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Tomorrow When The War Began – Episodes 1.1 and 1.2 reviewed…

Tomorrow When the War Began

After transferring from book to big screen, the cult ‘Young Adult’ novel ‘Tomorrow When the War Began’ comes to tv. Mike Leeder looks at the first two episodes of the new mini-series…


While the title may not mean much to UK or American readers, the Tomorrow When The War Began series of books by John Marsden are almost essential reading in Australia. They tell of a group of teenagers who return from a camping trip to find the world has been turned upside down –  Australia invaded by foreign forces. The friends find themselves forced to fight for their country, their family’s and for themselves.

The book was adapted into a feature film in 2010 with writer/director Stuart Beatie at the helm ( and who later directed I Frankenstein, in which many of the Tomorrow cast also appeared). The film was success in Australia, but the subsequent international release and especially the all important American release of the film, didn’t really make much noise or impact at the box office. A lot of people believe that its US release was down-played so as not to diminish the box office power of Dan Bradley’s similar themed Red Dawn remake… and we all know how well that did! We reviewed the film and spoke to some of the cast and crew upon its release, giving it a positive review but definitely feel its international release was mishandled.

There was talk of further films or a possible TV continuation with the same cast and director, but for whatever reason that never came to be. Now Tomorrow When the War Begins hits the small screen as a new Australian mini-series from Screen Australia and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, directed by Brendan Maher.

The mini series follows eight teenage friends who find their lives changed forever. Cut off from the rest of the world and from everyone they knew, the friends must find their way in a brave new world where they are among only a few remaining free Australians… and must learn to defend themselves against the hostile invaders and save their detained families.

The mini series features a younger and more believable cast (the movie did go for the older more sexy choice for its cast, they did well but they were a very ‘adult’ group of teenagers). The series goes with a cast who you can actually believe are in the 16-18 year old range, with Molly Daniels as Ellie, Jon Praside as Lee, Narek Arman as Homer, Madeleine Madden as Corrie, Fantine Banulski as Robyn, Keith Purcell as Chris, Madeline Clunies-Ross as Fi and Andrew Creer as Kevin.

The first episode begins with a new take on the opening monologue that introduces the characters. We see Ellie and Lee running for their lives, chased by masked soldiers before flashing back to how everything started. With a six hour running time, the series take a bit more time with the set up, even dropping hints at the upcoming troubles with news reports talking of a cyber attack on the Australian Defence System, and gives us more insight into the way the main characters interacted and behaved with each-other in the past.

That’s good in and of itself, but there’s also a few moments where perhaps too much of a reveal detracts from the impact of later reveals. In the film version the invading air-force’s arrival is mistaken for friendly forces on maneuvers, but in the mini-series no sooner have the friends arrived at their camp sight then we glimpse friendly jets roaring overhead… and then later the invading forces planes are barely seen by the friends. While a scene where one character’s stoned brother witnesses Australian and foreign forces engaging in dog fights is nicely handled and hints at how detached he is from real life, it takes away some of the impact when the friends return home. It’s no longer a shock: we know there has been an invasion. As the friends return home, the scenes would have worked much better with the slow reveal of something being wrong, as they find their homes abandoned, meals half eaten, zero phone service and the slow realisation that something is very wrong.

They find their home town filled with heavily armed masked soldiers from a mysterious foreign nation, the town’s folk imprisoned in the local fair ground and almost instantly find themselves forced to take action – with Ellie striking back against the enemy. But they take no joy in the action: Ellie seeing the face of one of the wounded soldiers and realising the enemy is not much older than herself. The characters don’t immediately become Rambo-esque soldiers – these are kids who struggle to come to terms with a hunting rifle, they’re not field stripping MP-5s as if that’s second nature.

There’s also a nice moment when the friends return to Ellie’s house, and find that stoned brother we mentioned… and who is so far out of it, his biggest concern is ‘We’re out of milk!’ The invading forces are also playing psychological games with the prisoners to try and find out who the rebellious children are and say they only want to capture them to keep them safe. By the end of the first two episodes, we’ve got a good idea of the characters and their motivations, our first glimpse at the devious mind of the invading Army’s local commander, Colonel Lee, and hints at whats to come.

The production values are good with some great cinematography and use of locations and the performances are very strong. It’ll be interesting to see how the rest of the mini-series plays out…

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