"Do or Die" (2001) TV mini-series

Director:

Rowan Woods

Writer:

Christopher Lee (written by)

Release Date:

April 2001 (UK)

Plot:

Two-part UK drama set in London and Sydney spanning seven years. When Sam and Nicky's six year old son...

Plot Keywords:

TV Mini-Series

Awards:

2 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Kate Ashfield	...	Samantha
Tom Long	...	Michael Tyler / Joey
Hugo Speer	...	Nicholas
William McInnes	...	Daryl Quint
Patsy Palmer	...	Claire
Martin Sacks	...	Jimmy Grattan
William McDowell	...	William
Andrea Wellis	...	Det Const Iland
Philip Joseph	...	Det Sgt Konstantinis
Owen Buick	...	Detective Constable Warren
Daniel Smith	...	Det Const Harper
Brad Haynes	...	Det Const Hagan
Shayne Francis	...	Donna Whetlan
John Seru	...	Brendan Ruyko
Rob Carlton	...	Gavin Kovacs

Also Known As:

The Rubicon (Australia)

Country:

Australia | UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Cronulla, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Entertaining but hollow telemovie-miniseries

There's a lot to like about DO OR DIE (which unfortunately premiered on Channel 7 during the height of the Adelaide public's anger and discontent toward the network for its handling of its Ashes telecast; it was also programmed against both the women's and men's singles finals at Wimbledon - it didn't rate highly here!!) - six top actors from England and Australia respectively coming together in very different roles from what we're accustomed to in a fast-paced miniseries with eye-catching, modern cinematogaphy techniques (think RUN LOLA RUN and MOULIN ROUGE). However, the thing that lets us down is the story: it borders on soap-trash, with a young female British doctor discovering her child has leukemia and is in need of a white-cell transplant from the child's father, who is not the woman's husband, but rather a criminal sociopath who is currently serving time in a Sydney prison. William McInnes (MY BROTHER JACK) is outstanding as an obsessed, delusional cop, and Kate Ashfield (A MANY SPLINTERED THING) is equally as good as the harrassed but cool-under-pressure backpacker-cum-doctor. McInnes, Tom Long (RISK) and Martin Sacks are all in roles which are very different to their previous ones: McInnes became an Aussie favourite after BLUE HEELERS and SEACHANGE; Long is certainly no longer the bumbling, shy boy we knew him as in THE DISH; and Sacks has been cool, calm & collected detective PJ in HEELERS for so long no-one can remember what he did before that (for those that are wondering, Sacks did appear on Australian screens for ten years before he joined the HEELERS team, most notably in EMOH RUO, SLATE WYN & ME and the miniseries ALL THE WAY). Having never heard of the three British leads, I have no idea of their popularity but they can certainly act and deserve to be successful. If you missed DO OR DIE first time around, you may be hard-pressed to catch it again, but Channel 7 sometimes replays its miniseries over two or three days as its Midday Movie. 6/10