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Secret City: naivity is the first casualty

Matchbox, Canberra, politics, two veteran journalists and a scripting process which is the opposite of precious.

8 Aug 2014 12:00

David Tiley

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Film

Image; Cover for The Marmalade Files, by Steve Lewis and Chris Uhlmann, published by

Yesterday’ s announcement that Screen Australia is financing the Matchbox production of Secret City in six episodes with Foxtel coincided with the release of The Mandarin Code, one of the two underlying books behind the series.

Herein lies an intriguing development story about an effective collaboration between prose and television creators, when storytelling has been so affected by the rise of visual media.

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David Tiley

David Tiley was the Editor of Screenhub from 2005 until he became Content Lead for Film in 2021 with a special interest in policy. He is a writer in screen media with a long career in educational programs, documentary, and government funding, with a side order in script editing. He values curiosity, humour and objectivity in support of Australian visions and the art of storytelling.