Australian TV Plays: Granite Peak (24 April 1957) by Betty Roland ITV

British TV adaptation of Australian play by Betty Roland.

Premise

'The people of the Northern Territory of Australia are raw. Life is too arduous for social frills. Yet when Kate and Roger Carmichael fall in love they find themselves in conflict with deep-rooted family traditions’ (TV Times, 19 April 1957, p. 19).

Cast

* Peter Carver as Bert Parker, who has knocked up Rosie
* Brenda Dunrich as Pearl Moody
* Doris Goddard as Bessie, a local character
* Fred Goddard as Snr Sgt Kennedy

* Julia James   as Gladys Moody, daughter of Pearl
* Peter Kerr as Roger Carmichael
* Enid Lorimer as Ellen Carmichael, Kate's brother
* Charles MacArthur-Hardy
* Tony Quinn as Pat Moody
* Elizabeth Reber   as Kate Carmichael, Roger's sister
* Alex Scott   as Charlie Maxwell, Kate and Roger's foster brother, part Aboriginal

* Paddy Turner as Rosie Fegan, servant of the Moodys
* Gerry Wells as John 'Old Man' Carmichael, Roger and Kate's grandfather

* Keith Grieve, Keith Campbell, Brian Summers, Charles MacArthur-Hardy in smaller roles

Original play

Betty Roland was best known for A Touch of Silk. That play was published by Currency Press along with Granite Peak - see here. Academic articles were written on both - see here. Silk was first performed in 1928 - Granite Peak in1951.

Interview with her here.

According to this piece here she started writing it in the 1930s then revised it 20 years later.

The play was praised in a 1951 Commonwealth Jubilee Playwriting Competition. But did not win.

Roland lived in England in the 1950s - this would've been made while she was there.

Roland wrote the serial A Woman Scorned which was adapted into the hit mini series Return to Eden.

My thoughts on the play. Interesting. Compelling. Lots of on the nose dialogue. The Charlie character is a type - actually they are all types: noble black, gossipy woman, nasty pub owner's wife, slutty daughter. Lacks focus and characters. But it works dramatically. Feels like best suited for the basis of a regular TV series.

The story focuses basically on two romances. Roger, heir to a cattle station, loves quiet Rosie, who works for a bossy couple who run a pub and who have a trashy daughter Gladys who was kicked out of the convent and is fun but isn't given much to do. Bessie is an old soak to gives Rosie advice - she is fun too.. Rosie is knocked up to smooth Brett Parker who is married - this is quite racy, as is the fact Roger sleeps with Rosie (he thinks he's the dad). The other romance is Kate, Roger's sister, who is loved by the neighbour (female writer = female characters more agency, have more male characters after them) but who loves her foster brother part-Aboriginal Charlie who is keen to be a doctor. Kate wants to root Charlie and he loves her but wants to marry her and she's reluctant - which is really interesting. Rosie and Roger end happily, Charlie flies off. Kate doesn't get a proper ending. There's also Kate and Roger's grandparents. A lot of characters no wonder this is never produced. It's decent drama though.

Other productions

It had its first public reading in Australia in 1984 at the Nimrod. Supposedly. There was a reading at the 1978 playwrights conference. Also I saw that there might've been a 1953 public reading in Sydney.

It was adapted for ABC radio in 1980.

It was listed as a key Australian play by the Playwrights Advisory Board.

Production

Director Cyril Butcher. Adapted by Robert Irvine. Sets Fred Pusey. All but one of the cast were Australian.

It ran for 90 minutes.

Broadcast

Wednesday 24 April 1957. 8.00-9.30pm. Ninety minute show.

Reception

The Guardian called it "bad... the tritest kind of romantic fiction".

the Daily Mail said "it is hard to see how the play ever survived a first reading".

Other reviews were bad. Presumably this is why it was not filmed in Australia.