The Alien Years

The Alien Years
Genre	Historical drama
Screenplay by	Peter Yeldham
Directed by	Donald Crombie
Starring	Victoria Longley Christoph Waltz John Hargreaves
Narrated by	Gavin Mason
Theme music composer	Bruce Smeaton
Country of origin	Australia
Original language	English
No. of episodes	6
Production
Producers	Ray Alchin Alan Burke Geoffrey Daniels Sandra Levy
Cinematography	Peter Hendry
Editor	Tom Kavanagh
Running time	60 mins
Budget	$5.8 million.
Original release
Network	Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Release	19 April 1988 (1988-04-19) – 1988 (1988)

The Alien Years is a three-part miniseries that first aired on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on 19 April 1988. It was directed by Donald Crombie and written by Peter Yeldham. It stars Victoria Longley, John Hargreaves, Christoph Waltz. Yeldham later adapted his screenplay into a novel of the same name.

Plot

Elizabeth Parsons (Victoria Longley) is the daughter of an important figure in the Australian government. She falls for and ultimately marries Stefan (Christoph Waltz), a German national. They move to South Australia to run a vineyard but their peace is disturbed by the outbreak of the First World War. The government orders that all German nationals living in Australia must be imprisoned.

Cast

• Victoria Longley as Elizabeth Parsons
• Christoph Waltz as Stefan Mueller
• John Hargreaves as William
• Jane Harders as Edith
• Kim Krejus as Martha
• Tom Jennings as Harry
• Nick Tate as North

Production

The series took three months to produce and was partly shot in Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills and Bethany in the Barossa Valley.

External links

• The Alien Years at IMDb
• The Alien Years at AustLit