The Battlers (26 June 1968)

 Mini series from ATN-7. 26 eps x 30 mins. Written by John Abbott, Edward Hepple, Jonh Kiddell, Michael Wright. Directed by Jacques d Vigne.

Premise

Tolly McCall is the lightweight boxing champion of Australia whose career is threatened with injury. His wife Janet is relieved that he will no longer box. Tolly becomes obsessed with a young aboriginal boxer, Wayne. 

Cast

• Mark McManus as Tolly McCall
• Carmen Duncan as his wife Janet
• Vincent Gil as Wayne Small, an aboriginal boxer
• Jannice Dinnen
• Gordon Glenwright as Tolly's manager, Bongo Byrne
• Janice Dinnen as Donna McCall
• John Armstrong as Tolly's trainer, Monk
• Les Foxcroft
• Lucky Grills
• Bill Hunter

 Production

It followed the production of You Can't See Round Corners. It was originally known as The Doongara Kid.

The story was inspired by Lionel Rose. 

Vincent Gil was trained in boxing for the serial by Bill McConnell.

It was shot at ATN's studio in Epping, Sydney and on location at Le Perouse, the stadium, and travelling tent shows

Episode Guide

• Ep 1–26 June (Sydney), 9 July (Melbourne) - Tolly is told he cannot fight again. He goes to the country to think things over. While there he discovers his Aboriginal partner on a log cutting job is an excellent fighter. Tolly decides to train him.
• Ep 2–3 July (Sydney), 16 July (Melbourne) - written by John Kiddle and Edward Hepple - Tolly and his wife disagree on their future plans and all depends on Wayne's first fight.
• Ep 3–10 July (Sydney), 23 July (Melbourne) - in an effort to get Tolly back to Sydney, Janet offers to help two of his friends set up a gym.
• Ep 4–17 July (Sydney), 30 July (Melbourne) - Bondo and Monk have found a gym and start negotiations. When Tolly and Wayne arrive in a small bush town to fight the local championship they land in trouble due to the attitude of local citizens toward Aboriginals.
• Ep 5–24 July (Sydney), 5 August (Melbourne) - Wayne and Tolly are tried in the magistrate's court for assault and fined accordingly. Tolly's younger sister sets out to make an issue of Wayne's imprisonment.
• Ep 6–31 July (Sydney), 12 August (Melbourne) - Janet heads for the country town where Tolly is imprisoned in an attempt to heal the breach between them. Tolley's wife Janet arrives but she will not pay the fine.
• Ep 7–7 August (Sydney), 19 August (Melbourne) - things get better between Janet and Tolly until he discovers she is working for her old lover, Halliday. Wayne starts training but disappears after overhearing a fight between Janet and Tolly.
• Ep 8–14 August (Sydney), 26 August (Melbourne) - the day of Wayne's first fight arrives and he is missing, distraught over the trouble he thinks he has caused between Janey and Tolly
• Ep 9–21 August (Sydney), 2 September (Melbourne) - Janet is still missing and Tolly is convinced she has left with Halliday
• Wayne hopes Tollly will change his mind about managing him and rejects Bongo's offer.
• Ep 10–28 August (Sydney), 9 September (Melbourne) - Tolly visits the doctor and finds out the fractures in his head will never heal
• Ep 11–4 September (Sydney) 16 September (Melbourne) - Tolly gets a job as a chauffeur, meets an attractive woman who recognises him and they become involved. Tolly goes to Paula Bradley's flat for dinner.
• Ep 12–11 September (Sydney), 23 September (Melbourne) - Wayne hopes that Tolly will change his mind about managing him and refuses Bongo's offer of management.
• Ep 13–18 September (Sydney) 30 September (Melbourne) - Wayne gets his first bout at the South Sydney Leagues Club. Tolly and Janet discuss matrimonial problems. Janet starts divorce proceedings.
• Ep 14–25 September (Sydney), 7 October (Melbourne) - Wayne hits the big time and starts earning a lot of money. Donna goes to work for the Herald and has to do a story on an English racing driver.
• Ep 15–1 October (Sydney), 14 October (Melbourne)
• Ep 16–8 October (Sydney), 21 October (Melbourne)
• Ep 17–15 October (Sydney), 28 October (Melbourne)
• Ep 18–23 October (Sydney), 4 November (Melbourne)
• Ep 19–5 November (Sydney), 11 November (Melbourne) - Monk's involvement with shady characters leads to unexpected developments.
• Ep 20–12 November (Sydney), 18 November (Melbourne)
• Ep 21–19 November (Sydney), 25 November (Melbourne) - Bongo and Tolly sign up a new lightweight from Melbourne.
• Ep 22–26 November (Sydney), 2 December (Melbourne) - Wayne starts going back into boxing by doing easy fights
• Ep 23–3 December (Sydney), 9 December (Melbourne) - written by John Abbott - Tolley is conned into a fashion parade and Wayne is conned back into gym work.
• Ep 24–10 December (Sydney), 16 December (Melbourne)
• Ep 25–17 December (Sydney), 23 December (Melbourne)
• Ep 26–24 December (Sydney), 30 December January (Melbourne) - final episode - Wayne vanishes after winning the Australian title

Reception

Reviewing the pilot episode The Age praised it as "exciting, sustaining, action viewing".

The Sydney Morning Herald felt the second episode "felt tired" and that the writers "were not at home with women".

In July the Sydney Morning Herald called it "television drama less derivative than any Australian series so far" but said Gill "is given little to articulate about being aboriginal. To begin with, he looks white and in the hands of white writers his characterisation is robbed of perception."

In December the Sydney Morning Herald said "the show has not delivered a knock out" blaming poor writing

 

The Age 11 July 1968

SMH 16 June 1968

The Age 4 July 1968

SMH 4 May 1968

SMH 4 Dec 1968

SMH 25 July 1968

SMH 4 July 1968

SMH 26 Jun 1968

Tichborne Claimant (Sept 1959) (Canada)

 Canadian TV did a story of the Tichborne Claimant in 1959. Article here.

Script by Alan King. 

Cast
* Diana Maddox as Lady Tichborne
* Janet Reid.
* Henry Comor the claimant

 

CBC  Times 6 Sept 1959

A Cheery Soul (27 April 1966) (BBC)

 Based on the play by Patric White. Not filmed in Australia.

In the 1963 Vincent Report Max Harris and Dorothy Underhill said that they didn't think White would work for the ABC. But was this true?

A copy of the script is online here.

Synopsis

Meet Miss Docker: the delightfully ghastly anti-hero of this celebrated Australian classic. She is relentlessly upbeat – the quintessential ‘cheery soul’.

Miss Docker is one of Nobel Laureate Patrick’s White’s most memorable creations. She and her neighbours are as hilarious and peculiar as they are uncannily familiar. Together, this pioneering text and marvellous characters take us on a dizzying ride through suburban Australia, exploring the meaning of morality, mortality and the need for belonging.

In the imagined every-suburb of Sarsparilla, Miss Docker is looking for somewhere to belong as her search for purpose and love leads her in a series of increasingly surreal acts. We follow her from the home of her well-meaning neighbours Mr and Mrs Custance, to the nursing home, the church and finally to the isolated grounds of the crematorium, where a cattle dog makes a final bitter judgement.

Crew

Directed by Gilchrist Calder. Adaptation by Jonquil Antony. Produced by  Peter Luke
Music by Tom McCall Production Design by Fanny Taylor    

Cast
* Hazel Hughes as Miss. Docker
* Stephen MacDonald     as Reverend Wakeman
* Patricia Heneghan     as Mrs. Wakeman
* Aubrey Richards as Mr. Custance
* Barbara Lott as Mrs. Custance
* Jane Eccles     as     Mrs, Little
* Olwen Griffiths as Matron
* Vivienne Bennett as Mrs. Hibble
* Mary Holder as Mrs. Watmuff
* Lucy Griffiths as Miss. Dando
* May Warden as Mrs. Tole
* Jack Bligh as Mr. Bleeker
* Doris Hall as Mrs. Bleeker
* Dorothy Earsdom as Schoolgirl
* Colin White as Young Tom
* Deborah Stanford as Young Millie
* Laurence Archer as Old Tom

Original play

It was the third in White's series of plays. An article on its history is here.

the play was published as part of a collection in 1965. A review is here. 

Adaptation

According to the Daily Mirror, Jonquil Antony who made the adaptation persuaded Mr. White to let the BBC produce the play here for television. " He wasn't very keen as four of his plays were produced in Australia without much success."

Reception

The SMH printed a bad review from a London crit. Typical.

Review from The Stage:

Lesser actress could have thrown it all away BY MARJORIE NORRIS 

THERE are rare times when a character in a play seems to step right out of the two-dimensional world of the screen and pace the floor of the very room in which you are sitting. Miss Docker did that on April 27 in Patrick White’s A Cheery... Soul which had been adapted for BBC-1 by Jonquil Antony. It was all there in the writing, certainly, but a lesser actress than Hazel Hughes could have thrown it all away. Hazel Hughes never fails to _____ impress me with the subtleties of characterisation she brings to the smallest supporting role, but with the long-- and very tricky lead ing part of Miss Docker she sur passed even herself. To some people the overgrow n schoolgirl antics, the terrible jokes, the persistent do-gooding. the merciless unthinking and un knowing cruelty, all so disarm- ingly laced with pathos, might seem too outrageous to believe. But there’s nowt as queer as folk, and I give you my Alfy Davy that I once knew a woman so exactly like Hazel Hughes’ Miss Docker that I felt the old familiar urge to hide under the bed coming over me at the sight of her. Such people do exist; and by their very exist ence they drive other people to outrageous antics of their own. Only the very toughest of us can withstand the pressure. In Patrick White’s story only Miss Hibble (a controlled and heartbreaking performance by Vivienne Bennett) had the strength of a woman who had disciplined herself to a stiff- necked acceptance of the petty indignities of life in an old people’s home and could in conse quence remain untouched by both the boisterousness and the pathos. It was pleasing to sec a cast list with so many women’s names in it; and to see the group of act resses handling the scenes in the Home was to make one realise all over again what a wealth of talent is being wasted when there are no parts for artists of this calibre. In addition to Vivienne Bennett, they were Lucy Grillillis (so out standingly convincing in The Great Metropolis as twittery, girlish Miss Dando, May Warden a senile baby to bring tears to the eyes, and Mary Holder as Mrs. Watmulf. They were later joined by Jane Kcdes, as brittle as a piece of fine glass as Mrs. Lillie. The flashbacks to Mrs. Lillie’s youth were, for once, entirely satisfactory as dramatic devices. They heightened our awareness of the contrast between the gaiety of youth and the loneliness of old age. As people whose lives were ruined, by Miss Docker’s blunder ing efforts to be loved, Stephen MacDoiudd and Patricia ilenc- ghan as the vicar and his wife were called upon to hint at a number of unresolved personal problems. This complicated an already complicated plot and it was not their fault that some of their scenes together fell flat. The transfer from Australia to England seemed unnecessary and occasionally caused a false and hollow ring. 

Daily Telegraph:

Enormous Zest of Militant Martyr
Author: Sylvia Clayton Date: Thursday,  Apr. 28, 1966
Publication: The Daily Telegraph (London, England)

ENORMOUS ZEST OF MILITANT MARTYR,Television,By SYLVIA CLAYTON MISS DOCKER, Gee to her friends, belongs among the characters insufferable in real,life but memorable in fiction. This militant martyr, dedicated to making the world a more cheerful place, first appeared in a short story by the distinguished Australian novelist Patrick White which he later turned into a play. In its television adaptation of’ “ A Cheery Soul “ on B B C-l last night Miss Docker, transplanted from New South Wales to a prim parish in South West England, had lost some of her eccentric lustre. The total effect of a bulldozing personality on a peaceful neighbourhood can be shown more easily in fiction than in drama. Hazel Hughes, however, impersonated Miss Docker with enormous zest in a performance sometimes caricatured and sometimes touching. Her tactless, boisterous invasion of the hushed, idyllic home of Mr. and Mrs. Custance was managed with considerable skill. Her antagonism to Mrs. Lillie, an elderly gentlewoman played with great finesse by Jane Eccles. was vividly expressed. The production, directed by Gilchrist Calder, was conscientious, but struggled in vain to express in pictures thoughts and dreams best left to a reader’s imagination.

The Times

Earlier, B.B.C.-1 presented a play by the distinguished Australian novelist, Mr. Patrick White. Entitled A Cheery Soul it reminded one of the sad truth that the most charitable and kindly people can often be intensely irritating. Unfortunately, Mr. White did not seem to have solved the classic problem of how to present an annoying character without alienating the spectator.,Mr. White’s heroine, a bull-dozing hearty with a voracious appetite, wvas brought rampageously to life by Miss Hazel Hughes. Beside her, many of the other characters seemed pale and uninteresting.

The Age 13 Nov 1965

SMH 30 April 1966

Evening Standard 27 April 1966

Daily Telegraph 28 April 1966

Sunday Telegraph 1 May 1966

Daily mirror 27 April 1966

Liverpool Echo 28 April 1966

The Stage 5 May 1966

The Times 28 April 1966

Brian Hoad

 Nothing really to do with TV plays but another British person who found himself in an important position when appointed The Bulletin's theatre critics.

His SMH obit

Long-time theatre critic cultivated fuchsias and stoushes

June 28, 2006 — 10.00am

THEY said Brian Hoad was slipping away the night of Donald Horne’s Bulletin tribute party in 2003, but then he returned. Twice he slipped and came back. Now he has slipped away permanently, after a stroke at 68. Hoad being Hoad would enjoy the reference to slippage.

A man of humour, perceived by some as savage, and The Bulletin’s arts critic for 30 years, he had a passion for fuchsias. “He was known as the Once and Fuchsia Queen,” recalls the writer David Marr, whose first job in journalism was as Hoad’s B-string critic. “My God, he put in the hard yards. Can you imagine what it was like covering theatre every night for all those years? What a punishing routine.”

Born in Watford, England, the son of Maud and Albert, a boot shop manager, he went to Watford Grammar, earned a chemistry degree from Luton College of Technology, worked for the Atomic Energy Commission, then turned to science journalism with The Times. He came to Australia as a £10 immigrant in 1967 to be with Max Kelly, a Macquarie University historian and once a male model in Britain. They lived in Paddington for five years before separating, as friends, when Hoad bought a house in Glebe.
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After arriving in Sydney, Hoad walked into the offices of The Bulletin looking for a job. His timing was perfect. Patricia Rolfe, then deputy editor, says Hoad was lucky. “There’d been a stoush with the drama critic, who’d left in a huff, so Donald [Horne] took him on.”

Hoad and the arts editor, Denis O’Brien, found common enjoyment through idiosyncrasies of the place. They discovered an old storeroom full of junk belonging to Charles Higham, now the biographer of US film stars, including a plastic Mac and a left shoe, and roared with laughter. O’Brien found Hoad “a very jovial bloke” at first, but says Hoad ignored him at O’Brien’s 60th birthday party.
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He was secretive about his personal life. He didn’t want to be known, but was very well known himself, as O’Brien put it. A stoush with Richard Wherrett and the Sydney Theatre Company about glitzy productions made headlines, as did swipes at David Williamson, who retaliated with a fax saying, “His right to be subjective has degenerated into bile”. Hoad lapped it up.

The private Hoad loved his garden in Glebe, to which his ashes will return. His friends and carers Doug Evans, Phil Davies and Panos Couros say the house was a shrine to his art collection and books, though dusting was never his strong point. He owned more than 2000 hours of taped music and adored the Beatles as well as Sibelius. He played the cello.

He concocted extraordinary meals from potatoes, bacon and beans. Travel was an obsession, as was its minutiae. “Who is your carrier?” he would ask friends on their way to foreign parts. And “Where’s the loot?” on their return.

Police questioned him once about swimming nude after dark in the Victoria Park pool in Chippendale. “But officer, I’m a ratepayer!” he cried. Thrown off a train for drinking, he hailed a taxi to complete a 250-kilometre journey. At other times he pranced around as a psychedelic Prospero, or gave his midnight performance as King Lear.

After his stroke, with a twinkle in his eye, he said: “My wicked ways have finally caught up with me.” Then, on the winter solstice, June 21, he dropped off the twig. His funeral service was held yesterday. His siblings, Peter and Patricia, survive him.

Daphne Guinness