Bangkok Hilton

1 9 8 9 (Australia)
3 x 90 minute episodes

20-year-old Australian girl Katrina Stanton (Nicole Kidman) has been searching for her father in England when she befriends handsome and charming American freelance photographer Arkie Ragan (Jerome Ehlers) while travelling home to Australia from London via Thailand.

Ragan hides 2.4 kg of heroin in a camera case with a false bottom and gets Kat to take it through Thai customs for him, but the police at the airport find the drugs in her bag.

Kat is charged with heroin trafficking and taken to the horrific “Bangkok Hilton” at (the fictional) Lum Jau prison, where she makes friends with fellow inmate Mandy Engels (Joy Smithers), who has been given the death sentence and is awaiting execution by machine gun (the mandatory sentence in Thailand for drug smuggling).

Whilst she endures the terrible conditions inside, Kat’s lawyer Richard Carlisle (Hugo Weaving) and ex-pat “Bill Worthington” (Denholm Elliott) – who turns out to be Kat’s father, Hal Stanton – battle with the authorities to have her freed. The requisite body search and the misery of sharing a bare cell with eight other women and a slop bucket are shown in graphic detail.

Handsomely filmed in Australia, England, India and Thailand, this is a superb miniseries. The writing and acting are first-class, and it is still one of Nicole Kidman’s finest roles.

Katrina Stanton
Nicole Kidman
Bill Worthington (Hal Stanton)
Denholm Elliott
Richard Carlisle
Hugo Weaving
Mandy Engels
Joy Smithers
James Stanton
Lewis Fiander
Catherine Faulkner
Judy Morris
Arkie Ragan
Jerome Ehlers
Billy Engels
Noah Taylor
Lady Faulkner
Gerda Nicolson
Kang (‘Pretty Warder’)
Pauline Chan
Detective King
Richard Carter
Major Sara
Tan Chandraviroj
Astra
Deborah Kara Unger
Thai Police Sergeant
John Alansu
British Attache
Vincent Ball
Immigration Officer, GOA
Ambika Baxter
Sarah
Lucy Bayler
O’Keefe
Jonathan Biggins
Minister
David Bookalil
Prison Governor
Kat Ditthavong
Gordon Fleming
Wallas Eaton
Astra’s Friend
Lachelle Gaymon
Kat Aged 5
Amber Haidar
Miss Howell
Deidre Lassau
Gnut
Lin Chin Lee
Mrs Cameron
Clarissa Kaye-Mason
Jane
Helen Mutkins
Sir Richard
Michael Sinclair
Anat
Ram Worton

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