The Shark Net
(c) BBC Worldwide Ltd under licence from 2 entertain Video Ltd
Initially, Robert Drewe had hopes of his autobiography, The Shark Net, being adapted into a feature film. However, Producer Sue Taylor felt that a mini-series, more suited to conveying the minutiae of 1950’s middle class suburban life, was a better format.
Subsequently, his popular memoirs were developed into a three-part mini-series, which is semi-autobiographical in nature.
Viewers might be slightly confused by the opening scene, in which a young Robert Drewe is sitting in a court room, working as a cadet for the West Australian newspaper, and covering the trial of the infamous serial murderer, Eric Cooke (the last man to be hanged in Western Australia). In a voiceover which gently coaxes us through the entire series, Drewe alludes to some sort of collusion, before we are transported back to his childhood and the source of his anxieties is gradually revealed.
It turns out, that Drewe’s father, (played brilliantly by William McInnes), a manager at the Dunlop Company, had, at one time, hired Cooke to do odd jobs around the home. Although much of the detail about Cooke in the film is fictitious, there were a number of eerie coincidences and intersections that tied Drewe to this notorious murderer.
Drewe’s family moved to Western Australia from Melbourne in 1949, when Drewe was only six years old. His father was a dedicated company man, and his mother, a combination of dutiful wife, and striking, athletic woman. It’s strange to think that Melbourne was considered to be one of the “eastern states”, and that the move to Perth heralded significant changes in their lives.
His mother’s earnest desire to protect her children, led her to warn them about mysterious, debilitating ailments such as “brain boiling”, and she also instilled a horror of germs, in her children, and the lurking perils of polio. Not surprisingly, Drewe’s childhood was marked by significant anxiety.
The story is divided into three parts: the first dealing with Drewe’s childhood; the second recounting his adolescence and sexual awakening, and the third, his young adult life, where the relative security of his childhood yields to the realities of the world around him. The Cooke storyline is interwoven throughout, and although it is by no means the thrust of the story, it does provide considerable dramatic tension.
The cast is uniformally outstanding. It’s particularly pleasing to see Angie Milliken - an Australian actor who is much under-utilised in film, possibly because of the lack of availability of suitable roles – in a major role on screen.
Dan Wylie’s Eric Cooke is a suitably menacing figure. Mc Innes is outstanding as Drewe’s father: the archetypical middle management drone and armchair pontificator who, despite his loyalty to Dunlop, never quite achieves the success for which he strives. Warren Mitchell has a small but significant role as the gritty West Australian newspaper hack Ralph Wheatley. And, of course, Tim Draxl is good in the central role.
Another character worth mentioning is Perth itself, and the magnificent production design by Clayton Jauncey and excellent incidental music by esteemed Australian composer Alan John. Both of these enhance the quality of the series, and although there is evidence of considerable attention to detail in the audiovisual design, neither element encroaches on the seamless flow of the narrative. (Sadly there doesn’t appear to be any recordings available of John’s musical themes).
The Shark Net is an ideal way to pass a Sunday evening. Enjoy the drama, giggles and tension, while revelling in the nostalgia of the pristine modern look of the suburbs in the fifties and early sixties, with expansive green front lawns and sparkling cascades of droplets of water tossed about by sprinklers.