Australian TV Plays: Take That (13 Nov 1957)

The first Australian sitcom. It ran from 1957-1959 on HSV-7. Unclear how many eps according to this. On air for seventy weeks.

Premise

The wild antics of a school room at St Bedlam's where four students upset all attempts at creating order by the master, Dr Turnpike.

Cast

*Philip Stainton as the school master Dr Turnpike

*Irene Hewitt as Specs

*Frank Rich as Luigi Spittica

*Keith Eden as Nugget

*Joff Ellen as Conkers

Production

It was made by Crawfords. It may have been influenced by the success of the radio comedy show Yes, What?

Ian Crawford later recalled in an interview here:
That was expensive. I don’t know why Channel 7 bought it. It was a quarter hour length, and it was recorded on to kine. English actor Philip Stainton played the teacher, and there was also Keith Eden, Frank Rich, Irene Hewitt, and Jeff Ellen with his initiation into television. We made these marvellous episodes in which there were explosions all the time, and the explosions would regularly set off the smoke alarms. The Fire Brigade would respond and try to get in, and Channel 7 would then be fined 25 pounds because they forgot to tell the Fire Brigade that we were setting off smoke bombs...It was all pre-recorded on kine and I don’t think there is one bit of kine left of it, which is a shame.

David Lee later said

‘Moran’s Guide To Australian TV Series’ claims that Noel Ferrier was a regular in Take That, but our research suggests he never appeared in the show.

No, he was never in the show. Phillip Stainton was the rotund teacher, who died shortly afterwards.

Was his ill health the reason why the show was cancelled?

No. It was never meant to go all that long. There were pressures for the folk in the series, such as Frank Rich, Joff Ellen and Irene Hewitt, to do other things in television. They had done radio and other bits and pieces, and as time was to prove they were naturals for television.

Take That went to air live, which was not unusual in those days.

Yes. We rehearsed it in Crawfords’ studio, which was then in West Melbourne, in Batman St at King St, where they also had a television school. We had a hall and that was it, that’s where we rehearsed a lot of things, and also put down the music. It wasn’t a proper studio, in that it wasn’t soundproofed, but at that stage King St only had horse drawn transport, well it wasn’t that long ago, but it didn’t have the traffic noise it does today. So we did rehearsals there, and it was quiet enough to do musical things for Peters’ Club and other bits and pieces.

It was written by Jeff Underhill. Hector Crawford said "it will be the first programme of its type to employ Australian actors and scriptwriters."

Staintin had appeared on TV in 1934 in early experimental telecasts by John Baird. He came to Australia in 1956 to appear on stage in Witness for the Prosecution and Hippo Dancing and decided to stay. The other cast were experienced on stage and radio.

Broadcast

It screened on Wednesdays 13 Nov 1957, 20 Nov 1957, 27 Nov 1957, 4 Dec 1957, 1 Jan 1958, 8 Jan 1958, 22 Jan 1958, 29 Jan 1958, 12 Feb 1958, 19 Feb 1958, 26 Feb 1958, 19 March 1958, 26 March 1958, 2 April 1958.