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
A Town Like Alice (1956 film) only one to speak Malay fluently, and so takes a leading role in the group. But the Japanese refuse to take any responsibility for the group, marching them from one village to another. Many of them, unused to physical labour, die. Jean is only able to survive because she understands local ways and is prepared to 'go native'. The group meets a young Australian soldier, Sergeant Joe Harman, also a prisoner, who is driving a truck for the Japanese. He and Jean strike up a friendship and he tells her about the town of Alice Springs, where he grew up.