Australian TV Plays: Funnel Web (25 April 1962)

Suspense drama. Part of the 6 Australian TV plays of 1962 from the ABC.

Plot

A Canadian woman, Nina, is searching for her husband, Max Godfrey, who deserted her years ago. She finds him living in Sydney. Max has also defrauded his business partner. He decides to take steps to get rid of both his ex-wife and former business partner.

Cast

Grant Taylor as Max Godfrey
Diana Davidson as Nina Godfrey
Wendy Playfair as Irene Charlton
Alastair Duncan as Paul Charlton
Phillipa Baker as Marion Westlake
Mary Mackay as Miss Wetherby
Stewart Ginn as Dt Sgt Lundy
Ken Hacker as Gleeson

1956 TV play

It was based on a story by Phillip Grenville Mann, an Australian writer who worked in Englad.

He originally wrote it as a 30-minute TV play for British TV called "Dead or Alive". This aired in 1956 as part of the anthology series Theatre Royal, hosted by Lili Palmer. This was on ITV. (Another account says it was on in 1957 with Mann billed as "Philip Mann")

The episode starred Australian actor Ron Randell and was directed by Don Chaffey, who would later work in Australia. Other actors included Ralph Michael, Patricia Driscoll, Lloyd Lamble and John Miller.

Mann expanded the story into a full length stage play, which was performed in Britain.

Production

Mann adapted the story for Australian TV. (Mann replaced Rex Rienits as the ABC's drama editor and wrote The Patriots.)

It was one in a series of six live TV plays by Australian authors on the ABC which had been announced in March 1962.

It was Grant Taylor's second ABC TV performance following Jenny and was shot in Sydney. Diana Davison had been in Skin of Our Teeth and Misery Me.

The set, including two office interiors and a beach house at Avalon, was designed by Francesca Crespi.

Technical supervisor John Garton was a veteran of many ABC plays and operas. It was shot at Studio 21, Gore Hill.

Director Bill Bain said "the play is an excellent vehicle for actors and producer, being slick, tight and dynamic."

A copy is at the NFSA.

Producer - Bill Bain. Script assistant - Rosemary Denmead. Designer - Francesca Crespi. Technical producer - John Garton. Assistant technical producer - Bruce Valentine. Floor manager - Bill Munro.

My thoughts on the script

Fun murder mystery about a man, Max Godfrey, who gets hit with a double whammy - on the day his wife turns up from Canada demanding the money he stole from her, his business partner in Australia reveals he knows Max has been committing fraud.

This was originally 30 minutes and at times you can feel the padding - it really all should take place at the one isolated location - but it is fun. Maybe could've done with another death or so.

Reception

The Sydney Morning Herald praised "the meticulously chic settings designed by Francesca Crespi (a beach house at Avalon and a Sydney office interior) and the easy-limbed, masterful portrayal of the villain by Grant Taylor".

Listener In called it "an ingeniously plotted thriller which might well have been high;y successful if it had been cut to run half the time and if the producer had concentrated on achieving the appearance of reality and avoided arty smartness."

TV Week called it "this amateur thiller drivel teetered its precious way through a cloud of cliches, which, like so many recent ABC novelties, defied the cast to make either sense or sensibility of the material with which they were confronted."

Mann wrote a letter of appreciation to Grant Taylor in which he hoped Taylor would appear in the stage version.

Other versions

ABC did version in 1964 in Perth radio called Death Trap see here.