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Hero image for The Champion - First Episode

The Champion - First Episode

Television (Full Length Episode) – 1989

Author Maurice Gee’s boyhood experiences helped fuel this home front drama, expertly realised by director Peter Sharp (The Fire-Raiser). Rex Pascoe (Milan Borich, later a singer in band Pluto) is a war-obsessed schoolboy who befriends a local Dalmation boy, and reluctantly helps his father with his black-market dealings. Meanwhile American soldiers are making their presence felt. But not all of their attitudes are welcome. Racial tensions will soon be tested by the GI who is set to stay with Rex’s family. Director Peter Sharp writes here about battling tides and learn where Maurice Gee's script first began.

The champion doesn’t have such a strong storyline. This is much more a story of character than incident, which is why I think it will appeal to older children.
– Writer Maurice Gee in The Listener, 7 October 1989, page 29

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