The First Kangaroos is a 1988 British

Cinema of the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom has had a major influence on modern cinema. The first moving pictures developed on celluloid film were made in Hyde Park, London in 1889 by William Friese Greene, a British inventor, who patented the process in 1890. It is generally regarded that the British film industry...

–Australian

Cinema of Australia

Cinema of Australia, more commonly referred to as the Australian film industry, refers to the system of production, distribution, and exhibition of films in Australia. Film production commenced in Australia in 1906 with the production of The Story of the Kelly Gang, the earliest feature film made...

 made for TV sports film directed by Frank Cvitanovich

Frank Cvitanovich

Frank Cvitanovich was a Canadian documentary film maker, who made much of his best work for British television.-Early years:Cvitanovich was born in Vancouver, the son of a Yugoslavian immigrant...

 and starring Dennis Waterman

Dennis Waterman

Dennis Waterman is a British actor and singer, best known for his tough-guy roles in television series including The Sweeney, Minder and New Tricks.-Early life:...

, Chris Haywood

Chris Haywood

Chris Haywood is an English-born, Australian-based film and television actor/producer.-Early life:Haywood was born in Billericay, Essex, England. He spent his early childhood in Chelmsford before moving to High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire where he attended High Wycombe Royal Grammar School from...

 and Dominic Sweeney. It depicts the first-ever rugby league

Rugby league

Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...

 tour of England by the Australian national team, the 1908-09 Kangaroos. The film drew complaints from the Granddaughter of British rugby league legend Albert Goldthorpe

Albert Goldthorpe

Albert Goldthorpe was an English rugby footballer from the period around 1895's schism in English rugby, which led to the formation of rugby league football around the turn of the century.One of five brothers , Goldthorpe made his first...

 for its villainous depiction of him.

Cast

• Dennis Waterman
  Dennis Waterman
  Dennis Waterman is a British actor and singer, best known for his tough-guy roles in television series including The Sweeney, Minder and New Tricks.-Early life:...
  
   ... Albert Goldthorpe
  Albert Goldthorpe
  Albert Goldthorpe was an English rugby footballer from the period around 1895's schism in English rugby, which led to the formation of rugby league football around the turn of the century.One of five brothers , Goldthorpe made his first...
  
  
• Chris Haywood
  Chris Haywood
  Chris Haywood is an English-born, Australian-based film and television actor/producer.-Early life:Haywood was born in Billericay, Essex, England. He spent his early childhood in Chelmsford before moving to High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire where he attended High Wycombe Royal Grammar School from...
  
   ... James Giltinan
• Dominic Sweeney ... Dally Messenger
  Dally Messenger
  Herbert Henry "Dally" Messenger was an Australian rugby union and rugby league footballer, recognised as one of the greatest ever players in either code. Messenger, or 'The Master' as he was dubbed, represented his country in both rugby football codes, playing two rugby union tests and seven...
  
  
• Philip Quast
  Philip Quast
  Philip Quast is an Australian actor perhaps best known for his role as Inspector Javert in the stage musical version of Les Misérables, or for appearances in numerous Australian soap operas including Sons and Daughters, The Young Doctors and Police Rescue.-Personal life:Quast was born in 1957 in...
  
   ... Bluey Burdon
• Tony Martin
  Tony Martin (actor)
  Tony Martin is an Australian actor. He married Rachael Blake on 21 December 2003. His son, Justin, is also an actor, with appearances in Somersault and Blue Water High to his credit....
  
   ... Dan Frawley
  Dan Frawley
  Dan Frawley was a pioneer Australian rugby league footballer, a national representative player. He played his career as a winger with the Eastern Suburbs club in Sydney and is considered one of the nation's finest footballers of the 20th century...
  
  
• Clarissa Kaye-Mason ... Mrs. Messenger
• Jim Carter ... Arthur Hughes
  Arthur Hughes
  Arthur Hughes may refer to:*Arthur Hughes *Arthur Hughes , English footballer for Bolton Wanderers, Southampton and Manchester City*Arthur Hughes , Chirk F.C...
  
  
• Alex Broun
  Alex Broun
  Alex Broun is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter and Rugby journalist who has worked extensively with Short+Sweet , the world's largest ten minute theatre festival...
  
   ... Morton
• Wayne Pygram
  Wayne Pygram
  Wayne Pigram , better known by his stage name Wayne Pygram, is an Australian actor, known for his role as Scorpius in the science fiction series Farscape and the miniseries that followed, Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars .Pygram was born in Cootamundra, New South Wales and raised in Wagga Wagga,...
  
   ... Albie Rosenfeld
• John Dicks ... Reverend Green
• Nell Schofield ... Betty
• Kelly Dingwall ... Jim Devereaux
• Robert Giltinan ... Reporter
• Harold Kissin ... Trainer
• Allan Surtees ... George the Barman

The film also featured Sydney rugby league stars of the time, Wayne Pearce

Wayne Pearce

Wayne John Pearce OAM is an Australian former rugby league footballer and coach. An athletic Lock Forward for the Balmain Tigers, he was affectionately known as 'Junior'...

 and Andrew Ettingshausen

Andrew Ettingshausen

Andrew Ettingshausen is an Australian former rugby league footballer of the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s. He played his first grade Australian club football for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, retiring with the record of most games at a single club, with 328...

.