Australian TV Plays: Silo 15

A 1971 Australian television movie. It was shot in 1969 and was produced by Grahame Jennings and directed by John Alaimo. It runs for 49 minutes.

Premise

In the 1990s, two men are trapped in a nuclear missile silo with war looming.

Cast

* Jack Thompson as Lt. O'Donnell

*Owen Weingott as Air Force senior officer Captain Thompson,(

Production

The film was based on an original TV play by Mosman writer Gregory Marton which had first been conceived as a stage play. In 1965 he sent it to Ken Hannam but did not hear back from them. He wrote some nasty letters.

He began negotiations with companies in Europe to make it and asked for it back.

The play won a Merit Award at the first Australian Writers Guild Awards in March 1968 and sold to West Germany for $1,000.The Sydney Morning Herald wrote an article about this in 1968 prompting revived interest in the play.

The German version was shot in Hamburg and shown throughout Europe on German speaking networks. An Australian version was filmed in Sydney, produced by Grahame Jennings. It was shot over nine days.

By August 1969 the Australian version had been sold to the US (the National Educational Television Network), Canada and the BBC but it had not been shown on Australian TV. To give it at some audience, it was screened at the Gala Cinema in Sydney. Jennings said, "We feel that an important issue is at stake here, that a critical point has been reached in the production of drama by Australians for Australian television."

When the film aired in the cinema, the Sydney Morning Herald called it "tense, scary fare right out of the Twilight Zone and very much belongs to the small screen."

Alaimo said "I could understand if they didn't want it because it is no good but I think the fact that is has been sold to England and America speaks for itself. It has been shown to all commercial channels but either its too far above them or they're just not interested in drama. It has me baffled... I certainly don't say that people should buy it but at least I think they should consider it. It's a complete enigma and has destroyed some of my faith in commercial television. I'm not saying that it's better than the programs we see on local television but is's certainly no worse.""

It was hrected from the Sydney Film Festival and the Australian Film Institute Awaards.

In 1972 the show aired on ATN Sydney. There's a copy at the NFSA see here.

The same producer and director later made Odyssey: A Journey, a documentary drama, which aired in 1972

It was repeated in 1973, 1975 and 1978.