The Singapore Grip

Hybrid docuseries offering an expansive exploration of the exploitative and genocidal aspects of European colonialism, from America to Africa, and its impact on society today.

Sara Dane is a 1982 Australian television miniseries about a woman transported from England to Australia for a crime she did not commit.

In 1939 in eastern Algeria, Omar, a young boy of ten, lives with his family in a room in Dar Sbitar, a house shared by several families who overcome the trials they go through every day to ensure their subsistence. Her deceased father is Aïni, the mother, who bleeds herself from all four veins to keep her children and their grandmother alive. The families of Dar Sbitar share their intimacy and their daily life, this life animates the big house, which itself becomes a character in its own right. "El Harik" (The Fire), is an Algerian drama series in 10 episodes adapted from Mohamed Dib's trilogy "The Big House", "The Fire" and "The Loom".

The story centres round the inhabitants of small neighbourhood who work in an enrichment school and a minimart. From ex-criminal to middle-aged workers who lost their jobs to technology, and elderlies with a seemingly disillusioned life, can there still be hopes and dreams for these everyday folks who live at the edge of society ? A light-hearted drama bursting with colourful characters, watch how Zhong Ling the founder of Hope Training Centre, and Hong Da Cai the boss of ‘Tian Tian Lai’ minimart, deal with every day situation and at the same time manage their own love life.

This drama describes the trials and tribulations the teochew Cai Family under the patriarch Cai Qingyang from the late 1940s to the 1990s.

Xu Long Bin is a reservist officer who saved Chen Jin Bao's life during a military exercise. Instead of being grateful, Jin Bao blames Long Bin for his damaged car. From then, the duo never see eye to eye. Lu Jun Guang becomes their mediator and the three men eventually became friends. Jun Guang is in love with Shen Yi Xuan, who cannot get over the memory of her dead boyfriend. While Bai Jing Yu, Jun Guang's childhood friend, is always at his side through thick and thin. New recruit Yao Wei Guo dislikes Yang Xian Feng and constantly picks on him. But Xian Feng proves himself to be a kind and compassionate buddy, and they eventually become good friends. Their friendship is tested when they fall in love with the same girl. Long Bin, Jun Guang and Jin Bao are patrolling a restricted military area when they encounter a terrorist attack. Will they be able to put their military skills to good use and stop the terrorist attack?

The story revolves around three brothers who grew up in a male-dominant family and all inherited a chauvinistic streak from their father. Eldest brother Zhang Nai Ping aspires to be his own boss but he suffers many setbacks in his career and his marriage. His wife Zhou Hui Min cannot tolerate his chauvinism, they eventually divorced. In a twist of event, Nai Ping chanced upon a business opportunity in confinement food catering. Second brother Zhang Nai Liang suffers from ear disease which leads to migraine and had to give up his passion in ballet. He conducts ballet classes for children instead, but a parent accused him of behaving inappropriately towards her daughter - The youngest brother Zhang Nai Yi graduates from the arts school specializing in fashion design. However, his lack of social skills and introvert nature hinders his chances at job interviews.

Based on real-life experiences, Tenko remains one of the most fondly remembered and acclaimed BBC dramas of the early 1980s. It follows a group of women, formerly comfortably well-off ex-pats living in Singapore, as they are captured by the Japanese during World War II.

1964-65. Singapore is a city at a crossroads. Political and racial tensions are at fever pitch as the British pull out, and a new nation is about to be born. The lights of Bugis Street have never burned so bright: bootleg copies of Motown songs boom out from street stalls; the Rolling Stones are in town along with tourists and American sailors fresh from Vietnam. They join British and Australian soldiers checking out the prostitutes and gambling dens, en route to their own war in Borneo. This is the city of Sam Callaghan, Patricia Cheng, the CIA’s Conrad Harrison and the clients of the Cheng Detective Agency. The agency’s cases range from the usual (straying spouses and petty fraudsters) to events with international implications and complications. Sam’s contacts from his military days are useful - but they start to drag him back into a dark world that he would prefer to leave behind.

South Africa, 1823. The Zulu Empire, headed by King Shaka, a brilliant but ruthless military strategist, begin to encroach on the British colony of Cape Town. A volunteer cadre of explorers, mercenaries and professional soldiers are sent to Zululand to try to make contact with Shaka and assess the real threat of his army.

Le sucre, pour la douceur et pour le pire

From a poor kampong girl to a shining wayang star, “Titoudao: Inspired By A True Wayang Star” is a series that follows the turbulent and colourful story of a real-life wayang star, Madam Oon Ah Chiam. A celebrated wayang performer who has to take on multiple hardships and challenges in life in order to realize her dreams and find her place in the world. This epic biography also parallels pivotal events in Singapore’s history to showcase how our lives have been transformed over the course of over 50 years.

Parental Guidance is a Singaporean drama produced by local TV station MediaCorp and airs on MediaCorp Channel 5 on Thursdays at 8.30pm starting on 8 February 2007 to 3 May 2007 for a total of 13 episodes.

A Song to Remember is a MediaCorp Channel 8 historical-cum-musical drama which is set in the 1930s to 1940s in early Singapore before World War II. It debuted on Channel 8 on 22 November 2011 and was telecast every weekday night at 9.00 pm. This drama stars Qi Yuwu and Joanne Peh who had paired up thrice after The Little Nyonya and C.L.I.F., and Eelyn Kok, Julie Tan and Desmond Tan. Chen Hanwei plays a villain in this drama while Eelyn Kok is also another antagonist. Viewers can catch episodes on xinmsn catchup from 23 November 2011. It was reported that the scriptwriter Ang Ee Tee took several years to complete the script of this drama. Despite large amounts of resources and money pumped in for the production and promotion of this serial, the drama was not well received by the audience when it was broadcast. Many perceived the show to be boring and slow-paced, and the acting skills of some of the main cast members were heavily criticised.

Set in the 1930s, the drama spans across several generations of a wealthy Straits-born Chinese family in Malacca, and revolves around the feuds surrounding it. Yue Niang, a strong-willed Nyonya refuses to be consigned to her lowborn status in life and sets out to change her destiny, eventually succeeding as a businesswoman.

Six young Australians go to war, full of confidence and bravado. They land in Singapore in 1942, just in time for surrender. With 15,000 others, they are marched off to Changi prison camp. Together, the six boys survive three and a half years of incarceration. Almost sixty years later, the six prepare to get together for what may be their last hurrah.

In the sweltering Dutch East Indies, the European colonizers are plagued by a hidden force; a combination of tropical magic, Eastern inscrutability and mutual incomprehension. Blind and deaf to the slumbering powers of the East Indian people, resident Van Oudyck, his son, daughter and seductive wife slowly but surely fall prey to this mysterious force...

At eight years old, an impoverished Bert Facey was forced to start the backbreaking, dawn-to-dusk life of a farm labourer. Unschooled, his father dead, abandoned by his mother, by the age of twenty he had survived the rigours of pioneering the harsh Australian bush and the slaughter of the bloody WWI campaign at Gallipoli.

Through the fictionalized lives of two young Saint-Simonians, this television film presents the history of French colonization in Algeria from 1837 to the end of the Second Empire.

Daily drama centring on a number of multiracial and multi-generational families in modern Singapore.