ABC orders pioneering security series

Australian pubcaster ABC has commissioned what is billed as a ground-breaking documentary series examining the threats to the country’s national and personal security.

Keeping Australia Safe was filmed over two days

Keeping Australia Safe (6×60’) was filmed by ITV Studios Australia (ITVSA) over one continuous 48-hour period.

The producers deployed 200 cameras around Australia and overseas during the two days, involving 30 institutions.

The series will reveal the efforts of federal and state governments and security services to keep Australians safe, intercut with personal stories from specialist police units, community-based domestic crisis centres, defence force operations in Afghanistan, magistrates’ courts and remote policing in the Outback.

Co-funded by Screen Australia, the show aims to challenge perceptions about where threats exist and examine the competing priorities of national and personal security and look at the costs – both financial and to civil liberties.

According to ITV Studios’ head of content Ben Ulm, a documentary series of this scale and intensity has not been attempted before.

“With numerous polls revealing that Australians seem to be living in fear, and the government telling us that acts of terrorism in this country are now inevitable, this series will look at the costs of keeping Australia safe,” Ulm said.

“We will hopefully begin a conversation about what sort of Australia we want our children to live in.”

ABC head of factual Steve Bibb said the show was an incredibly ambitious project and would get the nation talking.

The series follows ITVSA’s Keeping Australia Alive, which aired on ABC last year and used 100 cameras in 24 hours to capture a snapshot of the country’s health system.

ITV Studios Global Entertainment will distribute Keeping Australia Safe internationally.