The mini-series, The Heroes and Heroes II:The Return, about operations in Singapore harbour during WW11, were huge ratings success on Australian TV in the 1990s.
And the multi award-winning producer of the series, Tony Buckley of Point Clare, has released a remastered DVD of Heroes II just in time for the 75th anniversary of the end of the war on August 15.
Buckley has had a long and distinguished career in Australian film.
He began as a film editor on Michael Powell’s Age of Consent, Ted Kotcheff’s Wake in Fright and Rudolf Nureyev’s Don Quixote, before making his debut as a producer in the landmark Aussie film Caddie in 1975.
Finding support for a film with a female protagonist in the ‘70s wasn’t easy.
“I went to Columbia Pictures and they said ‘You want to make a film about a woman? What for?’,” Buckley said.
“But Caddie still holds the record for the longest running Australian film – it played for 54 weeks in 1976-77.”
Caddie took out multiple awards and Buckley went on to produce many memorable and award-winning feature films including The Irishman, The Night The Prowler, The Killing of Angel Street, Kitty and the Bagman, Bliss, On Our Selection and Oyster Farmer.
For television he produced The Harp in the South, Poor Man’s Orange, Man on the Rim – Peopling of the Pacific, Celluloid Heroes, Mr Edmund and Bryce Courtenay’s The Potato Factory and Jessica.
But The Heroes and Heroes II: The Return hold a special place in his affections.
“The Heroes, which told of Operation Jaywick (where seven Japanese ships were sunk), was the highest rating series in British TV history when it aired in 1989 and had a similar following here in Australia on Channel 10,” he said.
The follow up series, Heroes II: The Return, followed Operation Rimau, which resulted in the loss of 23 men (who, it was learned later, were executed by the Japanese) and was largely filmed on Brisbane Waters.
It aired on Channel 7 in 1991 and was extremely popular.
“We waited a long time for the rights to remaster Heroes II but it’s now available on my website,” Buckley said.
“Amazingly, both series have stood the test of time – they don’t look dated at all.
“The first series was based on a book by Ronald McKie, and although Heroes II was a bit grim, we felt it was a story which also should be told.
“The most important thing to me is that nothing was fictionalised; the series were both factual.
“War shouldn’t be glorified but it’s important for young Australians to know our history.
“What men and women did for this country should always be remembered.”
Buckley stumbled upon what was to become an illustrious career almost by accident.
“As a young lad I was always interested in movies and projectors and when it came time to leave school someone found me a job in a film laboratory and that was it,” he said.
“I remember there was a big walk-out on the film Bliss at the Cannes Film Festival and the papers here carried the headline Bliss bombs.
“But we came home, and it ran for six months in Sydney.
“You can always turn adversity into triumph.”
Remastered DVDs of The Heroes and Heroes II: The Return can be ordered at https://anthonybuckleyfilms.com/
Terry Collins