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 Jean's experiences during the war, when she was working in Malaya at the time the Japanese invaded and was taken prisoner together with a group of women and children. As she speaks Malay fluently, Jean takes a leading role in the group of prisoners. The Japanese refuse all responsibility for the group and march them from one village to another. Many of them, not used to physical hardship, die. Jean meets an Australian soldier, Sergeant Joe Harman, also a prisoner, who is driving a lorry for the Japanese and they strike up a friendship. He steals food and medicines to