When Australia was at war in Vietnam in 1967, Prime Minister Harold Holt disappeared without a trace – an event unparalleled in the history of western democracy.

Four decades after Holt’s bizarre disappearance at Cheviot Beach in Victoria, a coronial inquiry makes a finding of death by accidental drowning. But doubts about his disappearance persist and fuel rumours and wild speculation. While some people claim that Holt was a spy who fled to China in a submarine, many others suspect that there was more to his disappearance than has ever been revealed.

Reconstructed from eyewitness accounts, this compelling dramatised documentary investigates all aspects of the case. Why did the nation’s leader enter such violent surf that day? What did the police investigation overlook? Can recently discovered classified documents offer any new clues to solving the mystery?

A Screen Australia Making History Production in association with Blackwattle Films. Developed and produced in association with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. © National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, Australian Broadcasting Corporation.