Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo is a 2011 Australian two part television miniseries

Miniseries

A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...

 about the beginning of Cleo

Cleo (magazine)

CLEO is an Australian, New Zealand, South African, Malaysian, Singaporean, Thailand and Indonesian women's magazine.Aimed at an older audience than the teenage-focused Dolly, the magazine is known for its CLEO Bachelor of the Year award....

magazine and its creator, Ita Buttrose

Ita Buttrose

Ita Clare Buttrose, AO, OBE is an Australian journalist and businesswoman. She was the founding editor of Cleo, a high-circulation magazine aimed at women aged 20 to 40 that was ground-breakingly frank about sexuality , and later as the editor of the more sedate Australian Women's Weekly...

. The series stars Asher Keddie

Asher Keddie

Asher Keddie is an Australian actress who is perhaps best known for her role in the Australian television series Offspring. She is also known for her theatre work and leading roles in the television series Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo, Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities and Love My...

 as Ita Buttrose and Rob Carlton

Rob Carlton

Rob Carlton is an Australian actor and writer. He is best known for writing and starring in the comedy series Chandon Pictures. He also had starring roles in the comedy satire The Hollowmen and the children's television series Ocean Star....

 as Kerry Packer

Kerry Packer

Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer, AC was an Australian media tycoon. The son of Sir Frank Packer and Gretel Bullmore, the Packer family company owned controlling interest in both the Nine television network and leading Australian publishing company Australian Consolidated Press, which were later...

.

Plot

The series follows Ita Buttrose as she creates the fashion magazine Cleo, as well the fashion and politics of the period.

Cast and characters

• Asher Keddie
  Asher Keddie
  Asher Keddie is an Australian actress who is perhaps best known for her role in the Australian television series Offspring. She is also known for her theatre work and leading roles in the television series Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo, Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities and Love My...
  
   as Ita Buttrose
  Ita Buttrose
  Ita Clare Buttrose, AO, OBE is an Australian journalist and businesswoman. She was the founding editor of Cleo, a high-circulation magazine aimed at women aged 20 to 40 that was ground-breakingly frank about sexuality , and later as the editor of the more sedate Australian Women's Weekly...
  
  
• Rob Carlton
  Rob Carlton
  Rob Carlton is an Australian actor and writer. He is best known for writing and starring in the comedy series Chandon Pictures. He also had starring roles in the comedy satire The Hollowmen and the children's television series Ocean Star....
  
   as Kerry Packer
  Kerry Packer
  Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer, AC was an Australian media tycoon. The son of Sir Frank Packer and Gretel Bullmore, the Packer family company owned controlling interest in both the Nine television network and leading Australian publishing company Australian Consolidated Press, which were later...
  
  
• Matt Day
  Matt Day
  Matthew "Matt" Day is an Australian actor best known for his film and television roles.-Early life and career:Matt Day was born in Melbourne in 1971...
  
   as Daniel Ritchie
• Jessica Tovey
  Jessica Tovey
  Jessica Tovey is an Australian actress. Tovey graduated from the Newtown High School of the Performing Arts and has made appearances for various drama companies. She is best known for her role of Belle Taylor on the long-running Australian soap opera Home and Away. Tovey joined the show in 2006...
  
   as Leslie Carpenter
• Ian Meadows
  Ian Meadows
  Ian Meadows is an Australian actor and writer.-Early life and education:Born and raised in Collie, Western Australia, Meadows trained at Curtin University and the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts , graduating in 2005.-Acting career:Meadow's highest profile television role to date was...
  
   as Andrew Cowell
• Maeve Dermody as Rachel Carr
• Annie Maynard as Annie Woodham
• Tony Barry
  Tony Barry
  Tony Barry is an Australian actor who has performed in 55 feature films and 45 television series, across a four-decade career.-Filmography:He is known for his roles in the 2008 film Australia, Return to Snowy River, Never Say Die, the 1988 film Surfer and The Coca-Cola Kid.After acting in...
  
   as Sir Frank Packer
  Frank Packer
  Sir Douglas Frank Hewson Packer, KBE , was an Australian media proprietor who controlled Australian Consolidated Press and the Nine Network.-Biography:...
  
  
• Cheree Cassidy as Ivana Holbrook
• Octavia Barron-Martin as Pat Nigra
• Olivia Pigeot as Rosina O’Casey
• Simon Lyndon
  Simon Lyndon
  Simon Lyndon Simon Lyndon Simon Lyndon (born February 1971, in London is an Australian actor who grew up in Fremantle, Western Australia. He is a WAAPA graduate. He played Jimmy Loughlin in Chopper with Eric Bana, for which he won an AFI award for Best Supporting Actor and a Film Critics Circle...
  
   as Jack Thompson
  Jack Thompson (actor)
  Jack Thompson, AM is an Australian actor and one of the major figures of Australian cinema. He was educated at University of Queensland, before embarking on his acting career. In 2002, he was made an honorary member of the Australian Cinematographers Society...
  
  
• Nathan Page as "Mac", Buttrose's husband

Reception

Reviews for the show were generally positive. The Sydney Morning Herald

The Sydney Morning Herald

The Sydney Morning Herald is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia. The newspaper is published six days a week. The newspaper's Sunday counterpart, The...

said:

Australian TV blog, TV Tonight

TV Tonight

TV Tonight is an Australian-based television themed website which features news, programming and OzTAM ratings information. As of January 2011, the site places 1,083 in the Australian Alexa ranking system and 92,543 worldwide....

rated the series with four stars out of five, and commented:

Ratings

Part one of the miniseries rated over 1.2 million viewers nationally, ranking as the fifth most watched program of the night, and the eighth-most watched program of the week. Part two was watched by 1.346 million viewers in the main five Australian TV markets, ranking as the second-most watched program of the week and the most watched program of the night.

Production

The miniseries was produced by John Edwards

John Edwards (producer)

John Edwards is a television drama producer.His series credits include Rush , Love My Way , The Secret Life of Us , Police Rescue , The Surgeon , Fireflies , Big Sky and Stringer .His mini-series include Marking Time , On The Beach , Do...

 (Love My Way

Love My Way

Love My Way was a Logie Award winning and critically acclaimed Australian television drama series. It won the AFI award for Best Television Drama Series for each of its three seasons ....

, Rush

Rush (2008 TV series)

-DVD releases:-Achievements:-International distribution:-External links:...

) and Karen Radzyner by Southern Star Entertainment in association with Screen NSW, Screen Australia

Screen Australia

Screen Australia is the Federal Government’s key funding body for the Australian screen production industry. Its functions are to support and promote the development of a highly creative, innovative and commercially sustainable industry....

and ABC TV. The Executive Producer was Carole Sklan, ABC TV Head of Fiction; and the script was written by Christopher Lee.