Touch the Sun is a series of television films commissioned by Patricia Edgar for the Australian Children's Television Foundation. It was to be the ACTF's project for the Australian Bicentenary celebrations in 1988. The Australian Bicentennial Authority named Touch the Sun as the Bicentenary official children's series for 1988. Edgar's plan was to locate stories in every state in Australia showing the diversity of the Australian landscape. It was directed, written and produced by some of the top film and tv personnel in Australia. Patricia Edgar was Executive Producer of the show and it was backed by the ABC, Australian Film Commission, the New South Wales Film Corporation, the South Australian Film and Television Financing Fund, the South Australian Film Corporation, Film Victoria and the French distribution company Revcom International.[1] National Trustees agreed to act as investor representatives for Touch the Sun in 1986 and the series was offered to the Australian Television networks for telecast in 1988.[1] The $7.5 million necessary for production of this unique children’s series for the Bicentennial year was fully subscribed by 30 June 1987.[2] The ABC paid $2 million for the Australian rights to Touch the Sun, the most the ABC had ever spent to acquire the rights to a program.[3]
The six episodes of the Foundation’s bicentennial telefeature series, Touch the Sun, were produced entirely in 1987/88. Production took place in every state of Australia: Top Enders was shot in the Northern Territory, Devil's Hill in Tasmania, Princess Kate in New South Wales, Peter and Pompey in Queensland, Captain Johnno in South Australia and The Gift in both Victoria and Western Australia.[1]