From 2006
This talked a lot about NIDA.
Some highlights... Tape one in 1966 said he had "a new director of drama who didn't like me and I loathed him with the result I was sitting at my desk with no drama to direct. So I happily went into work every day and read a novel."
He did other things, not drama. Taught at NIDA. Then in 1970-71 he was called back by "a new head of drama" to take over NIDA. The new director said "bugger NIDA" and Burke said "I won't bugger NIDA because they've been a lot more faithful to me over the last four years than the ABC." So he kept on at NIDA but also went on to Dynasty.
He said most actors preferred television.
Used NIDA actors he taught on productions. Edmunde Pegg in My Three Angels.
Used Volska in My Three Angels. Said he suggested to her agent Gloria Payten to change her name from Anne to Anna and Dobrovolska to Volska.
When came back from from England he had six weeks as a floor manager then six weeks to do a small production at Arcorn Hut, with two cameras. "I broke the ice there". Then went to the Trust. Worked on Ned Kelly which he called "disaster".
His first full length TV play was A Rose without a thorn about Henry VIII. Then "went the whole hog".
He went to music department and asked to do some operas. One year did four plays and three operas as well as children's sessions. "Everybody did whatever" in the director's pool. One Sunday he said he did five programs. Then they were segregated into depts. Did operas up to 1962... did eight in all.
He also taught an "Afro-Asian course" teaching people fromAfrican and Asian coutries.
Talked about Lola Montez. Wanted something with an Australian setting but with international appeal. Said Peter Benjamin suggested it.
He said he had to "bow out of a great deal of" Pardon Miss Westcott because he was busy on Wuthering Heights but he worked on the book.
Tape 2. Said was "tricky" to get Macbeth down to 90 minutes but easy to adapt Merchant of Venice to two hours "it sat beautifully".He felt television was very documentary orientated and not used enough as a tool of imagination. He loved Toast of Melba. After he made it wrote to Royston Morley saying how proud he was of it.
He did The Lace Counter. Written for a NIDA exercise. Said it was "wonderful vaudeville"..
He remembers doing Rusty Bugles. Says the 1965 they were a "bit fraught about the language". He said the 1981 version was a "disaster" because of the director. Burke knew Elliot who came out to make Water Under the Bridge and refused to show it to him because it was "appalling". He refused to let it be seen overseas and repeated because it was so bad.
"Not an easy play. The all male cast is a bit tricky. You have to work in areas of sentimentality that sit unhappily upon an actor." The Vic Ron scene is "known as the love scene in the trade". He remembers having to explain to the actor they were two toughs sitting over a fire and it mean nothing."
Tape Three. Burke said bulk of actors came from radio. He was unusual coming from theatre.
Your big stars would be Neva Carr Glynn, Walter Sullivan, Dinah Shearing.
Paul O'Loughlin acting head of drama would recommend names. People would come in and he'd meet them. Neva was "a big actress acted big". Burke had seen her on stage in Slaughter of St Teresa's Day and wanted to use her again. "We got along very well". Used her in A Night Out and Cousin from Fiji. She had "ability to play big but not false.. I am playing someone who is big... Dominating or strong women she was marvellous with that." Burke "wouldn't have cast her as a shy maid".
Burke said people got more experienced in TV as TV went came along. On long running shows people took on different attitude.
"I think Australian actors were wonderfully malleable. I don't know one of the top people who ever said 'I hate television' they all adored it... It was wonderfully flattering."
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