Miriam Margolyes: Almost Australian

Why they would have a female curmudgeon such as this woman take an amazing adventure across Australia I will never understand !?! This is an incredibly bitter woman who seems to take little pleasure in anything much outside her own comfort and this is possibly the worst travel documentary I could think of watching. There are many sad parts of any culture which need light shed on them, but this is a woman actively seeking the bitterness and contempt that seems to excite her very being. Shame on you Netflix for wasting your money on this series. I never paid this actor much attention in Harry Potter, but now I am just irritated that a woman of professed detest of children made money in a movie aimed at children...well, I think says a lot for her credibility....if I could give a minus review I would. -5.

After roles in harry potter and jame and the giant peach, miriam margolyes goes touring around australia. Her mission is to find out what the aussie dream is. And are people finding it. First stop, a high end real estate agent near sydney. Then westward, to orange and trundle. Much more down to earth, every day people. Lots of cussing, so not for the kiddies! She speaks her mind. On to visit with people of aboriginal ancestry. Beautiful, varied landscapes and scenery. Nhill, with ka-ren people from vietnam. Alice springs. Darwin. Really good! We hear some quite touching stories of aussies, some are finding that dream, and some are not. The funny thing about having only one person appear in the cast list is that it made adding in a quote by miriam quite easy! There was no doubt about to whom I should credit the line! Really interesting stuff. Currently showing on the netflix...

This show is much more about the self-important opinions of the presenter than it is about Australia. She spends much of the time interviewing indigenous people in Australia about wrongs of the past, but she doesn't happen to mention that she has accepted the "honor" of Officer of the British Empire (OBE). What hypocrisy! I invite you to look up the much more talented and famous people from the last century who REJECTED that so-called honor. She lectures a kid on a drought-stricken farm about global warming and decries the mine that produced the materials that built her house. She seems feel privileged to portray her opinions and values as superior to what presumably is the "typical" Australian. I'm disappointed that I didn't learn more about Australia.

Remarkably dull, shallow series of a narrow minded woman demonstrating her prejudices scene after scene as she tries to force her uninformed generalizations and insensitivities on real-life hard working humans who have generously agreed to interact with her on camera.

I continued watching as I hoped for her to show some redemption or at the very least some inkling of humour, alas it wasn't forthcoming. Her self-proclaimed insights were not. Remarkable that this series was aired let alone filmed.

The side characters were of course the stars of the show, more educated worldly and informed than the narrow minded dullard narrator who seems to not have stepped outside her home/tv studio in three decades.

I love Miriam. But - this is not great. Setting out to capture Australia she really missed the mark. From rural NSW to Melbourne, Bondi, Alice, Darwin, and to finish on the Gold Coast (one of the worst places in the world!, made for Japanese tourists).

I was really disappointed. This ISN'T the true Australia- well.... She had some little gems mixed in but most of it was crap. A few Ockers here and there, farmers dealing with drought. Obviously this was filmed and distributed before Lidia Thorpe went totally feral, dragging the Aboriginal flag through mud recently when police tried to arrest her for breaching the peace, or her arrest outside a Sydney strip club, or her swearing in Parliament. They're changing Parilimentary process because of Lidia's behaviour so the can be dismissed instantly for undignified, disgusting behaviour. I also thought it was a bit weird for an old lesbian to be perving at her teenage daughter on the tranpoline. She literally missed half the country!!! This is in no way anywhere close to a true representation of Australia. The token remote Aboriginals was quite exploitative. The violence in the Alice was totally missed out. The alcohol problem in the Territory wasn't mentioned. She/the producers picked bits of Australia that showed a tiny part of our country and not very well at that. It's a great shame, as I expected better from such an intelligent woman. Please don't think this is a true representation of Australia, it really isn't. 🙄