Kangaroo Palace - The Memorable TV DVD Review

Distributor: Kaleidoscope Film
Certificate: M15+ | 2x100 minutes

Cast: John Polson, Jeremy Sims, Jacqueline McKenzie, Rebecca Gibney
Extras: No

“Ooh, I love a man who sweats”

In the 1960’s, when everyone was swinging, there was only one place to be – London and for four Australians it’s exactly where they intend to be.

This high quality Aussie drama, broadcast in 1997, follows the fortunes of the young quartet as they experience everything Britain has to offer – good and bad.

The opening half hour introduces us to the four, outback girls Heather Randall (Rebecca Gibney) and Catherine (Jacqueline McKenzie), typical Aussie Jack Gill (Jeremy Sims) and journalist Richard Turner (John Polson) who is convinced a job in Fleet Street awaits.

Once in London the quartet find themselves living in a squat (the Kangaroo Palace ) and being taken under the wing of upper-class ragamuffin Terence Foster-Burrowes (Jonathon Firth).

The four quickly find that the “Mother country” isn’t quite what they thought it would be, from racism by many of the English people they meet to Catherine realising that the dreams she has carried with her of her English father are just that.

There is much to savour in this excellent two parter, from Polson’s at first pretty innocent about life Richard and his falling in love with Catherine, to its depiction of a side of London never really explored on screen before (apart of course from the Barry McKenzie comedies).

Kangaroo Palace does well to conjure up the atmosphere of a London going slightly to seed in the late sixties, admittedly the cast look too old to be playing late teens – early twenty somethings but you quickly forget that as the story hooks you in.

Well worth a look despite the lack of extras.