TV & VIDEO - Feb. 12, 1988

The Malaysian government has withdrawn permission for the filming of a limited-run television series on two Australians hanged there for smuggling heroin, the series’ British producers said Thursday. “A Long Way From Home,” focusing on the three-year legal battle by Kevin Barlow and Jeffrey Chambers, will be filmed in another Southeast Asian country, the producers said. The production company Roadshow, Coole and Carroll said in a statement that Oscar-winner Julie Christie would play a leading part as the mother of Barlow, who fought for her son until he was sent to the gallows in Kuala Lumpur’s Pudu prison in July, 1986. The Malaysian government gave no reasons for reversing its decision, the statement said.