Luke's Kingdom - The Complete Series [DVD]

Product Information

The recently widowed and retired naval lieutenant James Firbeck takes his family, sons, Samuel and Luke and daughter Jassy to New South Wales to claim a grant of land. V. Timms, a dramatic exploration of early Australian settlement and the tremendous hardships that helped to shape the nation. It's all tightly directed, including some episodes directed by none other than Peter Weir (Picnic at Hanging Rock) and fan favourite Peter Hammond (The Avengers). Light reading creases, some shelf and edge wear, small sticker tear to front cover, light foxing to inside covers and endpapers.

Though Australia was already fast-filling with expelled criminals, the Firbecks, a fine upstanding family, leave their Yorkshire home for the promised land. Tobias is excellent as the determined,violent and very flawed 'hero'(you'll see why) who will stop at nothing to protect his family's land,but all the cast are good and the stories are well written and filmed, you will get frustrated at Luke's father, who just does not get it! By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. Naturally all of the residual British military are cads, bounders and buffoons, though the convicts are often portrayed as decent of desperate men, still struggling to get an even break. then this fits in well with the other Network DVD releases of 'Arthur of the Briton's', 'Smuggler' and 'The Adventurer'.

Luke's father Jason (James Condon) is representative of a more naïve generation who somehow believe that all the righteousness of the empire will follow them into the wild, and he is constantly disappointed that the old guard often turn out to be the most corrupt, Fortunately for him, and the family, Luke is under no such delusion. Archive TV fans may also like to know that the series was produced by Tony Essex of 'Follyfoot' fame. Theres a fair bit of poppy eyed hysterical acting in it, and Oliver Tobias certainly had the looks and charisma to have been a much bigger star than he became. considering it was made in the 70's ( The theme tune is very much of it's time) it is simply outstanding and is almost something that HBO could have made now.

This co-production between Yorkshire Television and the Nine Network (Australia) was based on the novel Pages From a Squatter’s Diary by E.The incestual overtones are a bit creepy and apparent almost from the word go, but are intitially so brief you wonder if you are imagining them. The way the natives are treated almost seems to be an over zealous approach to a normal stereotypical one of either ignoring them of making them out to be the baddies, but although it shows some ill-treatment and injustice, they appear to sit in groups waiting for white man to bring grog or work until they fight or are attacked. He seems to enjoy the freedom, too much, and does anything he wants - floggings, murder, and incest are all included - but seems to be totally inept at fighting unless it is bullying others. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. The arrival of an uninvited guest causes complications for Luke because of an association he builds up with Jassy.

Cinema Paradiso and all other Cinema Paradiso product and service names are trademarks of Pace-e-Solutions Limited or its affiliates. The series starred Oliver Tobias as an Englishman who, in 1829, emigrates to Australia with his father and siblings to settle on a land grant in New South Wales.Cast: Oliver Tobias, James Condon, Elizabeth Crosby, Gerard Maguire, Helen Morse, Bettina Kenter, Joseph Furst, Edmund Pegge, Shirley Cameron, Victoria Anoux, Willie Fennell, Alfred Bell, Les Foxcroft, John Ewart. Although we maintain a broad general collection, we have a concentration of material on the American Southwest and Indians of North America, both history and literature. Web icon An illustration of a computer application window Wayback Machine Texts icon An illustration of an open book. The site carries no advertising, and I rely on donations to help with running costs and to keep the site running for your entertainment and education.