Alice to Nowhere

Alice to Nowhere is a 1986 Australian miniseries set in the outback in 1954. The title refers to Alice Springs, a town in the centre of the country. The plot involves a nurse and a pair of ruthless jewel thieves.

Plot
Two jewel thieves plant a stolen necklace in a nurse's luggage. They then follow her onto Alice Springs and the towards Birdsville to try retrieve the necklace. Along the way they hijack a mail truck.

Cast

 * John Waters as Johnny Parson
 * Steven Jacobs as Dave Mitchell
 * Rosey Jones as Barbara Dean
 * Esben Storm as Frog
 * Slawomir Wabik as Ivan
 * Ruth Cracknell as Mrs Spencer
 * John Clayton as Sgt Wallace (2 episodes)
 * Joy Smithers as Betty Spencer

Production
Alice to Nowhere is based on a Evan Green novel of the same name. It was made by Crawford Productions with a projected budget of $2.8 million. Much of the film was shot in the Flinders Ranges, Simpson Desert and Broken Hill.

Reception
The show enjoyed reasonable ratings when it aired.

The Age's Barbara Hooks says the series "has some simply splendid attributes in terms of production and performance. Unfortunately, they seem to throw its silly and avoidable mistakes into stark relief." Suzanne Borlase of the Sydney Morning Herald praised the mini-series saying it "is a gripping action-packed drama set in the vast emptiness of the Australian Outback. At once an adventure, a tale of madness and a love story, it is worth watching for the scenery alone." Helen O'Neil, also from the Sydney Morning Herald reviewed it positively when it was repeated in 1990. She finished "Alice in Nowhere is a nicely handled, grueling watch - and an argument, if ever there was need of one, for having more than 10 minutes between ad breaks. Repeat runs of this quality can't be missed.

Also commenting on the 1990 repeat, Paul Leadon of the Sydney Morning Herald gave it a bad review writing that "Johnny and Frog were a pair of incompetent outback psychopaths in search of a better mini-series script." The Mercury News' David N Rosenthal was also critical. He writes "What this 1986 miniseries, which stars no one you ever heard of, demonstrates all too vividly is that Australian television may not be Down Under's finest export -- at least in every instance."