"The Slap" - the ABC on Thurs 6 Oct

[Alexa]

Hey ladies

They have turned this booked "The Slap" into an eight part series which is starting on Thursday 6th October 2011 on ABC 1 at 8.30pm.

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/theslap/

Not sure if anyone has read "The Slap" by Christos Tsiolkas.

This is a brief overview:

The Slap is a novel that grabs you by your tender spots, squeezes, and doesn’t let go. It’s yelling, not at you, but in general frustration, at the edge of a cliff, at the end of the world. The end of the world might be Australia. An Australian city and its suburbs in the age of almost extreme political correctness and ensuing confusion.

A man slaps another person’s child at a barbeque, and the narrative branches out into the lives of several characters who were present. From teenagers to aged immigrants, and many middle-aged characters in between.

While strands relate back to the incident, and opinions surrounding it, the themes are much broader, more challenging, and voracious. Issues such as racism (and reverse-racism), crossing the line (in many circumstances), new conservatism, domestic violence, adultery, the family, home, surfaces and secrets, notions of honour, generational conflict and differences, lust, eroticism, homoeroticism, forbidden desires, lies and half-truths, the institution of marriage, parent/child relationships, feminism, work vs motherhood, suppressed rage, pedophilia, drugs, and teenagers.

Scott and I are actually going to see an advanced screening at the ABC studios on Tuesday night (I won tickets through another blog).

Now I loved this book but a lot of people don't, for instance the word c#nt is used 3 times on the opening page. So it is not for the faint hearted, I actually went to the Sydney Writers Festival in 2009 to hear Christos speak about his book and how he wrote it etc.

[Leilani]

I saw this advertised to air on the ABC and though it looked good, thanks for the heads up Alexa, let us know what it is like wont you

I noticed it has Sophie Okonedo
in it too and sheis brilliant , she had been in a lot of BBC shows, Oliver Twist, and ep of Silent Witness and others that I cant bring to mind but she is just great

[Alexa]

Yep no worries Lei, Sophie was also in the movie "Secret Life of Bees", she is only non-Australian actress in this show.

Good to see some Aussie actors picking up some local work, Melissa George and Jonathan LaPaglia have come back from LA for this.

[Leilani]

Yes sure is a good cast all round , nice to see , should be good

[Leigh]

I have slowly been reading this book. I best hurry so I can watch this. I have enjoyed the book so far...so this should be good!

[lucyloo]

I can't wait to watch this show!!!

[lydnic]

It will be interesting how the characters in the show are portrayed. In the book they are all generally very unlikeable. I don't think I would want to be friends with any of them.

[lucyloo]

I'm going to chase up the book as well

[crashtestwoman]

OMG, I hope they take out all the bad language, crikey they used the C word about 500 times in the book. Loved the book though and can hardly wait for the series.

[Heather]

When I saw the promos it looked quite interesting....one to watch. Saw your post Alexa and thought I'd slept through the first episode....thank heavens I was wrong.