Season 1 • Episode 3
LatestWinning moments never last, however, and news arrives from Adelaide that Ted has died of a heart attack in a sauna while trying to lose weight (as jockeys do). Dolly is inconsolable, although she makes renewed attempts to see if alcohol will console her. Rose makes a token effort to comfort her mother, but her fundamental contempt for Dolly makes this impossible. The house is still groaning and suffering — worse than ever. Life is now as divided and dislocated as it will ever be. Rose is, emotionally, as far from her mother and her family as she will ever be. Quick is physically as far from Fish and his family as he will ever be. Oriel is furthest away from the faith she once had. And Sam, as always, is just waiting to see what happens next.
Cloudstreet is an Australian television drama miniseries for the Showcase subscription television channel, which first screened from 22 May 2011, in three parts. It is an adaptation of Cloudstreet, an award-winning novel by Australian author Tim Winton. It was filmed in 2010 in Perth with Matthew Saville as the director, and script written by Tim Winton and Ellen Fontana.
Acting
Essie Davis and Kerry Fox anchor the chaos magnificently.
Production
Perth locations breathe authentic 1940s-60s working-class life.
Writing
Winton's prose translated with poetic, unwieldy ambition.
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The house itself was based on real working-class Perth homes Winton knew; the pig symbolism references postwar Australian anxieties about prosperity and filth.
The river drowning scene required Emma Booth to perform in actual murky water for hours — she later said it genuinely terrified her, which the director kept in the cut.
AU
