (Media papers 9). Sydney, NSW, Australia: New South Wales Institute of Technology.
14.
CurthoysADockerJ (1989) In praise of prisoner. In: TullochJTurnerG (eds) Australian Television: Programs, Politics, Pleasures. Sydney, NSW, Australia: Allen & Unwin, pp. 52–69.
15.
DoigJ (2013) New nationalism in Australia and New Zealand: the construction of national identities by two labo(u)r governments in the early 1970s. Australian Journal of Politics and History59(4): 559–575.
16.
DwyerT (2018a) Accented relations: mad max on US screens. In: DanksAGaunsonSKunzePC (eds) Australian-American Cinema: Transnational Connections. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 117–139.
17.
DwyerT (2018b) Changing accents: place, voice and top of the lake. Studies in Australasian Cinema12(1): 14–28.
18.
EcclestonR (1998) Hey You Septic Tanks!–Australian English strikes back–War of the words. The Weekend Australian, 10January, R01.
19.
FiskeJ (1987) Television Culture. London: Methuen & Co.
20.
FiskeJ (2013) Television moments: neither the text nor the audience. In: SeiterEBorchersHKreutznerG, et al. (eds) Remote Control: Television, Audiences and Cultural Power, London: Routledge, pp. 56–78.
GuiffreL (2013) Top of the tots: the Wiggles as Australia’s most successful (under-acknowledged) sound media export. Media International Australia148: 145–154.
24.
HallS (1981) Turning On, Turning Off: Australian Television in the Eighties. Sydney, NSW, Australia: Cassell Australia.
25.
HodgeBTrippD (1986) Children and Television: A Semiotic Approach. Sydney, NSW, Australia: Polity Press.
26.
HohenseeM (1979) Grundy’s Prisoner–television 1979: a special feature. Theatre Australia3(7): 16–17.
McKeeA (2001) Australian Television: A Genealogy of Great Moments. Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Oxford University Press.
31.
Make It Australian (2019) Support the campaign. Available at: http://makeitaustralian.com (accessed 25 April 2019).
32.
MercadoA (2004) Super Aussie Soaps: Behind the Scenes of Australia’s Best-Loved TV Shows. Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Pluto Press.
33.
MitchellADelbridgeA (1965) The Pronunciation of English in Australia. Sydney, NSW, Australia: Angus & Robertson.
34.
MooreB (2007) Toward a history of the Australian accent. In: DamousiJDeaconD (eds) Talking and Listening in the Age of Modernity Essays on the History of Sound. Canberra, ACT, Australia: ANU Press, pp. 97–113.
35.
MooreB (2008) Speaking Our Language: The Story of Australian English. Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Oxford University Press.
36.
MoranA (1998) Copycat TV: Globalisation, Program Formats and Cultural Identity. Luton: Luton Press.
37.
MoranA (2006) The international face of Australian television. Media International Australia121: 174–187.
38.
MoranA (2013) TV Format Mogul: Reg Grundy’s Transnational Career. Bristol: Intellect.
39.
MoranAAveyardK (2013) Vocal hierarchies in early Australian quiz shows, 1948-71: two case studies. Media International Australia148: 107–117.
40.
Morgan ParmettH (2016) It’s HBO: passionate engagement, TV branding, and tourism in the postbroadcast era. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies13(1): 3–22.
RichardsK (2015) The Story of Australian English. Sydney, NSW, Australia: NewSouth Books.
46.
RobinsonMJ (2017) Television on Demand: Curatorial Culture and the Transformation of TV. London: Bloomsbury.
47.
Rymsza-PawlowskaMJ (2014) Broadcasting the past: history television, ‘nostalgia culture’, and the emergence of the miniseries in the 1970s United States. Journal of Popular Film & Television42(2): 81–90.
48.
SternL (1982) The Australian cereal: home grown television. In: DermodySDockerJModjeskaD (eds) Nellie Melba, Ginger Meggs and Friends: Essays in Australian Cultural History. Malmsbury, VIC, Australia: Kibble Books, pp. 103–124.
49.
ThomasC (1980) Girls and counter-school culture. In: McCallumDOzolinsU (eds) Melbourne Working Papers 1980. Melbourne, VIC, Australia: University of Melbourne, pp. 125–156.
50.
TurnbullS (2000) Figuring the audience. In: TurnerGCunninghamS (eds) The Australian TV Book. Sydney, NSW, Australia: Allen & Unwin, pp. 173–189.
51.
TurnbullS (2017) Top dogs and other freaks: Wentworth and the Reimagining of Prisoner Cell Block H. In: BuonannoM (ed.) Television Antiheroines: Women Behaving Badly in Crime and Prison Drama. Bristol: Intellect, pp. 124–135.
