What's on TV: Wednesday, June 6
Julia Zemiro's Home Delivery: Barrie Cassidy
ABC, 8pm
Julia Zemiro introduces veteran political journalist Barrie Cassidy as a respected figure who "has somehow made sense of the madness of federal politics for more than 30 years". He's also the man whose "gruff yet strangely soothing voice" is one of the familiar sounds of Sunday morning as, for 16 years, he's hosted ABC TV's political discussion show, Insiders.
They meet in his beautifully preserved hometown of Chiltern in gold-rush country in the heart of Victoria and set off to tour his former family home and school and to visit the impressive sports oval that has particular significance for his family.
There are affectionate descriptions of a boy remembered as short and shy who found himself outnumbered by girls at his Rutherglen high school and didn't really relish the experience. The family history dates back to the foundation of the town and he's one of five boys, with an older sister. Their father fought in a key battle in World War 2 and Cassidy also discusses the revelation that rocked his parents' marriage late in their lives.
There's also a quicker skip through his time covering and participating in politics, and a colourful anecdote about the decidedly inauspicious start to his stint as press secretary for Prime Minister Bob Hawke. True to Zemiro's introduction, Cassidy can sound a little gruff, but here he's also hospitable and giving and this warm reflection offers a sense of the shyness that might still lie beneath the toughened exterior. DE
Instinct
Ten, 8.30pm
Instinct tells one that a drama starring the reliably colourful Alan Cumming as an author turned detective with supposedly brilliant insights into deviant behaviour would be worth a look; unfortunately, Instinct isn't that show. A by-the-book police procedural, it takes a bunch of cliched tropes better used elsewhere – the dapper Dr. Dylan Reinhart is clever but erratic and comes complete with a clutch of Daddy Issues, while his fetching sidekick, played by Australian Bojana Novakovic, is shadowed by failures in her love life – and throws them into a case that can be conveniently cracked in 46 minutes.
The dialogue is of the tin-ear variety, and while there's a certain amount of fun in playing along with the detectives as clues are revealed piece by piece, the leaps in tonight's case are too ludicrous and irrational to become invested in. As for the cloying finale. the less said the better. PK