The TV Set: Howzat John Edwards Get Period Music So Right?

Having zero interest in cricket it's taken a while to get around to watching Howzat! Kerry Packer's War. Despite a marketing campaign that made it seem the unmissable local drama of 2012, and a cast that brought together all John Edwards' best boys, flashbacks to the truly awful Paper Giants - Edwards' original Packer mini-series - pushed Howzat! into the wait-til-its-a-three-night-hire-at-the-local-DVDbuster category.

Now had it been more widely publicised that this two-part Nine Network series should have been subtitled Cuddly Kerry & His Band Of Scally Wags, this show would have shot to the top of any Must-See list much earlier.

When Delvene Delaney, wife of central character and World Series cricket producer John Cornell, uttered the words "He's such a lovely man," about Packer, during a romantic stroll along the beach with hubby, it was obvious this was much more than just a kiss-arse biopic. Howzat! is educational too. For those of us unknowledgeable about cricketing history we learnt about the genesis of the white cricket ball, the tastefully-coloured uniforms and the catchy theme song. As well as learning that Packer was a "lovely man".

For those of us unknowledgeable about political history we learnt that an all-male sporting team in the '70s was untainted by sexism, racism or homophobia. Other than a bit of chain-smoking and beer swilling, those first World Series teams obviously led the way for a generation of SNAGs.

And great to see producer Edwards, who usually saves his best work for the subscription networks (Love My Way, Tangle, Spirited), allowing his best lads onto a commercial network. Here we see Love My Way's Brendan Cowell and Damon Gameau as Rod Marsh and Greg Chappell and Fireflies' Abe Forsythe (most recently directing and starring in non-Edwards' show Laid). Pity there wasn't the same effort spent casting Delaney (one of only two female roles in the entire sausage series) - but at least Cariba Heine now has two hits on her CV as she followed this up with a part in the big-in-China Bait 3D.

[Note to Alexander England's PR folk - the young actor who played Tony Greig far more handsome than he was in real life - seems to share a name with a gay porn star and so IMDb has him listed as appearing in The Diamond Stud in 1995. If indeed they are one and the same, he started his porn career very underage and so, congrats for not giving up and finally making it as a 'legit' actor.]

Amidst some ill-fitting wigs and period set-up shots of punks in the UK (those punks seemed to have been leaning in all manner of places back in 1977), the highlight of Howzat! was the soundtrack of episode one. Not only did we get Hush's Boney Maroney (though some sharpie dance moves wouldn't have gone astray in the accompanying scene - but perhaps the extras clothing budget was blown on punk attire and Edwards couldn't afford the vintage connie cardigans and pairs of treads) but there was also Flash & The Pan's mighty Hey St Peter (when the hell will someone get round to putting together a remix project of this old Vanda & Young outfit?).

More impressive was hearing UK new wave song Driver's Seat by Sniff N The Tears. Not just impressive because the lead singer was a recently featured guest vocalist on Canyons' album but because the song wasn't actually a hit until some time later than the period it featured during in Howzat!. So these SNAG-gy cricketers were also early adopters of underground musical trends. Howzat indeed.

But most impressive was hearing a song that had completely faded from memory. Keep On Smiling by John Paul Young. A glorious Australian pop hit of the '70s, it's often overlooked as its b-side Standing In The Rain was flipped over to become an a-side smash that kicked off the disco-period of JPY's career that led to his never-far-from-radio-or-a-TV-comercial smash Love Is In The Air.

This isn't the first time an Edwards' production has nailed the music soundtracks of period productions. In Puberty Blues for Network Ten, Edwards' music department slayed with the inclusion of a another forgotten dance-pop gem from the '70s. When the show's adult characters were getting their groove on at the local surf club they were doing it to Marty Rhone's Mean Pair Of Jeans. CHOON! And there was Ferrets' Don't Fall In Love. Perfection. Both Blues and Howzat! also made good use of Dragon hits too.

However Edwards' best musical work appeared in Spirited. The Claudia Karvan romantic fantasy actually created an authentic sounding new wave back catalogue for the ghost played by UK comedian/writer Matt King. With The Saints' (I'm) Stranded as the show's theme, Jed Kurzel of The Mess Hall was brought in to create Saints-like songs for King's character's '70s punk band The Nerve. Kurzel created one of the best bands that never was.

Seeing as Edwards gets the music so right, maybe when's he completed his Packer biopic trilogy (he's currently working on Paper Giants: Magazine Wars), he can deliver the next step in the nostalgic Countdown franchise with a warts'n'all, behind-the-scenes mini-series about the ABC icon. This time featuring Cowell and Gameau as '70s chartbusters JPY and Marty Rhone. Do us all a favour, Edwards.