Popular actor Sam Neill passed away yesterday. The Northern-Ireland-born, New-Zealand-raised actor appeared in many films over his career, including The Piano, The Hunt for Red October, Jurassic Park, and Rams. However, his portrayal of Cliff Buxton, the Director of the Parkes Radio Telescope, in the 2000 movie The Dish remains a particular favourite for many. Scenes in the movie showing Murriyang, the Parkes radio-telescope, were filmed on site, with scenes in the control room of the telescope tower filmed in a faithful recreation of the control room at Crawfords’ Melbourne studio. The movie states that it is “based on a true story”, and this article explores the fact and fiction, noting the important role play by Honeysuckle Creek in the real Apollo 11 landing. The story of The Dish appears to have inspired Sam as he went on to narrate the six-part BBC series Space in 2001. The image above shows cast members of The Dish: Tom Long (who played Glenn), Patrick Warburton (Al), Sam Neill (Cliff) and Kevin Harrington (Mitch).