The Beautiful Lie (TV series)

The Beautiful Lie is an Australian television drama that aired on ABC. The six-part series is a contemporary re-imagining of Leo Tolstoy's classic 1877 novel Anna Karenina.^[1] It is directed by Glendyn Ivin and Peter Salmon and produced by Endemol Australia's John Edwards and Imogen Banks.^[2] It premiered on Sunday 18 October 2015 at 8:30pm.^[3] Screenwriter Alice Bell made the decision to turn Anna and Xander into sports stars to heighten the transgression of a wife leaving her husband.^[4]

The Beautiful Lie
Genre	Drama
Written by	Alice Bell Jonathan Gavin Blake Ayshford
Directed by	Glendyn Ivin Peter Salmon
Country of origin	Australia
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	6
Production
Producers	John Edwards Imogen Banks
Running time	60 minutes
Production company	Endemol Australia
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	18 October (2015-10-18) – 22 November 2015 (2015-11-22)

Cast

Main / regular

• Sarah Snook as Anna Ivin
• Rodger Corser as Xander Ivin
• Sophie Lowe as Kitty Ballantyne
• Celia Pacquola as Dolly Faraday
• Daniel Henshall as Kingsley Faraday
• Benedict Samuel as Skeet Du Pont
• Catherine McClements as Tess Du Pont
• Alexander England as Peter Levin
• Dan Wyllie as Nick Levin
• Robert Menzies as Phillip Ballantyne
• Gina Riley as Catherine Ballantyne

Supporting

• Georgina Naidu as Joni
• Marlon Williams as Dylan
• Lewis Fletcher as Kasper Ivin

Episodes

Series 1 (2015)

No. (overall)	No. (series)	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	Runtime	Viewership (millions)
1	1	"Episode 1"	Glendyn Ivin	Alice Bell	18 October 2015 (2015-10-18)	55 mins	0.54[5]
2	2	"Episode 2"	Glendyn Ivin	Alice Bell	25 October 2015 (2015-10-25)	54 mins	0.435[6]
3	3	"Episode 3"	Glendyn Ivin	Jonathan Gavin	1 November 2015 (2015-11-01)	58 mins	0.381[7]
4	4	"Episode 4"	Peter Salmon	Alice Bell	8 November 2015 (2015-11-08)	57 mins	0.433[8]
5	5	"Episode 5"	Peter Salmon	Jonathan Gavin	15 November 2015 (2015-11-15)	58 mins	0.414[9]
6	6	"Episode 6"	Peter Salmon	Alice Bell	22 November 2015 (2015-11-22)[10]	56 mins[10]	0.425[11]

Reception

Melinda Houston found that the changes in society since Anna Karenina made Anna's decision to cheat on her husband seem immature rather than tragic.^[12] Michael Idato regards The Beautiful Lie as being superbly cast.^[13]

External links

• The Beautiful Lie at IMDb
• The Beautiful Lie ABC TV website