Australian TV Plays: GMH - You, Too, Can Have a Body (20 Aug 1960)

It was based on a British stage play which had been performed on stage and television in England.

Premise

Two television scriptwriters—Chick Weld (Bill Maynnrd) and Lucky Wilson (Mark Kelly) — accept an invitation from Lord Leverdale to stay at the haunted Creckwood Castle. The castle is haunted by The Black Monk, who was tortured to death in 1305 for practising magic. The two script writers work on a television play as mysterious goings on happen at the castle.

Cast

Bill Maynard as Chick Wade
Campbell Copelin as Lord Loverdale
Mark Kelly as Chick Wade's assistant
Diana Bell as Maud Tarrant
Ivan Vander as Inspector Bolton
John Morgan as Mervyn Harvey
Melissa Jaffer as Tallulah
Mary Ward as Laura Harvey
Lyn Rowe as Shirley Drake
Godfrey Philipp as P.C. Burke
Rosie Sturgess as Mrs Porchester
Ernie Bourne as Sgt Bell

Original play

The play was based on a British play by Fred Robinson which was first performed in England in 1958. The cast was headed by Bill Maynard who subsequently moved to Australia where he repeated his stage performance in the TV play. Robinson later wrote The Larkins.

A biography of Maynard is here. In his memoir he wrote:

The play was called “You Too Can Have a Body”, a comedy thriller, and in my opinion the script was not only unsuitable for my style, but... well, let’s say ... not very good! I rang Richard to say I did not want the comedy part and suggested that I played a straight feed role in the play instead. However, he pointed out that the repertory management wanted me to play the comic part only, and if not I couldn’t have anything. There was only one approach left, and that was to contact the author Fred Robinson, who subsequently became a great friend of mine. I asked him if he minded my changing the play a little, by taking out a few passages and putting in a few more jokes. “Do what you like,” he said. “When it was first presented it was such an abysmal flop that I’ve given up writing and gone back to my old job.” I thought that was charming—my first play, and it had already been a terrible flop. However, the part was quite adaptable, and after I had re-written most of the actual jokes to suit my own personality, I felt far more confident about its presentation.

The play was not produced on Australia stage until 1962.

Production

Mark Kelly played the role played in London by Australian actor Bill Kerr. The production was taped on 24 July 1960 at GTV 9 Studios in Melbourne for simultaneous broadcast in Sydney and Melbourne. "It's a wonderful play with a life every line" Kelly told TV Week. "It's about two scriptwriters in the castle of an impoverished English peer and there is a spooky atmosphere about the place. Maynard did the play in London and he knows it intimately. He is a very smooth actor and you can't help but learn from a chap like him."

Except for a few cuts it was substantially the same as that presented at Victoria Palace between June and September 1958.

Rod Kinner said he felt Maynard was more a "comedy actor than a comedian".

In his memoirs Maynard said

I worked all over Australia and even presented “You Too Can Have A Body” on television, by carrying out a little bit of blackmail. in a way. The television company had asked me to appear in “In Melbourne Tonight” for an extended period, but I wasn’t satisfied with doing the three spots a week, and told them I’d only perform if they let me present the play. I was told if motor car manufacturers, General Motors—Holden agreed, it was on, so I went to a big board room of the company, who had the ‘GMH Hour’ on television, to try to sell them the play. I told a few jokes, explained the plot, and eventually one of the officials said, ‘“Righto, Mr. Maynard, we’ll buy your product. Go ahead with it.” The television company explained that 1 would have to cast it, and also direct it on the studio floor. They did at least agree to give me a Technical Director. Actually this provided a most fascinating exercise, inasmuch as most of the Australian artists were semi-pros because there wasn’t sufficient work to act on a full-time basis. That’s one of the reasons why do many of them come over to England.

The casting of “You Too Can Have A Body” was no easy task. There were quite a few people at the casting meeting, and firsi of all I told them I wanted a girl about eighteen years-old, a blonde, dizzy type to play the maid. One of the fellows said, “Oh, yes, John’s secretary could play that part.” I also wantea a stiffish, English type inspector of police, a brusque kind oi man. “Great,” said the spokesman, “there’s a car salesman in North Melbourne, perfect for the job.” I became very puzzlea at this train of conversation, and asked them to explain. It was then that they informed me that all the actors worked at othe1 jobs during the day. Most of them were English people, how- ever, and once we had collected our cast together, things workea very well indeed. “You Too Can Have A Body” was a tremen- dous success on Australian television, and I heard that it has been subsequently featured about sixteen times through public demand. It almost became a soap opera on its own.

Reception

The Age said "it did have a few good laughs and was a useful vehicle" for Maynard.

TV Week called it "a routine, knockabout farce" with slow pacing from the director.

Listener In called it "amusingly different" from the usual live drama though it felt that it was basically a transplanted stage play.

In 1967 Agnes Harrison reviewed the first decade of Melbourne television and said Body was the "least 'worthy'" of dramas made in Melbourne but said "this slap-happy play achieved something in showing off the throw-away comedy talents of its producer-star, Englishman Bill Maynard, of happy memory."