It’s July 1969 and the world’s attention is focused on the US moon shots. What the world doesn’t know is that the highly anticipated TV pictures of the moonwalk will be beamed to a sheep paddock in Parkes, Australia. Last minute flight plan changes mean that the moon will be in the southern hemisphere when Neil Armstrong take his "one small step".

The story unfolds in the form of a flashback by Cliff Buxton, played by Sam Neil, when he returns to visit the radio telescope he was in charge of during the 1960s. The make up department did an excellent job in ageing him thirty odd year to the present day.

The costumes and makeup all contribute to the feeling of small town Australia at the end of the Sixties. This is an Aussie feel good film in the tradition of Muriel’s Wedding or Strictly Ballroom. I always feel that our Antipodean friends are a good few years behind the rest of the world when it comes to ,say, fashion and political correctness. I don’t mean to offend Australian filmmakers by this, quite the contrary, I think that it lends then a sort of innocent charm. In the Dish, the men are not misogynists, just men who wouldn’t know how to use an oven, married to women whose idea of a career is perfecting their use of that or indeed any other domestic appliance.

Like Apollo 13, the Dish has an inescapable problem in the we, the audience, know the ending, having seen the TV pictures of the moonwalk. Unless you believe a "Capricorn One" style conspiracy theory then you assume that whatever problem befall the four man crew of Parkes Radio telescope, you just know that they will overcome them in time for "extra vehicular activity" . This problem, however, does not detract from the tension that builds as zero hour approaches. Add to this the inevitable romantic interest in the form of a local girl, with whom one of the crew is madly in love with, but is of course far too shy to ever ask out, then you have a very enjoyable film indeed.