Delie und Brenton - Der Flussdampfer

I first saw this movie on HBO. It thought it was a great story and followed the book very well. It is one movie that I can watch over & over, in fact it was just on Cinemax this week. I wish it would get a release on DVD. I found the story beautiful and of course the scenery was even great. I would highly recommend this movie to anyone that enjoys seeing something done from Australia.

Whereas the first series was a more family-oriented and charming production, the sequel depicted a more realistic, darker side of life. In fact, the plot was almost too miserable at times, but then again - no one said life is a rose garden. I have to say that Delie as portrayed by Nikki Coghill is just as good as Sigrid Thornton were in the first series (I have to pity her for not accepting to play Delie in the sequel). John Water's Teddy still is quite the charmer, but in the sequel he is allowed to show some darker sides as well. All in all, I think this second series was surprisingly good and far more realistic as regards the plot than the first series; they were both quite enjoyable though!

Great Aussie show set on paddle boats. Pretty decent fight scenes

As an adventure mini-series, this is about as good as it gets. I viewed it when it was originally shown on HBO. Sigrid is totally believable in her role as Philadelphia, and the whole production was first rate! See all 400 minutes of it if you can. I highly recommend this mini-series. Amazing that I can't rate it officially, but for you readers/users I will let you know it's a solid 10!

The first series was quite true to the Nancy Cato book, but here the writers have gone their own sweet way, concentrating on a fairly youthful Delie and Brenton. The trouble is too much of the story is away from the river, and concentrates to a large extent on Brenton. It's very episodic - we don't see the children noticeably age. Although we loosely cover the children's stay at Mrs Melville, we lose the detail about Meg staying on because she's infatuated with their older son - well, Meg here is only a little girl rather than the teenager she ought to have become.

All in all it's a good yarn, although the ending seems hurried and (without giving away the plot) unreasonable. I'd recommend reading the book in which Delie is a real three dimensional character, rather than a fairly cardboard figure. If you can find it, it's still worth giving this sequel a viewing - the acting and camera-work is brilliant, and the producers have done a fine job in creating turn-of-the-century Echuca.