Halfway Across the Galaxy and Turn Left

Synopsis

X, Qwrk, Dovis, Mother and Father are just an ordinary family from the planet Zyrgon who would have stayed there were it not for Father's cheating ways. He fiddled the State Lottery for the twenty-seventh time and the family had to flee from the Zyrgonese authorities… …and after travelling halfway across the galaxy they land on earth. They try as best they can to fit into their new situations but it is difficult because Zyrgonese customs differ quite widely from those of Earth. For a start, Zyrgonese parents are considered far too irresponsible and unreliable to bring children up so Zyrgonese children, in this case X, have to look after these parents. It falls to X to prevent their neighbours discovering they are aliens.

Her resourcefulness is severely taxed because Dovis is fond of dancing to the music of the spheres; Qwrk, although only eight, has the intellect of a university professor; Mother is as wayward and flighty as a teenager; and mischievous Father has to be watched all the time. Things are made a little easier for X with the arrival of her aunt. Aunt Hecla used to run a hybrid antelope farm on Zyrgon's Bright Side.

Like X, Hecla spent her youth as an Organiser rearing her parents; but now she has become a free spirit determined to get as much out of life as possible to make up for lost time. So Aunt Hecla and the Jacksons (the name the family assumes) try to lead an unobtrusive life on earth to escape detection by terrestrial austhorities and also the fearsome Law Enforcer-In-Chief who has pursued them from Zyrgon to bring them back to justice.

Cast

X … Lauren Hewett
DOVIS … Sylvia Seidel
FATHER … Bruce Myles
QWRK … Jeffrey Walker
MOTHER … Jan Friedl
LOX … Paul Kelman
THE CHIEF … Bruce Spence
JADY … Kerry Armstrong

Guests included Diane Cilento, Sandy Gore, David Argue and Colleen Hewett

Production

28 x 30 minute episodes
Produced in 1991.
Televised Sunday mornings on the Seven Network - 1994 Producer: Jan Marnell
Director: Rod Hardy
Screenwriter: John Reeves

Based on the book by Robin Klein