It’s broad smiles at the ABC as the national broadcaster looks set to clinch a deal securing the local broadcasting rights to the widely praised The Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty.
The three-part BBC documentary charts Australian-born media tycoon Rupert Murdoch’s rise to prominence and power in contemporary Britain, where he owns The Sun and The Times newspapers.
The BBC’s Australian channels, which are broadcast on Foxtel, majority owned by Murdoch’s News Corp, elected not to screen the series, leading to local broadcasters, including the ABC and Nine (owner of this masthead), expressing an interest to acquire the rights.
The series details Murdoch’s close relationships with British prime ministers, including Tony Blair, and features celebrities, including Hugh Grant, talking about the phone hacking perpetrated by The News of the World tabloid, which led to criminal charges, a parliamentary inquiry and the jailing of an editor.
The program won praise and strong ratings in Britain, with critic Anita Singh writing in Britain’s The Daily Telegraph: "Not that you need all that to guess at what's going on behind the scenes, as when Elisabeth Murdoch, face composed but eyes blazing, said of her father's new partner, one Wendi Deng:
'She's delightful. It's something I couldn't have foreseen but Dad seems extremely happy, and when someone's extremely happy you can't begrudge them their happiness.' You imagined her walking calmly out of the room, shutting the door and screaming into a pillow."
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