The Summer series/best of for 60 Minutes is not only providing some great stories from 2010, but also from within the archives. The good thing about the investment by Channel 9 in this show is that it not only is encouraging the collection of intriguing stories but also the development of great production & behind the camera staff. This week offers us the same high standard. What you can expect on this week’s show:

Avalanche!
Sometimes you can admire people for their courage while wanting to shake some sense into them at the same time. That’s how Liz Hayes felt when she was introduced to members of the Avalanche Survivors Club. These big mountain skiers describe being swallowed by a towering wall of snow, buried in the cold and the darkness, slowly suffocating. Terrifying stuff and yet they keep going back for more. It’s all about adrenalin and pushing the envelope, and for that, these powder hounds are prepared to risk everything.

Reporter: Liz Hayes
Producer: Stephen Rice
Original TX: 1 August, 2010

The Pirate Coast
Think of pirates and chances are your mind will conjure up images of swarthy men wearing eye patches, puffy shirts and pantaloons. That is so three centuries ago. Modern-day pirates are a different breed altogether, as Liam Bartlett discovered when he ventured to the impoverished African nation of Somalia. The pirates Liam met there wouldn’t get out of bed for twenty pieces of silver. When they hijack a ship, they stand to make millions.

Reporter: Liam Bartlett
Producers: Howard Sacre, Paul Steindl
Original TX: 29 March, 2009

Pest Busters
Everyone is good at something, so they say. And for the Irula tribe in Southern India, that something is catching rats, and snakes, and scorpions, and any number of other creatures that would send most folk scurrying for the hills. But 60 Minutes reporters are made of sterner stuff than that. Certainly Jennifer Byrne managed to hold her ground when she visited the Irula back in 1990, although we can’t imagine it was easy.

Reporter: Jennifer Byrne
Producer: John Penlington
Original TX: 1 July, 1990

Living the Dream
As a 60 Minutes reporter, Charles Wooley has met more than his fair share of so-called superstars. But he’s never come across a celebrity quite like Susan Boyle, the dowdy Scottish spinster with the nightingale voice who found fame and fortune through reality television. Susan’s a household name nowadays and presumably very rich. But she remains charmingly down to earth, forgoing limousines in favour of the local bus. You’d almost say she was ordinary, until you hear her sing.

Reporter: Charles Wooley
Producer: Sandra Cleary
Original TX: 11 April, 2010

 

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