TELEVISION
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday March 31, 2010
RSPCA ANIMAL RESCUE 7.30pm, Seven Few would question the credentials of this program which reminds us weekly of the bonds humans have with various animals. Being top of the food chain necessitates the cultivation of respect and an appreciation of our food, our pets and our general status within the big picture. But on a slow day, when not much is happening and no cats have decided to become trapped in barely accessible crevices, it might be tempting to "initiate" an event or perhaps to invite Inspector Rex to make a guest appearance. Tonight RSPCA inspectors are obliged to undertake traffic control duties when a consignment of cattle manages to escape from a truck during a journey down a freeway. Just another example of bovine intellect and herd mentality?CRASH INVESTIGATION UNIT 8pm, Seven Still out and about on the roads. With the freeway cleared of hamburger obstruction, investigators reconstruct events leading to a tragic incident which cost the life of 20-year-old Emma Hansen at a Kogarah bus stop three years ago. A learner driver, Rose Deng, the driver of the car which hit a commuter queue, was found to be not responsible on the grounds of mental illness. Eleven other people were injured when Ms Deng mistook the accelerator for the brake during a driving lesson. Is there any value to be derived from trawling over these lamentable events?INSPECTOR REX7.35pm, SBS ONE A 12-year-old girl, the winner of a piano competition, is found dead in a cellar. Having ruled out self-strangulation as the cause of her death, the bundespolizei ask Rex to sniff around the scene. With a certainty seldom absent from these canine capers, another young pianist is soon found in a similar condition and police quickly deduce that a murderer is on the loose. Is there a link between this girl and the first? Yes, there is! Could it be their piano teacher? Yes it could! Might this be a case of an over-zealous instructor trying to extract better results? Can Rex the wonderdog solve the case? Viewers who prefer their concert music free from the unpleasantry of homicide might care to drift over to ABC2 for a look at the 2008 Sydney International Piano Competition. Not exactly an up-to-the-minute recital, but with the networks apparently conspiring to make Wednesday a slough of despondency, this 15-minute interlude may restore some sense of dignity to the evening's proceedings.BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE9.30pm, ABC1Thank goodness for the Doonan family. In another serving of agreeable dysfunctionality, Simon recalls how Debbie's ineptitude with millinery impacted upon his visit to the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest, in Birmingham. An eccentric event assumes even greater surreality during an encounter, in the disabled lavatories, with Dana International, the Israeli entrant and eventual winner with the song Diva. Ms International (aka Sharon Cohen) was born Yaron Cohen and came out as an intersexual aged 13. She remains the only openly transgender person to bring home the bacon - as it were - in 43 years of Eurovision. Some mind-boggling may ensue.SEX: THE REVOLUTION 9.30pm, ABC2 Was there a revolution? Is it over? And if so, was it successful? What does Dana International think? Can an awareness and appreciation of sexuality ever be complete given the complex, mutating connections with most facets of existence? Tonight we go back to the late '70s to examine sex clubs, orgies and the notorious Studio 54. Hustler overtakes Playboy as Ronald Reagan prepares for his slide into the Oval Office on a wing and a prayer from the religious right. By 1982 HIV/AIDS has arrived and the revolution is no longer televised.
© 2010 Sydney Morning Herald