Third episode for Australian Playhouse. By Colin Free.
Premise
Nicholas Lovatt is a young dishevelled novelist who goes to visit a publisher Humphrey Cooper, who likes to feel up the leg of his secretary, Sally. Cooper tells Nicholas he has just read the latter's first novel and is interested in publishing Nicholas' second novel. Nicholas wants to do something different but Humphrey wants a new version of the first novel, and even provides an outline.
Humphrey goes to the publishing workshop, where two workers, Dorothy and Charlie, were responsible for the outline.
Nicholas admits to Humphrey he liked the outline. The writer completes a draft, which is overlong and late. Dorothy and Charlie rewrite the novel which upsets Nicholas greatly. Dorothy persuades Nicholas to let it go. There are hints of a romance between Nicholas and the older Dorothy.
Nicholas' second novel is a huge success and he writes a third, now considerably better dressed than he has been. Nicholas tells Humphrey that he demands the outline for his new novel be ready and that Humphrey sack Dorothy. Then Nicholas asks out Sally on a date and Sally accepts.
- Richard Meikle as Nicholas Lovatt
- Eric Reiman as Humphrey Cooper
- Moya O'Sullivan as Dorothy Hogarth
- Willie Fennell as Charlie Sinclair
- Sue Walker as Sally
- Janie Stewart as waitress
Production
It was shot in Sydney. According to ABC records it was filmed on 20 Feb 1966.
Sue Walker later married actor Michael Craig.
A complete copy of the script is available online at the NAA see here. That copy gives the title as "And Now With Him She Sleeps in Yarrow" - the title of Nicholas' second novel
Writer - Colin Free. Designer - Douglas Smith. Technical producer - Fred Haynes. Producer and director - Henri Safran.
Reception
The Sydney Morning Herald called it "a series of fussily contrived little scenes" which "made half an hour pass in unresolved confusion" and where "little or no time was given over the clues that would have made Lovatt at all comprehensible... This was a comedy which missed because it lacked deft shaping.".
The The Age called it "an odd sort of play. Those viewers who sat it out must have wondered what it was all about. It was shapeless, disconnected and bumpy. Rather dampened one's enthusiasm for the series."
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| Canberra Times 30 Dec 1966 p 10 |
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| Sydney Tribune 18 May 1966 p 4 |
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| SMH 3 May 1966 p 16 |
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| NAA Script |
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| SMH TV Guide 2 May 1966 |
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| The Age 7 May 1966 p 23 |
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| SMH 2 May 1966 p 8 |
The Air-Conditioned Author (1966) by Colin Free
This was the third episode in the first season of the anthology series Australian Playhouse. It was written by Colin Free, one of the most prolific Australian television writers from the late 1960s to the early 1980s with scores of credits, in addition to various novels, articles, stage plays and radio plays. I believe Free’s first television credit was Duet, a double-bill of comic plays, How Do You Spell Matrimony? and The Face at the Clubhouse Door (1965) which I have discussed previously in another article.
Free’s timing was fortuitous – his writing impressed the newly-arrived David Goddard, who commissioned Free to write a 13-episode sitcom based on Matrimony (which, in turn, was based on a play by Free called A Walk Among the Wheenies), Nice’n’ Jucy (1966-67). Goddard also hired Free as the ABC in-house script editor, in which capacity Free wrote the initial treatment for what became Bellbird (1967-77) (though Barbara Vernon was the all-important first story editor), and did the bible and bulk of the writing on the procedural drama Contrabandits (1967-69);
Free created Delta (1969-70), which Goddard produced, and wrote several episodes of Australian Playhouse (1966-67), which was Goddard’s special project. After Goddard left the ABC, Free continued to be one of the national broadcaster’s key writers, working on series such as Over There (1972) and Ben Hall (1975); he did time on the commercial stations too, writing episodes of All the Rivers Run (1983) and A Country Practice (1981-1993).
Colin Free was clearly a major figure, whose career stands as an inspiration to any Australian writer, particularly those who don’t want to be tied down to a specific genre.
I have to come clean, though: The Air-Conditioned Author is the fourth TV play I’ve seen based on a Free script and I haven’t really liked any of them. Don’t get me wrong, they’ve all got bright ideas and good moments, but I always feel as though they need a rewrite, which is ironic considering Free was a script editor. I do recognise that (a) four scripts is a small sample size for someone so prolific (b) maybe he did better in the world of episodic TV and/or novels, and (c) taste is subjective so what do I know?
The Air-Conditioned Author is about a writer called Nicholas (played by Richard Meikle), whose first novel has just been released to acclaim. A publisher (Eric Reiman) wants the rights to Nicholas’ second book, offering up a pre-existing outline for the author to use that has been written by two hacks in the publishing house workshop, Dorothy (Moya O’Sullivan) and Charlie (Willie Finnell). After some hesitation, Nicholas gives in, and uses the outline to produce a novel which Dorothy and Charlie proceed to rewrite; the novel becomes a best-seller and Nicholas starts to believe his own publicity. You can read a copy of the script here via the NAA.
Director Henri Safran keeps the pace lively, and the cast is interesting; there’s some irony in Meikle playing (very well) a writer since his son, Sam Meikle, became a successful TV scriptwriter. However, I was never quite sure of exactly what point Free was trying to make with The Air-Conditioned Author. It’s kind of a satire of pretentious novelists, and the role of editors, I think, but we never get to know Nicholas that well, or the other characters, and the world he creates is never convincing and the jokes never clear, at least not to me.
Relationships full of potential, such as that between Nicholas and the older, seemingly-doting Dorothy, feel rushed and unexploited. And could not the sexy secretary (played by Sue Walker, who later married actor Michael Craig IRL) have been given some dimension apart from woman-who-lets-publisher-put-his-hand-on-her-leg?) Maybe I’m missing a satirical point that was clearer to audiences in 1966 (though I don’t think so – contemporary reviews sounded confused, too). Maybe this needed to be an hour long. Or just… better.
Still, Free clearly had what the ABC wanted as a writer, and he enjoyed a glorious career. He should be better known – Albert Moran did an invaluable oral history with him at the National Film and Sound Archive if you’re keen to find out more about him.
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