Get out the popcorn. It's November.

No, we aren't watching instructional films for ambulance-chasing lawyers. We're going to Australia, an exotic locale where I've never been. There, among the kangaroos, are Bad Men and, of course, Westerns…

Today's Short Subjects: You've heard of him, of course: the Jesse James of the Outback. Now hear about Ned Kelly.

I don't have much to say about Mr Kelly, other than to observe that wherever the Irish (and we Scots Irish) go, situations like this seem to happen. Whether in West Virginia or Queensland. The first man on the moon, an Armstrong of all people, is to be applauded: he managed not to start a feud while he was there. Of course, there were only two of them…

Anyway, Australia has everything you need for a Western: sun, sand, horses, and annoying feral Irishmen like Crocodile Dundee. So it's no wonder that the US sent an American actor down there to make a Western.

Although they sent a Norwegian. Go figure. Not sure what the natives made of him.

Today's Feature Film: You know you want to see Whiplash. You just never knew you did. Peter Graves, yes, him, James Arness's 'little' brother – Graves was only 6 foot 4, while Marshall Dillon was 6 foot 7 inches – rides the Outback, bringing law, order, and good banking practices, as far as I can tell. The series was based on the true-life adventures of Freeman Cobb, an American who went out to Australia and founded the first stagecoach company there.

I admit I'm not a big Western fan. But lines like 'There's nothing quite like tea brewed over an open fire' add an unusual flavour to the proceedings that I think you might enjoy.

I might try this one on the brother-in-law, who is a big fan of the genre. The other night, I got him to sit through Salvation, which he liked pretty well, in spite of its being a Danish Western shot in South Africa. Personally, I wish we'd had more lions in the Old West, to eat up all those outlaws. Then there would be fewer of these movies, and more safari parks.