Australian TV Plays: June 2021

Alan Burke interview (May 2004)

See it here.

While I was in England in the early 1950s I got an opportunity to attend a 2 month BBC television Training Course - this was in 1954. The Course was conducted by Royston Morely. At the end of the course we all had to produce a 5 minute program. When the ABC embarked on television, they brought out Royston Morely to run production training; so it was great fun to see him again when I joined the ABC. I think Royston was an important figure, a very good teacher of television.

Neil Hutchison was on Board of the Australian Theatre Trust - he was also Director of Drama at the ABC. (He later became ABC Controller of Programs) He approached me in London to come back to Australia to work with the Elizabethan Theatre Trust. When I came back to Sydney, I found that the Trust would 'not stand in the way of television opportunities', and I subsequently did a stint for 3 months in the ABC in 1957. This was to direct a play called A Fourth For Bridge.

In those days there were really no people there to provide support and guidance. All one could do was talk to other producers afterwards. What I was not confident was 'calling the shots'. But as we had only 2 cameras in those days it was not a big problem.

I formally joined ABC TV on 30 June 1958 as a producer. In those days we were all called producers - this was to differentiate us from people called Directors - these were people in Management. A lot of TV producers came from radio - I was one of the few that came from theatre. My first job in 1958 was to direct a 1 hour play called A Rose without a Thorn.

When we moved to the new studio in 1958 we were given some basic television training - studio facilities, studio procedures, nature of lenses - the 2, 3, 5, and 7 inch lens. Later in my career I was delighted to work for the ABC Training School. I believe you need the top directors to do instruction. In the ABC they often used directors who were free at the time - this is wrong.

In 1959 I was allowed to do my first opera, The Prima Donna by Arthur Benjamin This was a live opera, with the orchestra conducted by Joe Post, who was Head of ABC Music. The rehearsal schedule was made out for me. It allowed 3 calls of 3 hours each. I went to see Joe Post to check this relatively short time allocation and he said "Isn't it enough time to tell them where to stand?" Joe Post was a radio person - he hated television.

This opera was done in the days when we had the Symphony Orchestra in the studio. One day Joe Post stopped the orchestra and called out "Mr. Burke, those boys are taking close-ups again". I thought 'What can we do?' I said "Forgive me Mr. Post, the reason they are taking close ups is because I have plotted close ups for them". Then I gave him a five minute course on television. So he seemed to accept this.

I also did three plays in 1959, news a couple of nights a week, and a children's session once a week. We were all pool producers. In the same year I produced two other operas - Cavalleria Rusticano by Mascagni and Rita by Donezeti. The plays I did in 1959 were Skin of Our Teeth, Misery Me and Withering Heights. We had tiny ratings for the plays. Withering Heights was a too large for our television conditions, and things went wrong. Skin of Our Teeth represented the big break-through in the production of television plays.

Most of the time I could choose a play to produce. The ABC secured the rights to the plays.

Almost always our plays were telerecorded. We produced 6 plays a year in Sydney and 6 in Melbourne. By recording them we could share them between the two cities.

Des Downing was a wonderful designer to work with. She came from the theatre, but she had visual imagination that she brought to television. She was splendid. She could execute things to the last nail.

Ruth Page Interview (Nov 2005)

Taken from here.

Back in Australia the ABC were still conducting TV workshops. I Naturally said I wanted to go to Sydney, and Mr. Clem Semmler said "send her over, she can sit with my Secretary and help her when I wasn't busy with TV" there were no offices for eventual TV staff at this time. I think there were only two of us girls who had had any actual on-air experience, and I was immediately seconded to TV full time. Prue Bavin and I think Betty Robertson were also full time. It was a great thrill to work as the Script Assist. On the opening night's drama. Paul O'Loughlin was the Producer for the "Twelve Pound Look" starring Alexander Archdale. We were probably all a bit nervous, but everything went very smoothly. Helen Lockhart (now deceased) was the Floor Manager.

Our early years of TV were conducted from an old Army hut known as the Arcon at Gore Hill, which became very hot with all the lights. There were only about 40 staff and everyone got on and they were great days. At the start Dave Tapp, Les Weldon, and John Hicks were our main Technical Supervisors, along with a great team of cameramen - Rex Henry, Harry Adams were two of the originals...

As things expanded I worked to one Producer Ray Menmuir, mostly on Drama and Opera. At this time my office was in the Drama Dept. in Market St. We held our dry runs in St. Peter's Hall, Kings Cross.

When working on Drama, the set was drawn up on the floor, and the Producer walked around the actors, looking for camera positions through what was known as a black box with different size holes, representing different angle lenses, and I had to follow him making notes and comments to tell the actors later. The Producer was also the Director in those days, not separate positions as now. Everything for the show had to go on requisition forms, props, sets, costumes, makeup, graphics - Bill Kennard was the Graphics Sup. It was interesting to sit in while the Producer and Designer mapped out a set and between the Designer and Wardrobe, costumes were designed and made. Zilla Weatherby was Wardrobe Mistress, and we usually had a look when fittings for the actors were made. Then suddenly today was Production day and it became very exciting sitting in the control room above the studio (when we moved eventually to a proper studio), and the actors or dancers and singers were in costume.

When the opera "La Boheme" was produced, it was the first time an actor was used to mime a singer, and this was successful.

All programs in early days went 'live' to air, and we had some anxious moments. If the cameraman wasn't careful and knocked into one of the flats, the viewers saw the wobble of the set, heard the noises, but everyone just carried on. Or an actor had to be prompted, which fortunately didn't happen very often. Now, of course, if the slightest thing happens, the whole scene can be videotaped again - we didn't have such luxuries, and I think the fact that it was 'live' gave a certain excitement about it.

...I wanted to get back to Drama which was my first love, and when a vacancy occurred I moved in to work with Alan Burke. We had offices at this time in the Elizabethan Theatre Trust rooms at Kings Cross, and so had to do some travelling back and forth to Gore Hill. The last drama I worked on was "The Taming of the Shrew" with Ron Haddrick. We did some filming for the show in Centennial Park and we had a great day with cast in costume.

The 1959 ABC Writers Pool

In October 1959 the ABC announced they were setting up a writers pool.

This didn't seem to work out.

The team were advised by four ABC men - Neil Hutchison (Director of Drama and Features), Paul O'Loughlin (Assistant Director), Rex Rienits (TV and radio playwright now ABC's TV Drama Editor in Sydney) and George Kerr (dramatist and radio writer with British experienced). (Only one, Rienits, knew what he was going).

There was a panel of producers to work with the writers including Royston Morley, Raymond Menmuir, Alan Burke, William Sterling, Christopher Muir and Colin Dean.

The eleven writers:

1) Jeff Underhill (radio and stage dramatist),

2) Alan Seymour

3) Barbara Vernon

4) Darcy Niland

5) Ruth Park

6) Gwen Meredith

7) Rick Throssell

8) Richard Lane

9) Kay Keavney

10) Peter Kenna

11) Coral Lansbury

"What we are doing is to gather together a small number of writers who have already given us very clear evidence in the past of their ability to give 80 to 90 per cent of the sort of material we need," said Hutchison.

The Stage 8 Oct 1959 p 11

SMH 19 Sept 1959 p 15

Bob Ellis on the ABC and Australian Theatre

Ellis wrote some lively pieces for the Bulletin.

Here is one on the ABC - link here.

Another one, on theatre, is here.

The Bulletin 5 June 1971 p 42

The Bulletin 3 Oct 1970

Fisher's Ghost (22 Sept 1963)

It was the first television opera with an Australian historical background. It was based on the legend of Fisher's Ghost.

Cast

Ereach Riley as Birdlime the pickpocket
Edmund Bohan as John Hurley
Marilyn Richardson as John Hurley's sister
Donald Philps as Fred Fisher

Original operetta

The operetta was composed by John Gordon and was originally performed at Sydney Teachers' College on 29 September 1960.

It was revised for television.

Douglas Stewart wrote a play based on the same story which premiered shortly after the operetta.

Production

It was produced by Robert Allnut.

Reception

The Sydney Morning Herald thought the production had "musical merit" but had "serious" dramatic problems and needed to be revised.

SMH 25 Sep 1963

SMH 23 Sept 1963

SMH 16 Sept 1963

King Lear (Sept 1967) (Adelaide)

Peter O'Shaughnessy played Lear in Adelaide. This was done for schools. It screened over 5 parts of around 25 mins each. A presenter would talk during episodes about the themes of the play.

O'Shaugnessy's obituary is here.

Cast

*Peter O'Shaughnessy as King Lear

* Harry Lawrence

*Daphne Grey

*Barbara West

*Judy Dick

*John Trinder

*Jack Hume

*Alan Lane

*Barry Pierce

*Robert Alexander

*Len Sweeney

*Roger Ward

*Michael Long

*Hedley Cullen

*Tony Haslam

Technical production - Peter Syme, Sid Cole. Staging - George Acres, Make up - Rae Paull. Design - Tom McIntee. Production - Ian Mills.

Part 1 - "A bitter fool and a sweet one"

Part 2 - "They are centaurs"

Part 3-

Part 4- "This great stage of fools"

Part 5 - "We can crying hither"

SMH 11 Sept 1967

SMH 17 Sept 1967

SMH 14 Oct 1967

Forgotten Australian TV Plays: Two Slices of Shakespeare
by Stephen Vagg
September 30, 2021
Stephen Vagg’s series on forgotten Australian television plays looks at a couple of different small screen takes on Shakespeare: a 1964 film of the stage revue The First 400 Years, and a 1967 version of King Lear for schools.

The ABC were fond of doing Shakespeare on television in the old days. True, it was a little expensive (all those costumes and beards), but was culturally respectable (all those words), with a guaranteed audience (all those high school examinations), and was less likely to be criticised (all that BBC heritage).

I have written several pieces so far on different Shakespeare adaptations done by the ABC: The Merchant of Venice, The Taming of the Shrew, The Life and Death of Richard II, Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet. In this piece, I’m looking at two less typical productions of the Bard, both shot in Adelaide, incidentally: The First 400 Years and King Lear....

King Lear for Schools (1967)

In addition to prime-time Shakespeare adaptations, the ABC would also show the playwright’s work for high schools for broadcast during the day… no doubt to the eternal gratitude of high school teachers everywhere who could go “here… watch this”. I’m sure actors appreciated the work as well. Mostly, these were imported from the BBC, but occasionally, the ABC did their own, such as King Lear in 1967. I think this was done out of the Education Department rather than the TV Drama Department.

King Lear ranks among Shakespeare’s masterpieces, the title role being the one most actors would like to tackle before they head off into the great Green Room in the sky. It’s the tale of an old king of Britain who decides to divide his kingdom into parts to distribute amongst his daughters and comes to regret it. The play has been adapted a heap of times, often very loosely (eg Kurosawa’s 1985 film Ran) but it is a magnificent piece of material.

The ABC filmed King Lear in Adelaide in 1967, with the titular role played by Peter O’Shaughnessy (1923 – 2013), a hugely experienced stage actor and producer.

The play was divided into five chapters, each around 25 minutes each (though I understand all episodes were combined and played at once in some cities).

The action is occasionally interrupted by a bespectacled man in a modern day suit who talks about the themes of the play, which does ruin the dramatic momentum, but at least makes you feel smarter.

It’s a decent version of Shakespeare’s classic, marred by some unfortunate fake beards and I’m glad the ABC did their own version instead of just importing it from the BBC.

The First 400 Years and King Lear – two productions in the long, long, long tradition of trying to get people into Shakespeare against their will. And GO Adelaide, btw – these were both polished productions.

The One That Got Away (1964)

Premise

A family leave a teaching job and a home in the suburbs. They live in a tiny shack in the bush and the father becomes a fisherman.

Cast

Leonard Teale as Major Arthur Dawson
Deryck Barnes
Janette Craig
Gordon Glenwright
John Heywood
Mark McManus
June Salter
Grant Taylor
Bob McDarra

Producer -Gerald Turney-Smith. Writer - Maureen Walsh. Cinematographer - Ron Harder. Company - Visatone Television.

The only source for this is the National Film and Sound Archive.

Turney-Smith worked for Alex Korda for a number of years and in 1961 edited an Australian documentary on Anzacs. He edited They're a Weird Mob.

SP#7 - Ruth (5 Sept 1959)

Version of TV play by John Glennon. Later filmed by BBC in 1962. And US TV in 1960.

Plot

Cal returns to the house next door to where he used to live, looking for Ruth. The resident informs him that Ruth is away sick.

Cal remembers when he was a lonely man living with his widowed mother who wants him to be educated. Cal just wants to play the guitar.

Cal befriends his neighbour Ruth, a housewife who refuses to sweep floors and dreams of playing Cleopatra. Ruth encourages his dreams to play the guitar.

Neighbours accuse Cal and Ruth of having an affair. Cal's mother asks Ruth to no longer speak to her son. Ruth rejects Cal.

Cal becomes a success. He returns to find Ruth dying in hospital.

Cast

Lyndall Barbour as Ruth
John Glennon as Cal
Edward Howell as Ruth's husband
Jeannie James
Barbara Brandon
Agnes Dobson
Lorna Stirling
Murielle Hearne
Betty Randall
Wyn McAlpin
Wyn Pullman

Production

John Glennon was an American writer and director who worked in England. He was only 27.

I'm not sure this was the world debut of the play. Its advertising said it had already been shown in the US and England. But from my research it didn't play on BBC until 1962 and the earliest American review I found is 1960 - the play was called The Dirtiest Word in the English Language. A 1960 piece here said Glennon left the US for England in 1956 because he was unable to sell his scripts in the US but found success in England.

In March 1959 he did a play for British TV called The Bird, The Bear And The Actress see here. This March 1959 profile said his first play was sold to CBC while he was appearing on Broadway in St Joan see here. That play may have been called The Movie Star. A review of that from 1957 is here.

It was in the US.

Glennon arrived in Melbourne on 8 August 1959 to present two plays for GTV-9, starting with Ruth. He was also to help coach Australian writers and producers on US drama techniques.

Glennon says told the TV Times there was a real Ruth "a young woman who figured once in my life very strongly." Describing the story he said before the male character meetings the woman "he is weak and indecisive, a shallow character, Ruth is wide awake, joy filled woman who makes the boy into a purposeful, energetic young man with stature and decency."

The producers wanted Lydall Barbour to play the lead. She returned to Australia after twelve months away (she appeared in The Exiles in the UK). She was tracked down to a hotel room in Paris and John Glennon travelled from London to persuade her to accept the part.

"Ruth is a big and heavy role, but a wonderful part," says Barbour. "And it was wonerful to work with John Glennon - he's not only a clever playwright at 27 but a brilliant actor as well." It was one of her first television performances. "I was terrified of it before I went away and would have nothing to do with it." In London she'd appeared in the BBC series The Exiles and an episode of The Flying Doctor.

The play was produced in Melbourne at the GTV 9 studios.

While rehearsing it Glennon said he was working on a play about Australians in London. Not sure what happened to that.

Glennon later made Rope.

In September 1959 Glennon said said there were plays of his he wanted to do in Australia: The Duchess Treatment (was this The Movie Star?) and The Bird, The Bear and the Actress.

Reception

The TV critic from the Sydney Morning Herald called it "a highly original and diverting play" where Glennon's writing was "in an attractively inventive and individual way that sometimes shades into the eccentric". He said "the play's great fault is that its ingredients are too rich for comfortable compression into an hour. It needs more time and space to develop ideas ana incidents too arbitrarily imposed in this production... John Glennon himself... acted very well indeed, with all the variety and range (and not excluding the occasional mannerisms) which The Method can supply."

The Age TV critic wrote that those viewers "who got the message" would have found the play "very interesting. For those who didn't it could have been a bit of a bore... Some sort of tribute must be paid to Rod Kinnear... for tackling what must appear to many as being a very unrewarding play. A complicated autobiographical play can be very hard to 'get across' to viewers. An experience vivid in the mind of the writer is often more difficult to portray through the drama medium than is a story drawn from the writer's imagination... Mr Glennon is now a little too sophisticated for this rather difficult role. Miss Barbour had some highly dramatic moments but, for the one hour, John Glennon gave the more faithful and consistent acting performance."

Frnak Thring of TV Week praised the acting of Barbour.

Listener In called it "a startlingly different essay in television dramatics... an obscure plot and incomprehensible punchline... falls into a new category of entertainment best described as Beatnik Bellowdrama. Any virtue it had lay in the performances."

Other versions

It was filmed in the US as the Dirtiest Word in the English Language in 1960. Uta Hagen played the woman. review is here. A Variety review is here.

Another version aired as a BBC Sunday-Night Play in 1962, starring Constance Cummings, again written by John Glennon, and this time directed by Henry Kaplan. This report says it was done on US and Australian TV first.

It's rare Australian TV did a play first before the BBC.

SMH 14 Sept 1959

LA Times 3 Oct 1960

The Stage 5 March 1959


TV Times 21 Aug 1959

TV Times Vic 28 Aug 1959 p 11

TV Times Vic 18 Sept 1958

Listener In 12 Sept 1950

Spotlight on Scriptwriters John Glennon WILLIAM KOTCHEFF once described John Glennon to me as a sensi-ive and imaginative writer. He is also a fairly new one. His first script was sold to CBC and produced by Henry Kaplan, while he was on... E Broadway with Siobahn MacKcnna in "Saint Joan." in 1957. "I felt," he says, "That writing save me more independence than acting." E But before he gave up acting. he had done a great E deal of it on TV in New York, and had got to know the medium well. Was this the reason that he has chosen to write par- ticularly for TV. Not entirely. Simply put: the medium is right for his talents. Elabor- E ating that. I'll use his own words. No Plots E "I he tact ot a plot isvery limiting to me. I can- E not write a fast-moving E plot, and do not want to. In E fact, I never start out with E a plot. If I try to, I don't E succeed. Once, I was asked to do E a film. I was given a situa- tion, which was the most important thing in the film E I could not do it. E It follows that I like to E write about character. In the E small amount of TV time say the half-hour. I find I can only say a limited number of things successfully, so it is better for my characters E to be in an environment E where not too many dramatic things happen to them. If the time is longer 60 or E 90 minutes I can introduce E more characters, or develop E Hum a little more, or have E more locales. But I think I E can express character within the half-hour play." It is true that 50°o of tele-ision time undermines the E average level of intelligence, so viewers are constantly heinu offered less, instead of more, than they can pos sibly understand. Disagrees I personally have been told many times, You're too good for TV write for the stage.'

This I heartily disagree with. I think that TV warrants the best of my self, because it is such a powerful medium. If you can say one thing to several million people, H is more important than saying it in a theatre, where it can only reach a few thousand.' I think that TV is the product of the dicentralisa tion of man. If only for security reasons, this is bound to come. The indi vidual will have the enter tainment medium in his house, and will he the complete master of it. also think that TV requires a Griffiths or a Chaplin to come along and e lift it out of its present E mediocrity all the technical equipment is already there. 'Lift TV' Writers should write for technical advantages and the medium, learning all its E disadvantages, and not do E adaptations. TV should be E lifted to a distinct form of art just as the cinema was lifted out of the nickelodeon." What else has Glennon written Two adaptations E for Granada I've got to E eat and two original plays which they have bought. He wrote these in the south of France, where he went for peace and quiet Then back to the States for three months this winter, to act in TV soap opera. While there, he negotiated to write E some scripts for Rapallo's production of Rendez- E vous." He has done three or four scripts for them. This Sunday, his play. The Bird, the Bear and the Actress.'' will be directed by r William Kotcheff for ABC, with Barry Jones (see this e page) in the lead.

ABC Weekly 16 Sept 1959

SP#10 - Pardon Miss Westcott (12 Dec 1959)

Australia's first television musical comedy.

Plot

It is 1809 and Britain sends its convicts to the penal colony of New South Wales. On a convict ship travelling to Sydney, the convicts, notably three men, Mansfield, Harbutt, and Snark, sing "He-ho, you'll never go back".

Elizabeth Westcott is being transported after being given a five year sentence for killing a pig and serving it to a pompous magistrate at her father's inn. On the boat over she meets Richard Soames, an army officer being transferred to the NSW Corps. Elizabeth befriends Mansfield, Harbutt, and Snark after she refuses to report them for theft; they sing "Send for Me" together.

The ship arrives in Sydney. Richard meets the new, temporary Governor, Colonel Paterson, who has taken over from Governer Bligh (the Rum Rebellion has just taken place). Paterson complains about the lack of decent servants and Richard recommends Elizabeth but Paterson is reluctant to employ a former convict.

Elizabeth arrives to track down Richard and impresses Paterson, who offers her the job of managing Government House. She persuades Richard to let Mansfield, Harbutt, and Snark join her as servants. Richard sings "You Walk By" to Elizabeth.

Elizabeth runs the house with great success but this causes the Governor's wife, Lydia, to become jealous and demand the convict leave. Paterson decides to grant Elizabeth a ticket of leave and loans her five pounds to set up an inn. Elizabeth sings "I'm on My Way".^[5]

Elizabeth runs the inn, called the Silver Bottle, along with a servant girl, Mog. It is popular but they have trouble with the local soldiers. She decides to gate crash a party held by Paterson and his wife, in order to talk to the Governor. At the party, Lydia sings a song to her guests, "Our Own Bare Hands".

Elizabeth arrives to make an appeal to Paterson, but upsets Lydia. Richard arrives at the party and dances with Elizabeth; he sings her a song, "Sometimes".

At the Silver Bottle, the customers, including Mansfield, Harbutt, and Snark, sing and dance a number, "The Grog Song". The convicts mock Lydia, when Paterson arrives and overhears. He is upset and sends the convicts home. Paterson also tells Elizabeth she and Richard must not see each other, as she would be bad for his career. She briefly reprises "Send for Me".

Paterson tells Richard to not see Elizabeth and he reluctantly agrees. Mansfield, Harbutt, and Snark escape, taking Paterson's rabbits. Sent to find the convicts, Paterson sneaks out to see Elizabeth and they sing a song, "So Much More". Paterson catches the two of them together and demands Richard's resignation; he also orders Paterson to spend the night in prison with the three recaptured convicts.

In prison, Mansfield, Harbutt, and Snark sing "The Whole Shebang", watched by Richard. The convicts escape, during which Richard is knocked out. The convicts deposit Richard and Elizabeth's inn. When Richard wakes up he insists they go back to prison. He and Elizabeth sing "The Argument" along with Mansfield, Harbutt and Snark. The convicts eventually agree to return to their cell.

Lydia is convinced that Elizabeth and her husband are having an affair. The convicts have broken out of prison again. Elizabeth insists she loves Richard. Elizabeth and Richard sing a love duet, "You Walked By".

The convicts arrive, having recaptured Paterson's rabbits. Paterson tells Richard that the NSW Corps is being disbanded, Paterson is going home and Richard is out of the army. Elizabeth has to serve out the remaining four years of her sentence. Mansfield, Harbutt, and Snark are given an extra five years of service, but are assigned to Richard as servants. Mog, the convicts, Elizabeth and Richard sing a final song.

Cast

Wendy Blacklock as Elizabeth Westcott
Michael Cole as Lt Richard Soames
Nigel Lovell as Colonel Patrerson, the acting Governor of NSW
Queenie Ashton as Lydia Patterson
Chris Christensen as Mansfield
Nat Levison as Snark
Michael Walshe as Harbutt
Joy Hill as Mog McGuire
Don Crosby as corporal
Frank Sheldon as Ensign Randall
Frank Salter as soldier/guard
Bruce Harris as sentry
Don McIntyre as Lt Collins
Joy Hill, Frank Sheldon, Margaret Abbie, Frank Salter, Paul Munro, Bruce Harris, Dawn Bowden, Don McIntyre, Judy Maxwell, Kevin Fruend, Chris George as dancers

Production

The film was commissioned by ATN-7 from the writers of the musical Lola Montez, which had enjoyed a successful run on stage. The brief was to create a family musical for Christmas. The budget was £5,000^.

The book was by Alan Burke and Peter Benjamin, the music by Peter Stannard, and the lyrics were by Peter Benjamin. Burke appeared "by courtesy of the ABC" who were employing him as a director.

David Cahill the director says in his NFSA oral history that the lead character was loosely based on Mary Beiby.Her bio is here.

The show was broadcast live from ATN-7 studios in Epping, Sydney. The music was conducted by Tommy Tycho. Kevin Cameron did the sets, Bill Robinson did wardrobe and Vernon Best was operations manager. Ken Shadie did audio. Betty Pounder was borrowed from JC Williamsons to do choreography.

Michael Cole had been fired from Lola Montez. He was hired by the writers for this to make it up to him.

According to Ailsa McPherson, who worked on the show as a script assistant, during the live broadcast the actor who played Colonel Paterson accidentally omitted over a page of dialogue in an earlier scene. The other actors continued because it was live, but it meant later plot points would be confusing. After the show went to air, they re-shot the scene and re-inserted it into the tape and kine.

Alan Burke discussed this with Graham Shirley in 2004.

That grew out of Lola having gone on at The Trust, the Elizabethan Theatre and Channel Seven commissioned us to do a musical for television. The first Australian musical written for television and it cropped exactly as I was about to do Wuthering Heights which wasn’t the ideal time. But the two Peters worked at it and Benj did in fact, not only the lyrics but the book and I came in and sort of edited, it was about all I could contribute to it. It went to air, enormously successful, it was repeated I don’t know how many times. I think it got two repeats which is pretty much unheard of. It was a very handy thing to put on on Christmas Day for instance which they did...
Wendy was nice and oh the lovely Queenie Ashton was marvellous and they’d written a song for Queenie ‘Just Their Own Bare Hands’ which was very sweet about ‘how we built this colony out of nothing and we’ve got cricket pitches and theatres and all these lovely things’. And in the middle section of course ‘we had a little bit of help along the way, but only the tiniest amount, you’ve got to show these convicts that their crimes can never pay, so work done by them just doesn’t count’. Very sweet song, Benjamin at his very best lyrics. So Queenie sang that and we were able to use Michael Cole. I think I’ve told you earlier that he was sacked by the Trust after the Brisbane season of Lola and before we gave him to Sydney but Thank God we’d already made the LP and Michael is immortalised on that for Saturday Girl. But we were able to offer him as it were as the .......(unclear) to Channel Seven and indeed they used him opposite to Wendy and it was great fun, very nice.

Brian Wright told Susan Lever:

So we commissioned our own play: “Pardon Miss Wescott” and Peter Stanard wrote the music. Very good music too. Peter Benjamin wrote the lyrics and the book. We came up with this original comedy about the convict days, and so forth. It was a very big production in its day. It went very well. But that’s also on Kenny recording, and it’s terribly old-fashioned now, but it was the first ever done here. .. I’ve got an LP of the music. .. It was quite good. I’m rambling on here a bit. ..

We went to air live. We had just got the first video tape recorder in Australia at ATN. We did a lot of firsts in those days. But we’d only had it a week or two, and the producer, Brett Porter, I was the Executive Producer of it, Brett Porter and the director David Carl and I had a long conference. And in our wisdom, we decided not to use the video tape, but to go to air live. Because we thought this would kill the spontaneity of the actor, as we need to have this feeling of going to air live. Well how mad we were. In the second act of the show, Nigel Lovell, playing the governor at the time, Nigel Lovell had two cues, which were identical. A maid came in to tell him that dinner was served, twice cuing Nigel. They’re about 20 minutes apart. In that 20 minutes, it was a very thin little plot we had. Rabbits featured in it. And what happened to the rabbits, happened in that 20 minutes between these two cues. Nigel of course, cut from the first cue straight to the second, and cut the entire middle of the play out! Including a couple of musical numbers, and we had to roll on.

Now we were Kenny recording that for Melbourne. When the show finished, we re-recorded the second act, and edited it back in. But poor old Sydney can’t have had any idea what the plot was about.

You can guess what it was about. It was about two rabbits. You can guess what happened.

Songs

Overture (orchestra)
"He-ho, you'll never go back" - sung by male chorus of convicts at beginning
"Send for Me" - sung by Wendy Blacklock
"I'm On My Way" - sung by Wendy Blacklock
"Bells Suddenly Ringing" - love song sung by Michael Cole
"The Grog Song" - sung by taverners at The Silver Bottle
"How Could I See?" - sung by Blacklock and Cole
"The Whole Shebang" - sung by three convicts (Chris Christensen, Nat Levinson, Michael Walsh)
"You Walked By" - sung by Blacklock and Cole
"So Much More"
"Our Own Bare Hands"
"The Argument"
"Sometimes"
Finale

Reception - Ratings

The Beacon Research Company estimated that 250,000 adults and 10,000 children watched the broadcast. More than 100 people rang in to congratulate on the broadcast on the night it aired.

It earned a 55% share in Sydney.

Critical Reception

TV Times said it was "really not good enough".

The critic from the Sydney Morning Herald wrote the musical "had an entertaining and beguilingly tuneful premiere in a smoothly organised live production" despite "the lack of colour and space in which create spectacle and the effects which properly, and uniquely-belong to the stage." However:

Nine numbers in a 75-minute show is pretty fair value, and the... tunes and lyrics were fluent, neatly turned and literate. Equally important. they arose naturally from the situations arranged by the... book, and always took the story-line, and characterisation, a step further. And at least one song, "Bells Suddenly Ring" is a possible hit tune. Moreover, the show proved that for those who are willing to use their imagination, there is plenty of theatrical material in our early history... Michael Cole acted and sang very attractively indeed: Wendy Blacklock brought the proper strength of character... but was not entirely at ease with her songs. Nigel Lovell.. was engaging and sympathetic, and Queenie Ashton, his snooty hypochondriac wife, was nicely acid. Chris Christiansen, Nat Levispn and Michael Walshe made a usefully funny convict trio, and Joy Hill danced with considerable verve and enthusiasm.

Cast Album

A studio cast album, with different performers from the television version (apart from Queenie Ashton), was released in December 1960.^[

1. 'Overture' (Orchestra);
2. 'Heigh Ho, You'll Never Go Back' (male chorus);
3. 'Send For Me' (Elizabeth, Mansfield, Harbutt, and Snark);
4. 'You Walk By' (Richard);
5. 'The Whole Shebang' (Mansfield, Harbutt, and Snark);
6. 'I'm On My Way' (Elizabeth);
7. 'Grog Song' (chorus);
8. 'So Much More' (Elizabeth and Richard);
9. Our Own Bare Hands (Lydia);
10. 'The Argument' (Elizabeth, Richard, Mansfield, Harbutt, and Snark);
11. 'Sometimes' (Richard);12. 'Finale' (Elizabeth, Richard, and Chorus).

My thoughts. Silly, sweet and fun - a convict era musical made in Sydney by ATN7, from the team who gave us Lola Montez. The songs aren't particularly outstanding, at least not on first listen, but are pleasant. The dancing is very skilled and it's done with high spirits.

I'm really enjoying the direction of David Cahill. It's unobtrusive and skilful; he knows how to change scenes, when to go in for close ups, when to stand back. It's very good work.