Australian TV Plays: January 2022

Bill Eldridge

The director was Bill Eldridge, an actor and radio producer. He was an amateur poet too. Eldridge was British - he joined the BBC in 1939, went into the services in 1941, rejoined the BBC in 1944. He worked in Singapore then joined the ABC in 1947. (The link is to a 1947 article on Eldridge). He directed some early television. In ABC Weekly he often appeared in photos gesticulating. He moved to Perth.

1948 moved in commercial drama

Radio: Crossroads of Life (1948), To Town on Two Pianos (1953), Fanfare (1956)

*Roundabout (1957)

*Camera Club (1957)

*Fair Passenger (1957)

*The Rose and Crown (1963) (in Perth)

Neil Hutchison said in 1958 that he "has shown some ability though is perhaps in some respects a doubtful quality."

NAA William Sterling

Paul O'Loughlin

Alan Burke called Paul OLoughlin in a 2004 interview: "He’s a nice man. Very moral. Wouldn’t let me do something I wanted to do about Tennessee Williams because it was too sexy. Wanted to keep it nice and clean. He had a perfect right to do that. "

Paul O'Loughlin was born in Melbourne. He studied law and joined the ABC in 1935. He worked for the ABC in Adelaide (from 1937) and Brisbane and joined the Sydney section in 1940. He joined the army and transferred to the RAAF, serving in 33 missions over Europea - his wife did this article on him here. By 1948 he was the senior producer at ABC Sydney.

In January 1950 he went on exchange to the BBC; in return the ABC got Ayton Whitaker. O'Loughlin spent three weeks at Alexandra Palace learning about television but mostly worked in light programs. He returned by October 1950 saying how much he liked French acting but he thought Australian radio actors were among the best in the world. He did urge them to get more stage experience to help with Tv.

By Dec 1950 he was appointed assistant director of Drama and Features. (While he was in Australia, Ayton Whitaker criticised Australian acting - see here. Whitaker was anti TV see here). O'Loughlin in Dec 1956 directed a radio adaptation of The Fortune of Richard Mahoney. He continued to alternative TV and radio. His producing credits seem to stop after 1959. He became acting head of drama.

Early radio - The Wraith (1939)

*1950 at BBC

Radio - Venus Observed (1951),

*The Twelve Pound Look (1956)

*Three Cornered Moon (1957)

*Sunday Costs Five Pesos (1957)

*The Passionate Pianist (1957)

*A Phoenix Too Frequent (1957)

*The Importance of Being Earnest (1958)

*Act of Violence (1959)

*1960-63 acting head of drama while Neil Hutchison away at the Trust

NAA Syd Prod 1962


NAA Paul O'Loughlin

Response to Vincent Committee

NAA Response to Committee

Shaun Sutton interview from 1992

Side 2 - see here. Made head of serials. Did serials, five episode thrillers, sunday serials (46 a year). Newman appoointed him head of series. Said "don't sleep with the help". Did the Forsyte Saga. Decided serials should be split between great novels of past and new ones.

They'd do about 46 thriller serials a year. Over 400 Sunday serials.

Interview with Sydney Newman (19 June 1990)

British history project see here.

Tape one - never went to high school! Worked with Stanley hawes and co. Worked at NBC. Read book by Rudy Bretz.

41 mins Tape one talks about Arthur Hailey, did his first five plays inc Flight into Danger.

Tape two talks about offer to take over Armchair Mystery Theatre. It was after he'd seen Look Back in Aner and loved it. Got two year contract. Admits to being left wing when did theatre in the 1930s though never joined the party "thank god".

Influenced by making documentaries in Canada at film board under Grierson... he was making propaganda films... need to do it to to make audience do something - "we'd joke there was no time for nuancne under Grierson" - crystallised in his mind "art that had to lead a residue of conscience thinking on part of the audiences to stir them into action the following days" (15 mins) - took this attitude when start working in drama, didn't want to do Ibsen or Shakespeare as fine as they were because they wouldn't touch his Canadian audiences, wanted Canadians to see things that affected them - got Canadians to write about the Canadian experience

That was the genesis of his philosophy at Armchair Theatre

16 mins arrived in England - watched dramas on TV thought they were lousy, slow, Noel Coward - appointed head of drama and he agreed provided he could still produce Armchair Theatre.

They had BBC drama on Sunday. Three or four single play drama slots. Newman felt they didn't know who audience was - mix up Ibsen with Jack Pulman and Terence Rattigan. All that stuff is confusing can't build audience loyalty. He wanted cameras to move, big close ups, quick editing. see people's eyes. "The next day every fucking newspaper said this guy's going to revolutionise television".

Had Ted Kotcheff, Phil Saville, John Burtman. He told them no more dramatisations of stage plays wantde to do do originals, had to be contemporary. Scripts came in and weren't good. But said do it anyway... writers have to see how bad they are on screen. Critics kicked the shit out of me, he says. Ran out of plays. Had to take scripts from America and rewrite them. After 4-5 months ratings began to build.

Ratings went up. Then discovered Alun Owen (was recommended, saw theatre). Wrote No Trams to Lime Street which was a big success. There was a lot of push back at the time about the accents. Then Harold Pinter. They had a good timeslot after a show at the Palladium. Often number two in the ratings. Top ten 37 out of 41 dramas of the year. He said knew his audience - avoided things that smacked of culture. He rejected many good plays bc he felt didn't relate to audience. Tells a story about Grierson.

Tape 3 - talks about offer from BBC to be head of drama. ITV wouldn't let him go - BBC agreed to wait 18 months. Disliked Michael Barry's organisation. Everyone had to deal with him Rutherford did administration,Elyn Jones helped, but Barry responsible for it all. Barry had 250-270 dramas a year. Got more money bc of BBC2 and split dept into three, serials, series and plays. Got rid of script dept run by Donald Wilson. They would buy scripts and directors didn't like them and scripts wouldn't be taken. "All plays had to reflect the reality of Britain today. He says it was the single play that was close to his heart. Says Carol White nothing but a "titty starlet" when cast in Cathy Comes Home.

Tape 4 - talks about BBC plays inc musical His Polyvinyl Girl (by Carl Davis) and Dr Who. Talks about making mini series based on classic books. They restricted it to books written after 1900. Had rule no serial last longer than 4-6 episodes in case they weren't good (in which case would last too long). Forsyte Saga broke two rules but Newman liked it. Was pushed by Donald Wilson. Left BBC for three year contract with Assoc British. Talks about when hired at BBC the head guy (16 mins in) HUgh Greene said all the writers on ABC started on BBC radio "and we want them back". Says joined Assoc British under Clarke, was there a year, about to start a film based on story by Peter Luke starring Michael Caine. Then EMI bought up studio. Delfont appointed Bryan Forbes over Newman. Said Newman would make movies for television then changed his mind and was told to settle up contract. Went back to Canada.

Tape 5 - Says single play is dead. Need to build audience loyalty with a regular timeslot. Need to do it continuous shooting with multi camera. Talks about Dr Who and the Avengers.

Newman philosophy quoted here

    One must know who the audience is and, when dealing in millions, this is no easy thing. A tiny part of this mass audience who know something of the theatre, who have some knowledge of art, literature and history, would not be hard to please. When in doubt, give them Ibsen.

    “From the director’s point of view, Ibsen is a piece of cake. He has seen his plays performed many times before. And of course, so have the critics. But this is academic because, in fact, I have to win and hold a vast audience from every walk of life and that is a far greater and more exciting challenge. To win approval without pandering to ‘idiot’ level is achievement enough for any man, particularly because the majority of this audience (12 million average) would never go to the theatre even if it were gratis with free beer in the intervals.

    “This vast audience may not have time to wait for Godot (no offence to Beckett), but those who would call them unintelligent on this count would be making a mistake. In fact, intelligence may have little to do with the enjoyment of a play. To satisfy the television audience may be a lot harder than to amuse pleasure-seeking and uncritical goers to a West End play. The theatre and cinema public, having made the effort to be parted with their money, become part of a captive audience. But the great TV audience is held by nothing but its own likes and dislikes. By the twist of a knob they can remove themselves from the ‘theatre’ without the embarrassment of a stumble over feet and a whispered “Excuse me!”

    “In one of our recent plays, owing to a flubby opening, 2,700,000 people from Land’s End to John O’Groats, gave us ‘the bird’ by flicking off within the first seven minutes. No captive audience this!”

    - Sydney Newman writing in “The Armchair Theatre” 1959.

Birmingham Weekly 1 Aug 1958

Birmingham Pst 17 Nov 1958

The Guardian 22 Jan 1960

North Bya Nugge 17 March 1960

The Observer 22 April 1962

North Bay Nuggett 15 Jan 1963

Sun Times 3 March 1964

Montreal Star 26 Sept 1964

Montreal Star 5 Nov 1966

Montreal Star 23 Sept 1967

The Age 19 Feb 1959


The Age 19 Feb 1959

Leicester Mail 8 Aug 1958

Illustrated Chronical 13 Sept 1958

Party Manners (1950) (BBC)

TV play by Val Gielgud based on his stage play. It was the first time the BBC gave in to political pressyre.

Aired in 1950.

Norman Collins resigned the BBC as a result. See his bio here. He helped set up commercial television as a result. See here

BFI link here. BBC Website has a piece on it here.

Today, politics is fair game for broadcast comedy ranging from Yes, Minister to House of Cards and The New Statesman, and indeed Party Manners, Val Gielgud’s fictional tale of a Labour minister facing a comic dilemma over nuclear energy in 1950, aroused little protest when performed as a play, first on the stage and then on BBC radio.

A first airing on television was similarly unremarkable, but by the time a repeat showing was scheduled, the political landscape had changed. Labour’s previously healthy majority had been reduced to just five seats in the February General Election, and the party was bruised. When it was relayed to the BBC’s chairman, Lord Simon, that the Labour leadership found the play offensive, he ruled that plans for the repeat should be scrapped. The play, he said, was “capable of being misunderstood”.

It was, he quickly discovered, a serious blunder. He was pilloried in the press, carpeted by the BBC’s own General Advisory Council, and criticised in a debate in the House of Lords, where Lord Hailsham accused him of “humourless sensitivity to criticism”.

Lord Simon apologised in the House, admitting he did not foresee the “hurricane” of feeling his decision would stir. The storm, he concluded in his memoirs, was so violent that “quite obviously no Chairman will ever dream of doing anything of the sort again”.

Another one is here

Given his twenty years at the BBC, first as Head of Drama for radio and then television, it is ironic that a play written by Val Gielgud was responsible for what the BBC’s official historian referred to as the ‘biggest “dramatic storm” of the post-war years’.[13] While at the time BBC television was still confined to England’s south-east and most of its 343,000 licences were in middle-class hands, it is still worth exploring this controversy, for it highlights what was considered acceptable for television dramas to say about politics during this period.

Gielgud wrote Party Manners for the stage while on a sabbatical from the Corporation.[14] The play was in most respects unremarkable. If Gielgud’s work had a ‘message’, it was the by-now banal one that ‘the country has had enough of party politics’. Many novels, big-screen comedies and theatrical productions had said far worse things about Britain’s political system. The plot revolved around the dilemma faced by Christopher Williams, an Old Etonian and 110former Labour Cabinet minister who had been appointed head of the National Atomic Board. In this role Williams is given a report outlining how atomic energy could solve Britain’s economic problems. The Labour Cabinet wants him to publish this report, believing it will swing a close election decisively in its direction. However, the document also contains secrets of great interest to the Soviet Union. The Cabinet sends one of its number, a bluff former millworker who cares nothing for national security so long as Labour wins the election, to persuade Williams to do his duty to the party. But, through working at the Atomic Board, Williams has ceased to be a good party man. Exposure to scientists ‘whose sole aim is the achievement of perfect mathematical accuracy, and whose standards are not adaptable to political expediency’ has made him see the world differently. Indeed, at one point Williams declares: ‘I’m sick of the Party machine and the Party point of view. It’s about time the Party grew up … There’s more to this business of Government than just doing the other fellow in the eye!’

Along the way various characters make remarks hostile to Labour, which would have gone down well with the kind of well-heeled West End audience for whom Gielgud intended his play. There are, for example, references to the government over-taxing and over-spending and the extent to which the trade unions now run the country. One character even claims Labour is trying to make life fair by Act of Parliament, ‘though you know in your hearts that life never has been fair, and never can be fair’. Perhaps because they shared such a perspective, most theatre critics did not see the play as controversial. The Evening Standard reported: ‘There is no propaganda in this jolly affair, and Mr. Herbert Morrison need not lose sleep over it.’ Indeed, the play was executed in such a light-hearted manner even the left-wing New Statesman viewed it as ‘passable good fun’ while Tribune considered it ‘an entertaining political trifle’.[15]

The play was transmitted on BBC radio’s Home Service in June 1950. Back as Head of Television Drama, Gielgud decided to broadcast Party Manners on the small screen to kick off his autumn season of dramas, on Sunday evening 1 October 1950, it having been submitted, he claimed, to all the ‘authorities for routine checking’.[16] The performance was live and, as was usual at this time, the play was slated to be performed again the following Thursday. Party Manners was, though, televised at a highly sensitive time. The February 1950 general election had seen Labour’s Commons majority fall from 146 to just five seats and most commentators expected Attlee would imminently call another election to try to increase his majority, which he did in October 1951. To make matters worse, the play was broadcast at the start of the week in which Labour held its annual conference.
111

Labour members had long suspected the BBC was hostile to the party and in the late 1940s some had monitored its output for bias.[17] It was perhaps not surprising that the Daily Herald – Labour’s official paper – published a leader the day after the play was televised, demanding it not be re-broadcast. The editorial claimed the drama ‘reeked with snobbishness’ and was thoroughly irresponsible for suggesting Labour ministers would put their party’s interests before those of the nation. A day later the Herald went further and argued broadcasting the play had been ‘wildly inappropriate to the BBC’s traditions of political impartiality and public responsibility’.[18] Indicating the extent to which the controversy was now framed by partisan considerations, the strongly Conservative Daily Express commented: ‘It is perhaps not surprising that many Socialists dislike the play. The cap fits certain members of the government too well.’[19]

Ernest, Lord Simon of Wythenshawe, chair of the BBC governors – the body meant to ensure the Corporation represented the public interest – decided the play should not be re-broadcast. Simon had been an interwar Liberal MP but in 1946 joined the Labour party and a year later was made a life peer and appointed to his BBC post. While Simon’s decision was presented in the Conservative press as reflecting his Labour bias, it was more likely dictated by his developed concern for the health of Britain’s democracy, one he shared with others in the political establishment. In 1934 Simon had, after all, established the Association for Education in Citizenship, with Stanley Baldwin’s support, fearing ‘public opinion in this country is not good enough or wise enough to make Democracy safe in the complex, dangerous and rapidly changing world of to-day’. Through education he and others hoped to induce people to realize ‘what democracy means and to believe in it more firmly’.[20] In 1944 the broadcaster, writer and MP Stephen King-Hall formed the Hansard Society to similarly promote a better popular understanding of Parliament. Like Simon, King-Hall was confident that the more people knew about the Westminster model the more strongly they would embrace it.[21] As Simon said after the Party Manners controversy had broken out: ‘My fundamental interest in broadcasting is its educational side and especially in these days in anything that can be done to strengthen the belief in Democracy.’ In the midst of the Cold War with the Soviet Union he considered the BBC had a duty to ‘do what we can to maintain and strengthen democracy and the belief in democratic values’.[22]

Simon later claimed of Party Manners that ‘It was strongly represented to me by individuals of weight and judgement that it held leading British statesmen up to contempt in a way which was improper and undesirable.’[23] He was referring to a complaint from Ernest Whitfield, another member of the BBC Board, one 112originally lodged with the BBC Director General Sir William Haley some time before the play was broadcast. Whitfield believed it subjected ministers ‘to derision and contempt’ and imputed ‘improper behaviour and dishonourable motives to Ministers which are quite alien to Ministers of any party in the country’. He also noted that, as the politician exerting pressure on Williams was Gielgud’s only proletarian character, his work implied the working class was uniquely inclined to corruption. Haley responded that ‘normal people’ would not think the play had any deep political significance. With Whitfield threatening to resign if Party Manners was restaged for television, Simon agreed the play was ‘capable of being misunderstood, and it seemed to me that if that came about it could not be in the public interest’. ‘Surely’, he wrote, ‘this is not the moment in world history to weaken public respect for Democracy by jokes of this kind … the integrity of cabinet Ministers … [is] vital.’ Haley reluctantly decided the play should not be performed again.[24]

Such was the splash made by Simon’s decision it was debated in the Lords with contributions broadly following, as luck would have it, party lines.[25] Viscount Hailsham for the Conservatives claimed Simon had betrayed his Labour bias, although his basic point was that democracy could not be defended ‘by a humourless sensitivity to criticism’. Most Labour participants echoed Simon’s view with Lord Strabolgi believing ‘this ridiculous and pernicious play … is a violent attack, if you like by ridicule and satire, on the institution of democracy … on the very essence and theory of democracy itself, and Parliamentary democracy in particular.’ Lord Jowitt, the Lord Chancellor, also described the play as ‘offensive’, ‘because I think the high standard of public life in this country is very much to be praised and I do not like any attempts to decry it, either by an attack on the Labour Party or on any other Party’.

[13] A. Briggs, The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom. Volume IV:. Sound and Vision (London: Oxford University Press, 1979), pp. 686–7.

[14] Quotations from the play can be found in V. Gielgud, Party Manners (London: Muller, 1950), pp. 50–1, 57, 73–6.

[15] Manchester Central Reference Library, Lord Simon papers, W. Haley to Mr. Downes, 2 October 1950, M11/6/8a; New Statesman, 21 January 1950; Tribune, 27 January 1950.

[16] Gielgud, Party Manners, p. xii.

[17] S. Fielding et al., ‘England Arise!’ The Labour Party and Popular Politics in 1940s Britain (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995), p. 159.

[18] Daily Herald, 2 and 3 October 1950.

[19] Daily Express, 3 October 1950.

[20] Unless otherwise stated, this section is based on Simon papers, E. Simon to A. Bryant, 27 November 1934, and Simon to the Editor, The Schoolmaster, 26 July 1935, M11/14/14; Simon to A. D. Lindsay, 2 November 1938, M11/14/16; and E. Simon, ‘The lag in mass opinion’, March 1938, M11/18/3.

[21] N. W. Wilding, “Books About Parliament”, Hansard Society pamphlet 1 (1946), pp. 1–2 and S. King-Hall, ‘“The Hansard Society”’, Parliamentary Affairs 1:1 (1947), p. 6.

[22] Simon papers, ‘Party Manners, Personal Statement by Lord Simon of Wythenshawe’, 23 October 1950 and ‘Party Manners: Heading for Lord Simon’s Speech, House of Lords, 7 November 1950’, 5 November 1950, M11/6/8a.

[23] E. Simon, The BBC from Within (London: Victor Gollancz, 1953), p. 329.

[24] Simon papers, ‘Party Manners’, note by Ernest Simon, 4 October 1950, E. Whitfield to W. Haley, 23 September 1950, W. Haley to E. Simon, 30 September 1950, ‘Party Manners, Personal Statement by Lord Simon of Wythenshawe’, 11 October 1950, and ‘Party Manners, Personal Statement by Lord Simon of Wythenshawe’, 23 October 1950, M11/6/8a.

[25] House of Lords Debates, 7 November 1950, volume 169, columns 155–95.

ASA Briggs BBC

Asa Briggs

Ass Briggs

The Intimate Screen

The Age 16 Oct 1950

The Courier Mail 6 Oct 1950

Daily Tele 8 Oct 1950

Julian Aymes Interview

At British history project see here

Part 1 discusses six weeks training at BBC in 1951. Royston Morley his instructor. (around 17 mins). 29 mins he mentions directing Miracle in Soho "not one of Emeric's best". Then went back to BBC, then to Granada..

Part 2 here he talks about how the BBC is no good anymore (shock). The interviewer prompts him a lot. Asks about stage plays and based on American work.

Amyes directed several TV plays filmed in Australia later on including The Small Victory and The Strong Are Lonely and The Prisoner but doesn't talk about them.

Others to look at: Sydney Newman. Royston Morley. Sean Sutton.

John Logie Baird in Australia in 1938

Article here

The wireless weekly : the hundred per cent Australian radio journalVol. 31 No. 15 (April 15, 1938) Browse this collection

MAN OF MYSTERY BAIRD OF TELEVISION
Interviewed by JOHN MOYLE JOHN LOGIE BAIRD.

CALLED by some the “Inventor of Television,” and by others, more appropriately, the “Father of Tele- vision,” John Logie Baird last Wednesday night delivered a paper on his life work, before the Institute of Radio Engineers of Australia. It was one of the highlights of the Radio Con- vention now being held in Sydney. Baird is at the moment, a Man of Mystery. Who but such a man could have so set the radio world on fire, when we recently read that he had sailed from England with a complete television sta- tion for erection in Sydney? What else could we think knowing just what would be the difficulties—shall we say, impossibilities?—of such a venture at the present time? What else could we think when, on arrival at Fremantle, John Logie Baird denied that he had ever authorised such a statement as appeared in the newspapers, and, in fact, denied that he had on board the Strathaird anything more potent thart a sample television receiver which he proposed to exhibit before the Institute sponsor- ing his visit? What other name can we give to this man, who has worked himself almost to a standstill on the problem of making television a practicable reality—who has seen the fruits of his labors rejected by the British Broadcasting Corporation, just as he believes he has solved the problem of televising in color? But who has no intention of giving up his eternal search for perfection, though his path from now on leads—we can only guess where? Only a few days ago I was privileged to have a talk with Baird. It gave me a new slant on a man who, until then, had been to me just someone to read about—someone to talk about—but noth- ing more. To say that I was impressed with Baird is to state the position in the wrong words. I was impressed, but more than this—l was intrigued. For instance, one might imagine him as a lean, hawk-eyed, keen-minded indivi- dual, spilling short sentences dealing with lines per inch and decibels down, while we looked on and listened with awe. Whether he ever was such a man, I don’t know, but I don’t think he was Baird to-day is a quiet Scottish gentle- man, with a burr in his speech that will delight his hearers who know their Scotch heather. He has a dignity in his demeanor, which is the dignity of in- tellect. More than this—it is a dignity that is possessed by such men, who at the same time have vision, and whose dreams mark them out from other men. When Baird talks to you, he looks you straight in the eye. I don’t believe that he really sees you—you are for the mo- ment something on which he can focus his gaze while he thinks—he doesn’t tell you all he thinks, unless he knows you will understand him. His eyes are blue, rather a pale blue, and they tell you much more about him than even his screwed-up little smile, that comes rarely, but which is valuable because of that. Baird is a little bit tired of being the centre of such a storm which evidently he had no wish to create. “Mr. Baird,” were my first words, “I expect that you have been asked all the questions there are to ask, by all the pressmen there are to ask them?” He looked at me for a moment, and then that smile appeared. “I sincerely hope so,” was his reply, in broad Scotch. I wish you could have heard that reply. TELEVISION COST So I didn’t ask him too many ques- tions—we just sat and talked. The only time he w r as hesitant was when I men- tioned Australia. I believe that Baird knows as well as anyone that Australia at the moment can’t support television. He wouldn’t be led into the slightest definite statement on this point, but I don’t think he would deny it. H e knows too much about it. He know T s the pro- blems of finance, of the cost of receivers, of the inevitable scrapping when new ideas are introduced. But on one point he has set his faith. Television one day must be as much part of our lives as radio.
“In the beginning,” he said, “Radio men were bitterly opposed to television. They did all they could do to suppress it. Now they are beginning to realise that television is not an enemy of radio, but a friend.” “Do you think that the estimate—the optimistic estimate—of 9000 English tele- vision sets, remembering the 8 h million licences in England, is a good reponse?” I asked. "I think it is a very poor response," said Baird. "But I think that the rea- sons for this are largely overcome now. I think from this date the increase in receivers will be very much more rapid. Everything must have its initial period of opposition and growth—anything new —and television has now passed through this period.”

“Do you think that the wavelength of 7 metres now used for television will be increased or decreased?” SHORTER WAVELENGTHS ‘‘l think it will if anything be de- creased,” he said. And we talked of the problems that go with these very low wavelengths, of their limited range, and of their essential use to accommodate the very wide band of frequencies tele- vision demands. I told him of the work that amateurs in Australia have been doing on these very low wavelengths. I told him how I myself had transmitted such signals contrary to expectations right over the Blue Mountains, how Australian signals had been reported across the world in Wales, and how I had seen myself tele- vised in Sydney five years ago, in the home of an amateur experimenter. Baird’s interest was intense—he knows those trials and tribulations of the ama- teur experimenter, who puts his heart into the job for the love of the achieve- ment. ‘‘lt is a pity that the modern tele- vision transmitter and receiver are so complicated,” he said, ‘‘and that this makes it rather hard for the experi- menter to do very much at present, be- cause of this and of the expense. In the old days of the 30 line transmis- sions, there was a wonderful opportunity for all kinds of fun which the experi- menter could have for very little out- lay. Even to-day, there seems no rea- son why the experimenter and the amateur should not have just as much fun as we did in the old days, when the 30 line transmissions were so won- derful.” As I listened to his recital of the “fun” he had in those days, I could not but envy him a little, his fun, and in the same moment, honor his achieve- ment. I asked him, before I left, to tell me of his plans for the future. But of these Baird would not speak. Maybe he doesn’t quite know. But of one thing I am certain, he will be working at his problems with the same flame of en- thusiasm as urged him to his early triumphs, the same spirit that was the moving force behind that first signal across the Atlantic. I left him as I found him—a Man of Mystery.

The Stable Boys (22 Dec 1957)

Nativity play by Esther Roland a Queensland author. It was the first nativity play for Australian television.

It aired Melbourne on 22 December 1957 and in Sydney on 1 January 1958.

Cast

*Max Meldrum as the Bully

*Neville Thurgood as the Rebel

*John Kirkbrike as the Dreamer

*Lewis Taggart as the Innkeeper

*Jeffrey Owen Taylor as the Shepherd

TV Times

TV review - Emergency (16 February 1959)

An early Australian TV series. It was sponsored by BP and made with the co operation of the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Victorian Civil Ambulance Service.

Best source is this profile here at Classic Australian Television here. See TV Week on its cancellation below.

Roland Strong wrote it. BP/Cor sponsored it. Contract was for 52 episodes. It went for sixteen episodes.

Premise

Hospital drama.

Cast

* Brian James as Dr. Geoffrey Thompson

* Syd Conabere as orderly George Rogers, Thompson’s trusted assistant

* Judith Godden as Nurse Jill Adamson - she has biographical info here, here and here. She was a child actor.

* Moira Carleton as Matron Evans

* Natalie Raine as played May, the hospital switchboard girl

* Nevil Thurgood an Ambulance officer.

Production

It was announced in November 1958.

Filming began January 1959.

GTV sent a programme executive to London to learn about the production methods on the British series, Emergency – Ward 10 and a large set was constructed in GTV’s Studio One, the same studio where the variety programme In Melbourne Tonight was recorded. The Emergency team had to vacate the studio by 6:00 PM so that the huge set could be removed to allow the IMT set to be moved in, ready for rehearsals at 7:00 PM.

The Royal Melbourne Hospital loaned various medical equipment items and provided training for the actors in its usage. The Victorian Civil Ambulance Service supplied an ambulance and an ambulance officer.

The show was recorded on kinescope (videotape was not available at that time), and each half of each episode (there was a commercial break at the halfway mark) had to be shot continuously with no breaks. If an actor fluffed a line or missed a cue, or a set shook, the scene could not be re-shot. This inability to remove errors from the finished episode was one of the primary criticisms of the series.

From the Classic Australian TV site:

From the start, Emergency had more than its fair share of problems. The programme was recorded on kinescope, as videotape was not available at that time, and kinescope was the only process available to record television images on 16mm film. (A special 16mm camera was focused on a high intensity screen and the pull-down was synchronised to occur during the second frame of the interface). While this process had the advantage of speed - each scene could be viewed as it would appear on screen, without having to wait for film rushes to be developed - it also had one serious drawback. GTV-9 management decreed that a sliced film could not be telecast, therefore each 13˝ minute block had to be recorded in its entirety (the programme had a centre commercial break). If an actor had trouble with a line of dialogue, or a set shook, the scene could not be re-shot. This inability to remove errors from the finished episode was one of the primary sources of criticism for the series. As reviewers commented, viewers don't expect to see actors stumble on lines in a filmed show.

Another source of criticism was the quality of the scripts. Because the top scriptwriters in Melbourne at the time did not want to be involved with the project (most thinking that Emergency, with its limited facilities, had no future), Roland Strong was forced to write many of the scripts himself. Strong's wealth of experience as a top radio scriptwriter (notably on Crawford's landmark series D24) should have guaranteed quality scripts. It didn’t. The episodes were still being written largely as radio scripts, without sufficient allowance for the visual impact of television. For example, viewers would see a patient in a bad way in a hospital bed, with the doctor nodding grimly and saying, "Yes, he's very sick" - something immediately obvious. Some segments were, in effect, 'radio with pictures'.

Roland Strong probably wrote more than half of the scripts, however in later stages this task was shared with GTV programme executive Denzil Howson. They both wrote under various pseudonyms because the General Manager of GTV-9, Colin Bednall, thought it was blatant nepotism for all the scripts to be written by the same two GTV people. Therefore a number of fictitious writers were credited, and Bednall was never aware of the deception.

Emergency did have several points in its favour - an excellent performance by Brian James in the lead role, a solid supporting cast and generally good sets. The audio crew of Wally Shaw, John Cannon and Rex Israel worked wonders with sound, hiding microphones in bed-pans, under pillows and behind vases of flowers, and inserting recorded music bridges ‘on the run’ - there was no post-editing.

Emergency also featured brief filmed sequences on location in some episodes, shot by a Movietone News cameraman on 35mm to ensure maximum quality when transferred to kinescope. It must be remembered that Emergency was one of Australia’s first drama series, and very much a pioneer effort. Regular production of Australian drama series did not come about until 1964 with Homicide, by which time video tape was available for studio scenes, with outside location work being shot on film. The early episodes of Emergency rated fairly well and, given time, the production difficulties could have been sorted out.

The demise of Emergency, however, was due almost entirely to a scathing attack made on it by a Sydney daily newspaper, which ran a half-page article ridiculing the series. So vicious was the article that BP/COR executives called a crisis meeting with GTV management, and announced they were withdrawing their sponsorship. GTV was unwilling to absorb the production costs alone, and as the Emergency set took up space which could be used for more profitable variety programmes such as In Melbourne Tonight, production was halted after the 16th episode.

While Emergency was as good a first attempt at drama as could be expected, it would be a further five years before GTV-9 would make it’s next venture into in-house production with the situation comedy Barley Charlie. From that point on, drama series produced at GTV would be packaged by independent producers, such as Hunter and Division 4 from Crawfords. Only six complete episodes of Emergency are known to exist, and it is extremely doubtful that any others have survived.

The Age 21 March 1959

    1. (Title unknown) - 16 Feb 1959 (Melb), 23 Feb 1959 (Syd)
    Mr. Green.......Frank Gatcliffe
    Mrs. Green.......Joyce Turner
    Shirley Green.......Diane Sinnamon
    May.......Natalie Raine
    Ambulance officer.......Nevil Thurgood

    Synopsis: A car crashes through a safety fence and rolls down a hillside in Fern Tree Gully. Two injured passengers, a man and wife, are taken to hospital, where they regain consciousness and ask for their daughter, who was also in the car. A search party is sent back to the accident site to find the missing child. Pictures are here

    2. (Title unknown) - 23 Feb 1959 (Melb), 2 March 1959 (Syd)     Script.......Roland Strong
    Miss Marshall.......Patricia Kennedy
    Mrs. Marshall.......Lorna Forbes
    Watkins.......Paul Bacon
    Miss Marshall's friend.......Madeline Herle
    Matron Evans.......Moira Carleton
    May.......Natalie Raine

    Synopsis: A stubborn daughter is convinced that her mother, suffering from a serious disease but gradually recovering, would receive better care in a private hospital. Dr. Thompson and the matron realise that the 'hospital' is run by a 'quack', and strongly advise the woman to let her mother remain where she is. The daughter refuses and places her mother in the care of the 'quack' whose 'miracle cure' consists mainly of starving his patients. When her mother becomes weak and dangerously ill, she rushes her back to the Emergency Ward, but she is beyond help and dies shortly after.

    3. Blackout (2 March 1959 - Melb), 9 March 1959 (Syd)

    Girl.......Golda Prince

    Synopsis: A lost and frightened girl arrives by train in Melbourne and a kindly policeman takes her to hospital. Her memory is gone, but kind and persistent treatment by the team in the Emergency Ward restores both her memory and her happiness.

    4. Lethal Bag - 9 March 1959 (Melb), 16 March 1959 (Syd)

    .......Peter Aanensen, Philip Jordan, Kenneth Jackson

    Synopsis: Dr. Thompson's car is stolen and wrecked by thieves. Two small boys play among the wreckage and later leave with Dr. Thompson's medical bag, which contains dangerous drugs. There follows a frantic race against time to locate the children, one of whom has forced the other to swallow some of the drugs.

    5. Gunshot - 16 March 1959 (Melb), 23 March 1959 (Syd)

    Edna Remington.......Anne Harvey

    Synopsis: Edna Remington, associate of criminals, is shot and taken to hospital. The criminals, however, are desperate to silence her, and break into the hospital. Threats are made to the hospital staff - if the lady lives lives, they will pay.

        6. (Title unknown) 23 March 1959 (Melb), 30 March 1959 (Syd)

    West.......John Morgan    Script.......Denzil Howson

    Synopsis: A man is knocked down by a car and brought to hospital, and after treatment he is discharged. Soon afterwards he returns to the hospital in mysterious circumstances, and Dr. Thompson and George Rogers are faced with a possible suicide attempt.

    Notes: Script is credited to Graeme Herbert, a pseudonym for Denzil Howson. A complete copy of this episode is held by the National Film & Sound Archive.

    7. Operate Remote - 30 March 1959 (Mel), 6 April 1959 (Syd)

    Synopsis: A man is badly injured in an accident on a country road and bleeding from a severed artery. He is saved through the use of a taxi's radio when Dr. Thompson relays instructions to the driver. Matters are complicated by a criminal and his girlfriend.

    8. Knockout - 6 April 1959 (Melb), 13 April 1959 (Syd) - another source says this ep was 23 Feb (Melb) - confirmed here

    Girlfriend.......Judith Thompson
    Mick Fenton.......John Godfrey

    Synopsis: Boxer Mick Fenton is threatened unless he 'throws' an important match. Fenton also risks losing his eyesight if struck in the head; his girlfriend knows this, and says she will leave if he fights. He fights, wins the bout, and is viciously bashed on his way home. An emergency operation is performed, his eyesight hanging in the balance.

    9. Death Drive 13 April 1959 (Melb), 20 April 1959 (Syd)

    .......Edward Howell

    Synopsis: Two reckless teenage boys are involved in a car accident, and later involve their parents in a tangled web of consequences.

    10. Alibi. 20 April 1959 (Melb), 27 April 1959 (Syd)

    Synopsis: A young man commits a robbery, and attempts to create an alibi for himself by slashing himself with a broken bottle - but fate intervenes.

    11. False Alarm - 27 April 1959 (Melb) 4 May 1959 (Syd)
    .......Bruce Wishart,    .......Margaret Reid

Synopsis: Young Bobby Farrel rings the police for a joke and reports a bogus bus crash involving 30 people. Dr. Thompson, en route to visit the boy's mother, is diverted to the hospital in readiness to tend to the accident victims. Meanwhile, the mother's sudden fainting turn at home causes her to collapse beside her stove's leaking gas jet.

    12. '44 Incident aka Anzac Day - 4 May 1959 (Melb), 11 May 1959 (Syd)

    Phillip Bateson.......Ron Pinnell
    Mrs. Lewis.......Marjorie White
    Detective.......John Hughes
    Ambulance officer.......Nevil Thurgood

    Synopsis: During the Anzac Day march, one of the men marching collapses and is taken to the hospital, where he is recognised by George Rogers as a man who served in Italy during World War 2 and deserted following the suspicious death of another soldier.

    13. Diamonds For Leona - 11 May 1959 (Melb) , 18 May 1959 (Syd)

    Leona.......Marcella Burgoyne
    .......Noel Ferrier
    .......Clive Winmill

    Synopsis: A jeweller's apprentice learns that the girl he loves is using him to gain information for a jewel robbery. He is later stabbed in a fight with her accomplice, but manages to board a bus and reach the hospital.

    14. Talent Quest - 18 May 1959 (Melb), 25 May 1959 (Syd)

    Synopsis: An ambitious mother of a little girl wants her to be a stage star, entering her in competitions and overworking her to the point of collapse. The mother then starts using 'pep pills' to keep her going. Finally, the child collapses and is rushed to hospital.

    15. Mind Over Matter 25 May 1959 (Melb), 1 June 1959 (Syd) Script.......Denzil Howson
    Petula Rogers.......Sheila Florance
    Amelia Stephens.......Eve Wynne
    John Hartley.......Williams Lloyd
    Elizabeth.......Judith George
    Ambulance officer.......Nevil Thurgood
    May.......Natalie Raine
    Synopsis: After having been led to believe, by malicious gossip, that she is dying from cancer, a distraught woman attempts to kill herself.

    Notes: Originally scheduled for 23/3/59, as episode 6.

    16. Broken Appointment - 1 June 1959 (Melb), 8 June (Syd)
    .......Kenric Hudson
    Synopsis: A young man determines to marry the girl of his choice, in spite of his parents wishes. On his way to visit her, he is involved in an accident and rushed to hospital. His girlfriend, thinking he has deserted her, takes an overdose of sleeping tablets and is also rushed to hospital. Eventually she and her boyfriend are happily reunited.