The Dish is set in July 1969 in Parkes, New South Wales, Australia, a community of population about ten thousand, approximately 150-200 miles northwest of Sydney. Its affable prescient mayor, played by Roy Billing, is reaping a reward for his maneuvers to get a radio telescope observatory sited locally, in a sheep paddock not far from town. The reward, putting Parkes on the map, is the facility's assignment to help NASA in Houston with telemetry and communications signals for the Apollo 11 moon voyage and landing.
Well-known actor Sam Neill (Jurassic Park, etc.) plays Cliff, the contemplative pipe-smoking director of the dish-management crew. Taylor Kane plays Rudi, the comical security guard who's on the alert for threats that aren't really quite there. Tom Long plays Glenn, the not-really-so-nerdy whiz kid who's the junior member of the team. He has a crush on Janine, Rudi's sister, played by Eliza Szonert, who has a crush back. Kevin Harrington plays Mitch, the wise-cracking Aussie who's second in command to Cliff, at least domestically. What tension there is, aside from that of the moon mission itself, derives from Mitch's discomfort with Al the add-on from NASA, played by Patrick Warburton. Mitch considers Al an annoying know-it-all presence, representative of an American arrogance that the Australians can't be trusted to be competent but have to be monitored.
John McMartin plays the American ambassador who is greeted in Parkes with the, uh, U.S. national anthem. He visits the dish and is impressed at how the astronauts sound like they're just a few feet away.
A light comedy-drama gem, this one. There are cameo appearances by John F. Kennedy and Walter Cronkite.
Well-known actor Sam Neill (Jurassic Park, etc.) plays Cliff, the contemplative pipe-smoking director of the dish-management crew. Taylor Kane plays Rudi, the comical security guard who's on the alert for threats that aren't really quite there. Tom Long plays Glenn, the not-really-so-nerdy whiz kid who's the junior member of the team. He has a crush on Janine, Rudi's sister, played by Eliza Szonert, who has a crush back. Kevin Harrington plays Mitch, the wise-cracking Aussie who's second in command to Cliff, at least domestically. What tension there is, aside from that of the moon mission itself, derives from Mitch's discomfort with Al the add-on from NASA, played by Patrick Warburton. Mitch considers Al an annoying know-it-all presence, representative of an American arrogance that the Australians can't be trusted to be competent but have to be monitored.
John McMartin plays the American ambassador who is greeted in Parkes with the, uh, U.S. national anthem. He visits the dish and is impressed at how the astronauts sound like they're just a few feet away.
A light comedy-drama gem, this one. There are cameo appearances by John F. Kennedy and Walter Cronkite.