But its producer says it had to be a film that people would watch.

The television documentary has also been criticised for being a missed opportunity to show Australia a deeper story about its national capital instead of straying again into the oft-trod territory of scandals such as the Jim Cairns and Junie Morosi dalliance and Combe-Ivanov spy affair.

However, the well-regarded Crabb has said while some Canberrans might ''roll their eyes'' at the retelling of some of the stories, the rest of Australia might not.

''Canberrans obviously are used to living with spies and are urbanely oblivious or tolerant to all of these otherwise extraordinary aspects of life. People from elsewhere in Australia don't necessarily think of living in a defence or intelligence hot spot as ordinary. This is one of the truly extraordinary things about Canberra,'' she said.

Canberra Confidential executive producer Simon Nasht said the imperative was also on making a film that people would watch and the ABC would purchase, weaving the beginnings of the city with its reality as a ''centre of power''.

''Yes, we could make a film for the small number of people who are desperately interested in purely the foundations of Canberra, and the truth is no one would watch it,'' he said.

Written and directed by Ian Walker (with some "tweaking of the script'' by Crabb), Canberra Confidential, which screens on ABC 1 next Thursday, promises a ''whimsical rummage through a century of secrets in our nation's capital'' as Crabb ''dishes the dirt on a series of almost forgotten scandals, spectacular political skulduggery and espionage sagas that rocked the nation''.

It was previewed to an audience at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra on Tuesday night, earning less than complimentary critiques from Canberrans who believed they'd heard it all before and hoped for something fresh about the capital.

Australian Defence Association executive director Neil James, who was in the audience, said:''Certainly on the intelligence side it was just cliche after cliche after cliche.'' He said it should have focused on the city or its intelligence services, not both.

''The whole thing was the classic example of trying to do two things in the one film and ending up not doing either of them well,'' he said.

Mr James also took issue with some of the language used. ''They kept going for the breathless terminology like 'spies' and 'spymaster' and ASIO doesn't employ a single spy. It employs intelligence officers whose job is to catch spies,'' he said.

Centenary of Canberra executive director Jeremy Lasek tweeted furiously after the event - ''Warning #Canberra new @ABC documentary might make you grumpy. Now portrayed as the shady city full of spies and innuendo. Here we go again.''

''Just for this year it would have been nice, if there was to be this national focus on Canberra, that perhaps it told the greater Canberra story and not what felt very much like stories that have been rolled out year after year over many decades,'' Mr Lasek said.

Centenary of Canberra historian Dr David Headon, sitting next to former ALP secretary David Combe in the audience, said he was disappointed the film didn't have ''the guts'' to show something new about Canberra in its 100th year that had more to do with its noble beginnings and aspirations rather than the ''old tired spook stuff''.

Dr Headon told the audience the film was probably made by someone ''in Balmain'', who had nothing to do with Canberra.

He had hoped for a film that focused more on ''Canberra's grand narrative which is about high-mindedness, which is about the city in the landscape, it's about the engagement of some of the biggest ideas that human beings have ever come up with, as distinct from tawdry little spies in Canberra. They're non-event stories.''

Mr Nasht said drolly the film was produced in Chippendale. ''A world away [from Balmain],'' he joked.

■ Canberra Confidential - Spies, Lies and Scandals will be shown on ABC1 on Thursday, March 14, at 8.30pm.