The song Our Don Bradman was the running motif of the wonderful Australian children's movie Fatty Finn, as the people of the 1930s Depression gathered cheer from the exploits of the Don as the Aussies trounced the Poms.

He was great in his lifetime. And in death, he has become a legend. Our Don Bradman, indeed.

This documentary, written and directed by Lincoln Tyner for the ABC, is a very creditable job, and gives us a better account of his life and his careers than I have yet seen.

I say 'careers' because this documentary, while giving full due to his remarkable cricketing prowess, also gives full treatment to his career off the cricket-pitch -- to his work in Adelaide as a stockbroker, and to the slightly shady early aspects of that career which for a while threatened to tarnish his hard-earned reputation.

It does seem, from the evidence here, that any business transgressions in his early career came from naivety, not design. Anyway, we don't want to dwell on that. His quicksilver genius with the bat is what should be remembered, and that's on full display here.

Now all we need is for some enterprising company to issue Fatty Finn on DVD, and we'll have the documentary, and the song (written by Jack O'Hagan, who gave us 'On the Road to Gundagai') as well.

This is drawn from documentary footage from over 70 years, and the ABC production team has done a sound job in presenting this historical material in best-possible condition.

Likewise, the stereo sound is more than adequate, given the original mono source of much of the material.