Tony Harrison is a man with a passion. The evidence is the Australian Film & TV Companion. Meticulously researched and compiled, Harrison has listed every sound feature film made in this country since 1930 and every nationally broadcast television drama series, mini-series, television movie, documentary series, comedy series and current affairs show since 1956.

It was with a degree of wonder that I leafed through this elegant tome, the low-down on the entire output of a nation’s film and television industry in my hands. I was torn between ‘is that all there is?’ and a sense of pride in the celebration of undiluted media output – a worthy time capsule of pre-Free Trade Agreement culture.