A Town Like Alice (miniseries) A Town Like Alice (miniseries) A Town Like Alice is a five-hour 1981 Australian television adaptation of Nevil Shute's novel of the same name. Produced by the Seven Network, and directed by David Stevens, it was the second major adaptation of the book. In the United States it was shown on PBS under the Masterpiece Theatre banner, a rare non-British production to be so aired. It stars Helen Morse in the lead role of Jean Paget, with Bryan Brown as Joe Harman and Scottish actor Gordon Jackson as the aging lawyer and trustee Noel Strachan. The series won an International
Alice the Goon threatens to throw Alice off a cliff, until her child (also of unspecified sex) appears and shouts, "Mama!" Realizing that he is fighting a woman, which goes against his principles, Popeye releases Alice and discovers that she became the Sea Hag's slave only because the Hag had threatened her baby. Alice is the leader of a race of goons enslaved by the Sea Hag; Popeye and Alice lead them in a successful Spartacus-like slave rebellion. At the time, Alice caused controversy with protective mothers, who claimed that her frightening appearance alarmed their children. Alice was therefore toned down to become