Drama/Biopic that follows the interesting (and relatively unknown to me) portion of Ita Buttrose's life, seeing her rise to heady heights in the Australian Print Industry and opening doors to an Australian cultural shift.Asher Keddie gives a vivid and complex performance as Buttrose and should figure in Australian awards... She somehow managed to escape the obvious comedic association with Ita's famous lisp, whilst providing an interpretation Buttrose would be proud of.The supporting cast is admirable - Rob Carlton's Kerry Packer is especially clever, culminating in scenes straight out of the Tyrannical Handbook. Carlton also shows us a humorous and touching side to the great man, evoking sympathy for one of Australia's richest men and a renowned HARD MAN. Classy.The story runs in parallel with the demise of the Whitlam government, an especially politically charged era in Australian history. The meteoric rise of Buttrose is well juxtaposed against Whitlam's eventual downfall. The connections between the crumbling government and the burgeoning women's liberation movement is there for all to see, but it is never driven home - rather, i feel the viewer is asked to look deeper (a decidedly non-American feature).It's all well written, well shot, well directed and produced. It's actually one of the best Australian productions I've seen in a while. As mentioned by another reviewer, the decision to run Paper Giants as a two part series, rather than a longer format is bizarre. There is more to this story than what we've been shown. This gripe is minor and has not changed my rating of Paper Giants - may we see more great Australian stories...

Paper Giants is about the changing of the guard in Australia. After a long rule under a conservative government, Australia comes out from the dark and into a new era with some assistance from the then radical feminist woman's magazine, CLEO. The unlikely backers of the magazine were the ruthless media giants, the Packer family. They entrust their new baby with the female journalist, Ita Buttrose, who creates a magazine for the sexually suppressed Aussie women. I was looking forward to seeing the battle of the sexes between Buttrose and Kerry Packer, a Beauty and the Beast fable, but instead was baffled by the side-story of the young female character of Leslie Carpenter. I soon realised that Leslie's journey was that of the magazine CLEO and the women it influenced during that period. Leslie was the symbol of the new Australian woman, who came out of her sheltered life in the suburbs to a new woman of the world thanks to Ita Buttrose and Cleo.The script writer and director wonderfully captured the transformation of Australia in its most political turmoil period of the early Seventies and the part Cleo played in it. The use of actual footage of Sydney & classic Cleo adds was superb.The accolades go to the two lead actors in Asher Keddie & Rob Carlton. Even the supporting cast were of a very high standard. I don't think two episodes were enough. I'm sure there would have been enough story to fill a whole 10-part, one hour series as some sections felt like they were rushed.Hopefully this will be the start of great Aussie drama, in the same style of HBO.

The '60s were prudish times in Australia, and elsewhere. The churches were full, skirts were well below the knee, sex was not discussed. People entered marriage in complete ignorance and, it seems, often stayed that way for the duration. Sex was for having children. Enjoyment of sex was fornication and invited an afterlife spent burning in Hell. The revolution that started in the late '60s was slow to have much impact. Feminism was lampooned as the "burn your bra" movement. Men rarely saw that the effect of women embracing feminism was actually going to benefit them by providing much more fulfilling relationships. "Paper Giants" reminds us of the times and of the part played by the new-look women's magazines like Cosmo, Dolly and, in this case, Cleo. I was concerned that this would be a big plug for the magazine on a public broadcaster but I came away from the two night mini series with a smile on my face. The realism is admirable. The acting is outstanding. Asher Keddie IS Ita Buttrose. The lisp, the toss of the hair, all great mimicry. The hardest job was to find a real Kerry Packer and Bob Carlton does about as well as anyone could do. No one can look like Kerry Packer but Carlton makes us believe in his character. The one character not quite realised is Frank Parker. Perhaps the producers are not old enough to remember him in his last years with his super-thick glasses and constant swallowing of built-up phlegm. I would have thought that a look at one of the late interviews would have made this an easy character to copy but Tony Barry's Frank Parker is of a younger and more dynamic man altogether. The minor stories are also well done as they run parallel to the issues covered in the magazine articles. Jessica Tovey as Leslie Carpenter is particularly impressive in portraying the young girl from the western suburbs caught in an affair with a married older man while engaged to an insensitive "yob". Perhaps this series will have little appeal outside of Australia but I expect that the opinions that I have expressed will be shared by a great many other Australians. As for Ita, how many remember "Ita Buttrose but it kept getting caught in my underpants".