Richard Lane Interview 1969

 Here

7.52 very proud of his verse play Stockade. Worked as radio writer and producer, at Macquarie Broadcasting then a freelancer. Did originals and adaptations of stage plays and books. Golden age of radio in Australia esp in Sydney a tremendous amount being done. Group of writers who worked continuously, 6-7 days a week, sometimes several scripts a day. With the coming of television this passed and commercial radio drama completely died.

10.14 Australian radio drama industry written, acted and produced completely by Australians, Before the war almost all imported then it stopped and made them all locally... quite an achievement... all went with television

11.48 "with the coming of television we rather hoped the same sort of industry would spring up because Australian actors and Australian writers and producers would be involved in Australian television drama as they had in radio drama. Unfortunately this hasn't... I was rather fortunate. I wrote first commercial television serial made in this country a daytime serial called Autumn Affair for ATN-7... I suppose you could all it experimental... We were all trying to learn at this time."

12.35 "I Went on  a certain amount of television but there was never enough television to keep writers employed. The amount of locally written television has been so small. The ABC fortunately is still continuing radio drama and I was able to do this in between the television shows that come along.

13.00

Ten years after start of TV

Worked on series based on You Can't See Round Corners. Wrote in half hour episodes "most exciting piece of television writing I've done yet as it was a contemporary subject to do with Australia today and youth today". He updated book from World War Two. Meant a great deal of research for him and his wife. Book set in Paddington which was a slum but by middle 60s was more fashionable. He and wife went to Newtown, made recordings of people around Newtown, hotels and shops to get their idiom of speech because of changes in last twenty years. This series did achieve something important - the first series that showed the contemporary Sydney scene not using kangaroos. To me and all of us who worked on it it really established some sort of a milestone, the first time this had been done honestly.

16.00 Says making of it came from him and his wife who always loved book. He read it and shared enthusiasm. Loved the story of a boy with a chip on his shoulder. But at this time when a TV drama series was mooted he suggested idea bc thought it would appeal to youth of today esp when set against backgrounds of youth's discontent today.

He likes to work regular hours start at 10 am and work through 6-8 hours without a break. Having a break takes my concentration away. Work straight on to the typewriter. Did first draft script. Take 2-3 days. Then gets together with producer "tears script to pieces". Then sit down and rewrite the script. Needed to produce half hour script every week. 26 half hours. Lane wrote first 17 then was story consultant for remaining nine episodes. Needed to have Greeks.

Series received very well. For a long time we'd been told no Australians could write good television and no one could make it. Received top ratings in its first months. "It showed that if something done honestly and done well it could achieve popularity... showed Australians did want to see Australian drama on their screens".

Had five weeks free at the year with the cast still under contract. Wanted to see if could make feature film out of it. Asked Lane to write screenplay. Shot film over five weeks. Made on the lowest budget any film made. Less than $100,000. An experiment to see what could be done. If it wasn't good enough for cinema release could be used as a television special. "We all worked so very hard on it... I think we can claim it did come up as a successful film within its limits and budget and time." Accepted by Universal for release. Ran six weeks at State Theatre.

Said one of only two all Australian films made in last ten years (no overseas talent or money involved).

26.30 Year 1962 formed Australian Writers Guild. Fought for quota. Whole thing been rather disheartened. Trying to fight for an Australian drama that represents Australia but there's so little of it... People get a false idea of what they see.

I do hope sometime soon the industry can take the change and become truly Australian... Talks about wanting to go away and write a book on Magnetic Island. I've lost enthusiasm for writing for television and films because of this attitude that true Australian product is not wanted."One feels one has to take a break from this rat race... disheartening."

Eureka - The ABC considered producing this in 1962 but decided not to