Australian TV Plays: Stormy Petrel (15 May 1960)

Stormy Petrel (15 May 1960)

The first Australian historical mini series. The first live TV serial from the ABC.

Stormy Petrel was a critical and popular success and led to the ABC making a number of period drama series set in Australia's past: The Outcasts (1961), The Patriots (1962), and The Hungry Ones (1963). It also inspired ATN-7, a commercial station, to make Jonah (1962).

Premise

The story of William Bligh's governorship of New South Wales leading up to the events of the Rum Rebellion.

Cast

* Brian James as William Bligh

* Walter Sullivan as John Macarthur

* Delia Williams as Mary Bligh, Bligh's daughter

* Ric Hutton as John Putland

* Nigel Lovell as Major Johnston

Radio play

The series was based on a radio play which Rex Rienits had written and was broadcast in 1948. Rienits said he believed Bligh "was a great man."

He later said that Bligh had "been grossly maligned" and "that Hollywood did a terrible thing in representing him, in the person of Mr. Laughton, as a cruel and brutal despot... However, Bligh undoubtedly had a quick and blustering temper, and it was this temper, rather than any deep-seated viciousness that got him into trouble, both on the 'Bounty' and as Governor of New South Wales'".

The story of Bligh was told through the eyes of his wife Elizabeth, then John Hallet , then his daughter Mary. It went for seventy episodes.

It covered the Mutiny on the Bounty with the Rum Rebellion dealt with towards the end.

The play was a great success when broadcast. Rienits sold it to the BBC and the ABC rebroadcast it in 1953.

The play was broadcast again on radio in 1959. I think this was a new version.

It played again in 1962.

Colin Dean mentioned it was also a stage play at once stage. I'm not familiar with this. It was a novel in 1963.

Blight also wrote a 1948 radio play Bligh Had a Daughter about Mary Bligh. It was recorded again in 1954.

In April 1958 the BBC broadcast a radio play by Rienits called Rum Rebellion. See here.

TV Production - Development

Early Australian TV drama production was dominated by using imported scripts but Stormy Petrel was made when the ABC was undertaking what has been described as "an Australiana" drive.

In July 1959 Rex Rienits had been appointed drama editor at the ABC. A crucial appointment.

Apparently the ABC were looking to do a serial. They would have been influenced by the fact the BBC did these. (Need hard proof.) I wonder if Seven Little Australians was discussed - the ABC would film it in 1973 but the BBC had filmed it.

Colin Dean told Graham Shirley the idea to make it came from his wife Rosemary. She was listening to the radio serial - presumably this was in 1959. She suggested Stormy Petrel could be adapted. Deans listened and initially felt not because so much took place on the Bounty which would be impossible to film. However then he had the idea to just focus the story on the Rum Rebellion; it took place entirely on land, had a clear hero and villain.

Dean told Shirley that he approached Rex Rienits with the idea, and the writer was surprised at the suggestion, but then became enthusiastic.

The ABC agreed to make - "then it was on" said Dean - but Dean says he had to sell himself to direct it - he had only directed one drama, Lady in Danger - but had a good reputation and had experience as a documentary filmmaker and an actor (in the 1940s). Dean had to persuade Dr Barry, the controller, and Allan Carmichael.

Production

Dean told Shirley he liked Rienits "because he wrote responsible scripts about actual people...Rex did a great deal of good for Australian history."

Colin Dean called the Rum Rebellion "virtually the colony's first revolt against what was thought to be the tyranny of government vested in the person of the Governor himself."

The sets were designed by Douglas Smith who was on staff at the ABC; he started working on them in December 1959. Smith says it was difficult to get sets to be authentic as while there were plenty of written descriptions there were few pictures so he had to source the latter from the army records in London.

Annette Andre played one of Bligh's daughters. She recalled

I remember we had the 18th century dresses with bonnets and high waistlines. I remember being on board the ship with Brian James. I don’t remember much else about that production.

A radio historian said Walter Sullivan "gave the performance of his career" in the show.

Dean told Graham Shirley that Brian James' performance never got its due because it was broken up over 12 episodes.

Tom Jeffrey told Nigel Giles at the NFSA:

It went live to air Sunday night yes. And it was absolutely amazing because I remember in ‘Stormy Petrel’, this is just an example of what we had to do on the floor, there was the um change from Governor King to Governor Bligh and we had the same office obviously you know the same size office and we had to change it from King who we regarded as being you know, we’d made him a messy, he was a character drunken sort of sloppy character. So his office we made a mess, curtains all awry, papers all over the place and chairs you know all askew, books in the bookcase all you know leaning to one side and so on, and bits missing. And the arrival of Captain Bligh in the office ah he was an organised man, very good navigator blah, blah, blah, blah, so we wanted, the change we made was to make the office neat and tidy but we had thirty one seconds to do it. When the cutaway, when Colin cutaway from the last scene with King in his office away to you know Bligh arriving somewhere, thirty one seconds before he walked into his office, and it had to be neat and tidy. So the planning, the planning for that was, I had I had two studio hands and a props man and me and we worked out to the detail everything that each one of us would do which is as you would see it in the theatre you know. But it was the first time that on that show that we started using what I called ‘scenic plots’ where all the props and things and the movement of props on the show live to air was actually listed. I used to write out the movement of them for each of the people and they could mark on their scripts. Now I believe it’s just you know part and parcel of the show but that was something that I introduced. With the help of a chap called Bill Crawford who used to work at the Tivoli and was a floor manager Grade Two. He was kind of our supervisor/floor manager and um and yeah he had suggested to me the idea and I said oh well what is a scenic plot. So he described it to me so I then adapted that idea to work for television studio. Other people may have done other things but that’s that was the first time the ABC in Sydney did it. And um it was very handy. Yeah and we got it with several seconds to spare that scene change and um it was great.

My thoughts on the first three ep scripts. A great read. I really rate Rienits, he knew how to tell a story. I just read the first three eps - it ends where the novel starts, with Bligh arriving in Austrlaia. He takes his time to set it up, have the audience get to know Bligh and daughter Mary. Ep one is more about her: she wants to marry John Putland, then wants to follow Bligh to Australia. Ep two deals with troubles on the voyage out, about which I was unaware.

This was a good writing decision because it means we invest in not only Bligh but also Mary (there's not much to poor old John Putland's character other than "man who gets sick"). Mary is spirited and strong and sympathetic - she means a female character is centre in what could otherwise be a boysie tale. She also humanises her father, shows another dimension.

The story zips by, the scenes are easy to read. It's very good.

Crew

Designer - Douglas Smith. Technical supervision - David Tapp. Producer - Colin Dean. Wardrobe supervision - Zilla Weatherley. Floor manager - Tom Jeffrey.

Episodes

* Ep 1 "The Assignment" – 15 May (Syd), 29 May (Melb), 26 Jun (Brisb) – Captain William Bligh is opposed to his daughter Mary marrying John Putland but she does it anyway. His health is not good and she considers moving to a drier, warmer climate. Sir Joseph Banks offers Bligh the governorship of NSW asking him to break the power of the Rum Corps. Mary and John will accompany him. GS: Brian James (Bligh), Delia Williams (Mary Bligh), Ric Hutton (Putland), Muriel Steinbeck (Mrs Bligh), Charles McCallum (the Minister), Annette Andre (Ann Bligh), Elizabeth Waterhouse (Elizabeth Bligh), Moray Powell (Dr Warren), Geoffrey King (Sir Joseph Banks).

* Ep 2 "The Voyage Out" 22 May (Syd), 5 Jun (Melb) – William Bligh and his daughter Mary prepare to leave. They take the boat to Australia. Putland has to serve on another ship whose drunken captain orders Bligh be fired at. GS: Brian James (Bligh), Delia Williams (Mary Putland), Elizabeth Bligh (Muriel Steinbeck), Lou Vernon (Lord Camden), Geoffrey King (Sir Joseph Banks), Annette Andre (Ann Bligh), Elizabeth Waterhouse (Elizabeth Bligh), Ric Hutton (Lt Putland), Owen Weingott (Captain Short), David Bluford (Lt Lye), Ron Graham, James Elliott.

* Ep 3 “The Arrival” – 29 May (Syd), 12 Jun (Melb) – Bligh, his daughter Mary and Lt Putland arrive in Sydney, they meet MacArthur and his wife. Bligh meets the outgoing governor, Captain King, and his wife, who warn Blight what he is up against but Bligh vows to make changes to the colony. GS: Brian James (Bligh), Delia Williams (Mary Putland), Ric Hutton (Lt Putland), Owen Weingott (Captain Short), Alistair Duncan (Edmund Griffin), Laurier Lange (Captain Phillip King), Walter Sullivan (John MacArthur), Georgie Sterling (Mrs King), Ron Graham, James Elliott.

* Ep 4 “Enter John MacArthur” – 5 Jun (Syd), 19 Jun (Melb) - Bligh gets to know the locals such as John MacArthur and the drunken head judge, Atkins. Mary becomes friendly with MacArthur's wife Elizabeth and her father's secretary Griffin. Bligh becomes aware MacArthur does not speak for the emancipists. GS: Brian James (Bligh), Delia Williams (Mary Putland), Georgie Sterling (Mrs King), Laurier Lange (Captain Phillip King), Ric Hutton (Lt Putland), Alistair Duncan (Edmund Griffin), Richard Parry (Richard Atkins), Walter Sullivan (John MacArthur), Margo Lee (Elizabeth MacArthur), Major George Johnston (Nigel Lovell), Nat Levison (Jubb).

* Ep 5 “Storm Clouds” – 12 Jun (Syd), 26 Jun (Melb). Bligh is approached by a Bowman, a farmer who asks for help against MacArthur and his corp. Bligh meets with other farmers and commits to their cause. John Putland gets ill in a storm and a doctor says he has around a year to live. GS: Brian James (Bligh), Delia Williams (Mary Putland), Ric Hutton (Lt Putland), Alistair Duncan (Edmund Griffin), Denys Burrows (John Bowman), Rey Lye (George Suttor), Nat Levison (Jubb), Lionel Stevens (Dr Jamieson), Jim Gray, Ken Broadbent.

* Ep 6 “The Challenge” – 19 Jun (Syd), 3 July (Melb). The conflict between Bligh and MacArthur increases. Putland's health continues to deteriorate. GS: Brian James (Bligh), Delia Williams (Mary Putland), Ric Hutton (Lt Putland), Alistair Duncan (Edmund Griffin), Margo lee (Elizabeth MacArthur), Walter Sullivan (John MacArthur), Nat Levison (Jubb), Nigel Lovell (Mar George Johnston)

* Ep 7 “The First Skirmish” – 26 Jun (Syd), 10 July (Melb). MacArthur winds up in the courtroom. GS: Brian James (Bligh), Delia Williams (Mary Putland),Margo Lee (Elizabeth MacArthur), Walter Sullivan (John MacArthur), Ric Hutton (Lt Putland), Alistair Duncan (Edmund Griffin), Nigel Lovell (Mar George Johnston) , Deryck Barnes (Andrew Thompson), Tom Farley (magistrate), Ken Goodlet (Captain Anthony Fenn-Kemp).

* Ep 8 “The Storm Gathers” – 3 July (Syd), 17 July (Melb) – Bligh clashes with MacArthur in a second court action. GS: Brian James (Bligh), Delia Williams (Mary Putland), Walter Sullivan (John MacArthur), Ric Hutton (Lt Putland), Alistair Duncan (Edmund Griffin), Nigel Lovell (Maj George Johnston) , Margo Lee (Elizabeth MacArthur), Gordon Glenright (Robert Campbell), Richard Parry (Richrd Atkins), Ken Broadbent (Campbell Jnr), Ossie Wenban (John Palmer, commissary).

* Ep 9 “The Storm Breaks” – 10 July (Syd), 24 July (Melb). The Bligh-MacArthur tension increases and John Putland dies. Blight orders MacArthur's arrest. GS: Brian James (Bligh), Delia Williams (Mary Putland), Walter Sullivan (John MacArthur), Ric Hutton (Lt Putland), Alistair Duncan (Edmund Griffin), Frank Taylor (William Gore), Nigel Lovell (Maj George Johnston) , Margo Lee (Elizabeth MacArthur), Richard Parry (Richard Atkins), Nat Levison (Jubb).

* Ep 10 “Rebellion” – 17 July (Syd), 31 July (Melb). Bligh orders MacArthur's arrest leading to Johnson taking MacArthur's side. Johnson and his troops come to arrest Bligh. GS: Brian James (Bligh), Delia Williams (Mary Putland), Richard Parry (Richard Atkins), Alastair Duncan (Edmund Griffin), Ken Goodlet (Captain Kemp), Walter Sullivan (John MacArthur), Stuart Finch (Lt Minchin), Frank Taylor (William Gore), Nigel Lovell (Maj George Johnston), Tex Clark, Ray Bushby, Hans Eisler, Ronald Dunphy.

* Ep 11 ‘ Aftermath” – 24 July (Syd), 7 Aug (Melb). The rebellion has happened. A new officer comes to take over the colony. GS: Brian James (Bligh), Delia Williams (Mary Putland), Richard Parry (Richard Atkins), Alastair Duncan (Edmund Griffin), Ken Goodlet (Captain Kemp), Walter Sullivan (John MacArthur), Stuart Finch (Lt Minchin), Frank Taylor (William Gore), Nigel Lovell (Maj George Johnston), Rhoderick Walker (Col Foveaux), Tex Clark, Ray Bushby, Hans Eisler, Ronald Dunphy.

* Ep 12 “The Way Back” – 31 July (Syd), 14 Aug (Melb) – final episode – Bligh returns to England to give evidence at the court martial of Major Johnston. Bligh’s widowed daughter Mary becomes married to Macquarie’s aide, Maurice O’Connell, while Bligh’s secretary, Griffin, who loves Mary, looks on. Bligh is vindicated in the court case and is appointed Admiral. GS: Brian James (Bligh), Delia Williams (Mary Putland), Alastair Duncan (Edmund Griffin), Henry Gilbert (Col Macquarie), James Condon (Col Maurice O'Connell), Walter Sullivan (John MacArthur), Walter Pym (Lt Gen Keppel), Nigel Lovell (Maj George Johnston), Muriel Steinbeck (Elizabeth Blight), Robert Ford, Alan Stone, Alan Lane.

Reception

Coming at a time when Australia produced few dramatic television series, The Age called it a “successful serial” and commented “These colorful – and factual – Australian series are a “must” for Australian television.”

The Sunday Sydney Morning Herald called it “first rate entertainment.”

At the end of the series’ run in August 1960 Janus of The Age called it “Channel 2’s most consistent production... stands head and shoulders above all other Australian-produced drama series.” Janus publicly requested the ABC commission Rienits to write another series, which was done.

The Woman’s Weekly said Dean was to be “congratulated on a production (made difficult, I’m sure, by budget-balancing) marked by a simplicity that has been the trademark of some of the B.B.C. adaptations of famous classics. You may cock a snoot at Australian history, but Stormy Petrel makes Australian history come alive in absorbing TV.”

At the end of the series’ run the Woman’s Weekly called it “an outstanding production.” Listener In called it a "milestone".

Frank Clune liked it (see below) - he wrote to Rex Rienits.

Ratings

According to director Colin Dean in a history at Gore Hill TV, “I got the results from Audience Research – the average audience for Stormy Petrel was the same as a years run in her Majesty’s Theatre including matinees. I thought to myself – that is unbelievable. That is what we have been missing. We never had audiences like that before. What a great thing we done!”

Hector Crawford spoke about it at the Vincent Committee

If that is so does it not refute your thesis that the A.B.C. with fairly unlimited funds cannot produce a superior Aus- tralian drama that will edge out this 95 per cent, of imported stuff?
—I would say that the A.B.C. has not anything like the funds that are necessary to produce drama in such volume. Take the case of “ Stormy Petrel ” That show enjoyed a very favorable rating—about 20 per cent. That is high for the A.B.C. I would say that the funds of the A.B.C. are limited to the degree that they must be spread over many things. The national stations do operas, which are expensive. They would not have sufficient funds to permit sufficient Australian drama to make an impact but when they do it in sequence, such as with the “ Stormy Petrel ” they do it very well.

Praise

Aug 1960

Mr STEWART (LANG, NEW SOUTH WALES) - I ask the Postmaster-General whether he was privileged to see any of the episodes of the recent presentation by the Australian Broadcasting Commissionon Channel 2, Sydney, of the. story of Governor Bligh entitled " Stormy» «Petrel ". If he was, does he agree that it was an outstanding presentation in every respect and, in educational and entertainment value, equal to any programme that has been shown on Australian television? In view of the success of this presentation, will he do everything possible to encourage the Australian Broadcasting Commission and the commercial television stations to produce and present programmes of this type which assist Australian writers, actors, actresses, technicians and producers, have immense educational value, and do much to enliven interest in the history of our own country?

Oct 1960
Senator HANNAFORD (SOUTH AUSTRALIA) - Has the Minister representing the Postmaster-General seen the excellent feature Him.. " Stormy Petrel ", presented in serial form on Australian Broadcasting Commission television programmes? Under whose auspices and by what company was the film produced? ls it generally accepted that " Stormy Petrel " gives a more authentic character portrayal of the famous Captain William Bligh than did some of the early productions which were based on the " Bounty " mutiny? Does the Minister consider that films of this quality produced in Australia, as I believe this one was, would prove to be excellent export income earners?

Senator SPOONER (NEW SOUTH WALES) (Minister for National Development) - I saw some, but not all, of the episodes of " Stormy» «Petrel " on television. Not having seen the whole of the film, I would not care to express an opinion upon the veracity of the story. T do not know who produced the film, but I agree with the honorable senator's implication that is is a first-class film, which docs great credit to every one associated with it.

Aug 1960 Senator Hannan

cently, the Australian Broadcasting Commission completed an excellent historical series of twelve episodes about Governor Bligh, Macarthur and the New South Wales Corps and called " The Stormy» «Petrel ". I found that series fascinating and I felt compelled, on arriving here in Canberra, to go at once to the Parliamentary Library, where I obtained a copy of Dr. Evatt's " Rum Rebellion ". I found that book very interesting indeed.

Senator Ormonde - You would not touch that, would you?

Senator HANNAN - I understand that it is a recognized authority on that period of our history. The Public Library of Victoria reports that there has been an 8 per cent, increase in the reading of non- fiction works this year due, in the opinion of the library, to the influence of television.

Repeats

It was repeated by the ABC in 1974.

Sequel

In November 1960 it was announced that Rex Rienits and Colin Dean would reunite on a sequel that would focus on William Redfern but feature many characters from Stormy Petrel.

Novel

Rienits wrote up the story as a novel, Stormy Petrel, which was published in 1963.

The London Sunday Times said “narrative swings along until Bligh and MacArthur sink with all hands in a bog of litigation.”

The Guardian called it "interesting, lively".

My thoughts on the novel. Rienits wrote the story of the Rum Rebellion as a radio play, then a TV serial, then a novel. This the novel - I was able to borrow this from the State Library of Queensland.

I thought it was a great read. I can't vouch for its historical accuracy but it felt authentic. Rienits focuses on two big personalities - Bligh and MacArthur - who are both compelling protagonists. The author has empathy for both. I read that he wrote this in part to redeem Bligh's reputation, which was low in the 1940s off the back of the MGM Mutiny on the Bounty; however it's clear that for all his many fine qualities Bligh was not a skilled politician and was perhaps the wrong person to govern New South Wales. MacArthur is a worthy antagonist: prickly, brave, hot tempered. The action builds up until the Rum Rebellion, after which I found it surprisingly engrossing, in part because it took a long time for the matter to be resolved, in part because a new character with star quality becomes involved (Foveaux, as a sort of George Sanders figure).

There is an excellent emotional subplot involving Bligh's daughter Mary, who loses her husband, Putland, and finds new love... all the while Bligh's secretary loves her from afar. This is excellent serial drama, and puts the female characters to the forefront. I'm not acclaiming it as a feminist masterpiece, it's a very male focused story (Elizabeth MacArthur feels under-utilised as a character, for instance), but at least she's to the forefront. I think this character and her storyline was a crucial part in the success of the TV series; that, and the clear narrative clash between Bligh and MacArthur.

The story is ideal for serial treatment too because it covers a number of years and different episodes. I must confess, though, I would love to have seen the proposed MGM sequel to Bounty which was going to cover this period. Clark Gable as John MacArthur no doubt!

Behind the Legend

Brian James played Bligh in an episode of Behind The Legend in 1974.

SMH 15 May 1960

The Age 29 Dec 1960

SMH 9 May 1960

ABC Weekly 6 May 1959

South Coast Times 3 Aug 1953

SMH 3 April 1960

AWW 29 June 1960

The Age 18 Aug 1960

AWW 17 Aug 1960

Canberra Times 31 July 1974

TV Times Vic 10 Nov 1960

Forgotten Australian TV Plays: Stormy Petrel
by Stephen Vagg
October 17, 2021
Stephen Vagg’s series on forgotten Australian TV plays takes a slight detour and looks at Australia’s first mini-series: 1960’s Stormy Petrel.

What was the most influential Australian TV series of all time? Most would say Homicide, which proved beyond a doubt that Australians would watch their own dramas on the small screen. One could also make claims for My Name’s McGooley, What’s Yours? which proved we could enjoy a local sitcom in huge numbers, or The Mavis Bramston Show, which proved the nation would stop to watch our own satire, or Bellbird, which established how Australia could do nighttime soap, or In Melbourne Tonight, which proved how irritating Melbournians could be on the superiority of their local comedy scene (no offence, Melbourne, I love you, truly, but you go on about that more than you realise).

There’s also an argument for Stormy Petrel, which proved Australians could be really interested in watching stories about our own history. Look, okay, I will come clean – the most influential Australian TV series really was Homicide, but today I am going to write about Stormy Petrel, which also had a major impact. Certainly, a bigger influence than any other play I have written about in this series.

Stormy Petrel is not remembered much these days, but it’s remembered a little – indeed, it’s unfair to group it in a series on forgotten Australian TV plays, especially as it wasn’t a play, so much as a mini-series, consisting of twelve continuing episodes. But I’m going to do it anyway, because the cast and crew had all learned their trade making those plays, and also because, well, I don’t want to start a whole new series.

Stormy Petrel was a genuine groundbreaker: the first Australian mini-series, the first big television success from the ABC drama department, the first ABC drama to inspire a rip-off on the commercial stations (Jonah, made by ATN-7 in 1962), the first Australian TV drama to be adapted into a novel, the first Australian drama to inspire not one but two sequels. All those historical mini-series of the 1970s and 1980s that many of us grew up with – Against the Wind, For the Term of His Natural Life, Bodyline, etc – have their antecedents in Stormy Petrel.

It actually began life as a 1948 radio serial. The author of this (and the later TV mini-series, and its 1963 novelisation, and the 1961 mini-series sequel The Outcasts) was Rex Rienits, a one-time journalist who did a bit of creative writing on the side through the 1930s and 1940s, going full-time after the war.

Rienits didn’t limit himself to one format; throughout his career he turned out radio plays, stage plays, novels, short stories, screenplays, biographies, articles, general histories, criticism and TV scripts.

From 1949 until his death in 1971, Rienits was predominantly based in London apart from two long stints back in Australia (1954-55 and 1959-61), but throughout his entire career, he regularly wrote about Australian themes and subjects.

Among the lives, events and novels that he dramatised, included an ABC radio play about convict Margret Catchpole, a novel and film treatment on the Eureka Stockade (the latter formed the basis for the 1949 Ealing Studios movie), a BBC radio adaptation of Robbery Under Arms, and episodes for the Australian-set BBC radio serial The Flying Doctors.

Rienits also wrote material that had nothing to do with his homeland: you might have seen some British pictures based on his stories and scripts such as Assassin for Hire (1951), Wide Boy (1952), and Out of the Clouds (1955). And he worked on screenplays for some of the extremely rare Australian films of the 1950s such as Walk into Paradise (1956), Three into One (1957) and Smiley Gets a Gun (1958).

The radio serial of Stormy Petrel told the story of Captain William Bligh, focusing on the two main turbulent events of that man’s life, the Mutiny on the Bounty and the Rum Rebellion. Rienits was motivated to write it, in part, by his feeling that Bligh had been slandered in the 1935 Hollywood film Mutiny on the Bounty and wanted to rectify the man’s reputation. The serial was very well received, selling to Britain and being reprised on Australian radio in 1953, 1959 and 1962.

In mid-1959, Rienits relocated from London to Sydney to take up a position at the ABC as television drama editor. Aunty had been producing TV plays since 1956, but these mostly consisted of versions of foreign scripts; Rienits’ appointment seems to have been motivated by a desire to put a little more professionalism and Australian content on the ABC drama slate.

Rienits was one of a number of Australians who had established reputations writing for British television (others included Peter Yeldham, Bruce Stewart, Michael Noonan, Richard Beynon, Philip Grenville Mann, Raymond Bowers, Iain MacCormick, and, in the US, Sumner Locke Elliot and Michael Plant) – but Rienits was the first to come home (well, one of the first… I think Michael Noonan was doing work here on the 1959 TV series The Flying Doctor around the same time).

Over the next 12 months, the ABC would film several Rienits scripts that had been previously shot for London television: Bodgie (an adaption of Wide Boy relocated to Kings Cross in Sydney), Close to the Roof and Who Killed Kovali?

Apparently, when Rienits first took up his job at the ABC, there was no intention to adapt Stormy Petrel for the small screen. According to Colin Dean, who ultimately directed the series, the ABC were thinking about making a limited-run serial, Dean’s wife had been listening to Stormy Petrel on the radio and suggested that it be turned into a TV series. Dean says he was unsure about this as most of the radio version centered around the Bounty story, which mostly took place outdoors and/or on water and thus would be prohibitively expensive to film. However, the director then had the idea of an adaptation that focused solely on the Rum Rebellion section, a story which mostly took place indoors on dry land. Dean pitched the idea to Rienits, who was enthusiastic, and they took it to the ABC who agreed to proceed. (The source for this is an excellent oral history with Dean recorded by Graham Shirley for the National Film and Sound Archive).

Stormy Petrel was something of a gamble – twelve 30-minute episodes is a lot of television to risk on a single story, and Dean was not that experienced in drama (I think his only TV play credit at that point had been a 1959 adaptation of the Max Afford stage play Lady in Danger). However, Rienits was a very experienced writer, thoroughly familiar with the period and characters from his work on the radio serial, and well-schooled via his British training in how to write production-friendly scripts for television. The material was essentially dramatic and integrally Australian (though the latter would have caused some apprehension in the more culturally Australophobic sections of the ABC), and Dean had an impressive track record as a documentary filmmaker. Also, the overall cost of the production would be less than making, say, twelve stand-alone 30-minute TV plays because you could re-use sets and costumes.

The series debuted in Sydney on 15 May 1960, broadcast live from the ABC studios at Gore Hill; it was recorded and shown in other cities at a later date. Critical response was, on the whole, very enthusiastic – and ratings, for an ABC drama were extremely good. According to one account, Stormy Petrel recorded an average 13 share in Melbourne, which was high for the ABC (though to put in context, Emergency, a little-remembered 1959 Australian medical drama on the commercial station GTV-9 got a 27 share. There was a lot of audience prejudice against watching shows on the ABC even back then).

I was recently lucky enough to watch all episodes of Stormy Petrel and it’s easy to see why the response was so positive. It’s not a classic or masterpiece, a work of its time, i.e. 1960 Australian television drama (for instance, I think there’s maybe one mention of Aboriginal people, and most scenes consist of a few people talking in a room). But, by those standards it’s extremely good. It’s just so… competent. That might sound like a backhanded compliment, but having worked in television, trust me, it’s hard to do even that.

Stormy Petrel is solid storytelling involving two three-dimensional antagonists who have a compelling conflict that leads to a surprising, yet inevitable concision. The narrative line is clear and clean: Bligh (played by Brian James) is given a mission to bust the control that John Macarthur (Walter Sullivan) and the rum corps have over the colony of New South Wales, and finds himself in an almighty battle. Bligh is a lot more sympathetic here than in most Mutiny on the Bounty films but he’s no saint – angry, touchy, a lousy diplomat – while Macarthur is greedy, ruthless and sly but also charming and brilliant. They are both fantastic roles.

There’s a strong array of support characters, too, including the morally uncertain Major Johnston (Nigel Lovell), the perennially drunk Judge Atkins (Richard Parry) and the shifty Major Foveaux (Rhoderick Walker). Even better, the series has a co-protagonist, Bligh’s daughter Mary (Delia Williams), who accompanied him to Sydney during this time; she’s a sounding board during the Macarthur stuff but also has her own plot line, marrying John Putland (Ric Hutton) over her father’s objections, nursing Putland through illness, befriending Elizabeth Macarthur (Margo Lee), eventually becoming a widow and finding love again.

Emphasising Mary Bligh was, for me, Rienits’ masterstroke because it opens up the world of the characters, and ensures that there’s a female in the story front and centre. And yes, that’s due to history, but plenty of historical adaptations routinely ignore/downplay the role of women. Rienits always gives Mary prominence; for instance, he gave Bligh’s real-life secretary, Edmund Griffin (Alastair Duncan), an unrequited love for Mary, which adds a powerful emotional undercurrent to all their scenes and proved to be a real favourite with audiences. (NB. Rex Rienits wrote another 1948 radio serial, Bligh Had a Daughter, which focused on the Mary Bligh story; presumably he drew on some of that material for the TV series.)

It’s not a perfect collection of scripts. Some of the dialogue (never Rienits’ forte) is on the nose and the series falters in its middle episodes when the action gets bogged down in a series of trials – Rienits would have been better off using this screen time on something else like, say, fleshing out the under-utilised character of Elizabeth Macarthur, and/or giving Ric Hutton something else to do as Putland, other than cough. But it recovers for an exciting and satisfactory finale.

Brian James and Walter Sullivan are outstanding in the leads, but my favourite was Delia Williams, who plays Mary with verve and a twinkle in the eye. Williams was a Welsh actress who moved to Australia and had a short but glittering career here, nabbing many of the best roles on Australian TV drama at the time (eg. Cathy in Wuthering Heights, Nina in The Seagull); she had presence, beauty and charisma and it’s a shame that her career ended shortly after this when she married and became a mother. Muriel Steinbeck (Reflections in Dark Glasses) isn’t given much to do as Mrs. Bligh but it’s good to see her. Ric Hutton gives a slightly camp portrayal of Lt Putland but even if you do interpret it as meaning Mary Bligh married a gay man, well, Putland did spend a lot of time at sea and that’s kind of interesting in its own way.

It was with Stormy Petrel that the ABC unlocked the code on how to make successful television drama: (a) find an interesting story with compelling characters that is (b) based on pre-existing IP that has been road tested in another medium which is (c) about something intrinsically Australian so you don’t have to worry about unflattering comparisons with foreign versions and (d) broadcast it over consecutive weeks so word of mouth has time to build. The thing is, I am not sure that the ABC realised it. Or if it did, they were hesitant about what to do with the discovery.

In hindsight, the success of Stormy Petrel should have prompted the ABC to reallocate that portion of its drama budget which it spent on filming TV plays by foreign writers (during the run of Petrel alone, this included adaptations of Shadow of Heroes, The Emperor Jones, and Farewell, Farewell Eugene) and used it to commission two, if not three, new mini-series a year. They could have made at least one in Sydney and one in Melbourne (to minimise interstate rivalries) and based the stories on some road-tested pre-existing IP like a radio play, novel, and/or historical event. There were certainly plenty to choose from – a lot of famed Australian mini-series from the 1970s and 1980s were based on novels first published prior to 1960, including Sara Dane, The Timeless Land, Power without Glory, A Town Like Alice, All the Rivers Run, Robbery Under Arms, For the Term of His Natural Life, Come in Spinner, The Far Country, Golden Fiddles, Seven Little Australians, The Harp in the South, and The Shiralee.

I know that it’s great that those stories were filmed for TV eventually, but the ABC could have adapted them twenty years earlier. If the ABC just wanted to adapt more Rex Rienits radio plays, they could have filmed stories about Ned Kelly, Margaret Catchpole, Mary Reiby, John Flynn, the Snowy Mountains Scheme, George Barrington, and Matthew Flinders – seriously, he wrote that much Australian themed stuff (for the ABC and BBC).

Anyway, it didn’t happen – I think loathing for Australian culture was far too entrenched in (some sections of) the ABC for such a radical change. And to be fair, memories may have lingered about some earlier not-particularly-successful screen attempts to dramatise Australian history such as Charles Chauvel’s Heritage (1935), Ealing Studios’ Eureka Stockade (1949) and Hollywood’s Botany Bay (1953)… making the accomplishment of Rienits, Dean and so on in Stormy Petrel (i.e. dramatising Australian history in a compelling way) even more remarkable.

However, to its credit the ABC did decide to follow Stormy Petrel’s success with an annual locally written mini-series. The first four were all directed by Colin Dean, starting with The Outcasts (1961), a kind of sequel to Petrel, set immediately after the events of that story, which focused on ex-convict surgeon William Redfern (Ron Haddrick). Although written by Rienits, reviews were not quite as positive, but it led to a second sequel, The Patriots (1962), based on a script by Phillip Grenville Mann, whose hero was William Wentworth (James Condon). The year after that, saw Reinits’ The Hungry Ones (1963), about the famous escape by Mary Bryant (Fay Kelton), then 1964 brought Richard Lane’s The Purple Jacaranda, a contemporary thriller which was generally held to be a disaster. However, the 1965 effort, an adaptation of George Johnston’s novel My Brother Jack, was a considerable triumph.

Then, the ABC stopped making mini-series… an incredibly foolish decision that was reversed a few years later, resulting in an adaptation of the novel Pastures of the Blue Crane (1969) (directed by Tom Jeffrey who was floor manager on Stormy Petrel) and a string of mini-series over the next twenty years.

In addition to those ABC mini-series, Stormy Petrel prompted ATN-7 to make their own historical series starring Brian James, Jonah (1962). This was meant to be a recurring series rather than a limited-run serial, focusing on the adventures of a Sydney merchant in the 1840s (or thereabouts) called Jonah (James) whose adventures would bring him into contact with real-life figures from colonial Australia such as Ludwig Leichhardt, Ben Boyd, and Lady Franklin. Reception to the series was strong – the ratings exceeded that for Stormy Petrel – and it sold to the UK. However, the latter achievement ended up inadvertently sealing Jonah’s doom – Actor’s Equity demanded residuals for the cast from the foreign sale, the production company refused, the union went on strike and the show was axed prematurely. It was a totally full-on situation that contributed to no new drama being made on the commercial stations in 1963 and stands as a reminder as to why we need a drama quota.

Rex Rienits spent his last decade in London, but he never stopped writing about Australia. His later works included a novel of Stormy Petrel (1963), a biography of James Cook (1969) and some books on Australian artists co-written with his wife Thea; he was working as an editor on Australian Heritage magazine when he died of a heart attack in 1971.

Rex Rienits was no artist, but he was a first-rate craftsman and complete professional. He came across in interviews as affable, down-to-earth and lively; according to Peter Yeldham, Rienits was also a nice person, an Australian in London always willing to help his countrymen. He proved that it was possible to make a good living dramatising Australian history at a time when that was considered weird and embarrassing. He truly was a giant in his field, and Stormy Petrel is a testament to his considerable ability.

The author would like to thank Peter Yeldham, Graham Shirley and Simon Drake of the National Film and Sound Archive for his assistance with this article. All opinions are my own.

NAA Writers D

NAA Stormy Petrel

Australian TV Plays

Stormy Petrel (15 May 1960)

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Janus of the Age aka Gordon Bett