Bangkok Hilton is a three-part Australian mini-series made in 1989 by Kennedy Miller Productions and directed by Ken Cameron.
In 1960s Sydney, Hal Stanton (Denholm Elliott) falls in love with Katherine Faulkner (Judy Morris), who has led a sheltered life at an isolated cattle station in the Australian outback.
She finds James Stanton (Lewis Fiander), the uncle she has never met, who considers Hal dead, due to his shameful behavior in WWII.
While in England, Kat meets a handsome American, Arkie Ragan (Jerome Ehlers), who sweeps her off her feet and invites her to travel with him back to Australia, by way of Goa.
She is taken to squalid, overcrowded, Lum Jau Prison to await trial and placed in a cell with other foreigners, ironically nicknamed the "Bangkok Hilton."
Carlisle convinces Hal to actively participate in the case, working with Kat, but maintaining his false identity as a junior lawyer.
The despondent Hal suddenly realizes that the escape tunnel that his men dug in WWII may still exist, as it was covered over when the Japanese discovered it.
Hal escapes Bangkok and meets up with Kat in Goa, where they watch as Arkie is arrested and then walk together on the beach as father and daughter.
Terry Hayes felt it would be the basis of a good mini-series if the story was changed so the person who went to prison was innocent.
[1] Terry Hayes was originally meant to write the script but he was exhausted from Dead Calm (also starring Kidman) and Tony Morphett was given the job.
Other Sydney locations included Balmain High School, the Water Board (MWB) facility in Waterloo, and the Metro Cinema in Kings Cross.
This and earlier minor scenes (before the incarceration) were filmed in a disused section of the Mater Misericordiae Hospital in North Sydney, New South Wales.
It was the highest rating mini-series of the year (1989) and was the last of the series of productions Kennedy Miller made for Network Ten.
The bootleg version, commonly available from Russia and other countries, cuts the series down to ninety minutes, only a third of its original length.
The DVD version released in Australia in 2005 presents the series in the original three parts but has been cropped for widescreen televisions, from 1.33:1 to 1.78:1, cutting off the top and bottom of the film.
At the time the miniseries was made, the Hilton International Bangkok at Nai Lert Park (opened in 1983), was in operation.