The Shadow of Doubt (5 June 1957)

A drama based on a 1955 British stage play by Norman King. Directed by Ray Menmuir in Sydney.

It was the second hour long drama on the ABC after Tomorrow's Child, though ABV-2 advertised it as the first (they probably forgot).

It showed on Melbourne on Friday 5 July 1957. But Tomorrow's Child had shown in April.

 Premise

A nuclear physicist, Dr Ross, seeks to return to his lab after serving five years in prison for breaching the Official Secrets Act (he told secrets to an ex-student, Fletcher, with certain political beliefs). 

Disgraced and friendless, he can only get work as a clerk. He lives with his wife Laura under the new surname of "Denver". Laura works as a nurse. The man upstairs, Frank, was a former agent. They live as boarders in a house owned by Gladys and Hughie, a working class couple, who believe that Arthur was ill in a sanatorium.

Manning, the MI5 responsible for Arthur's original arrest, arrives with news that Ross' identity is about to be revealed in a newspaper article. (Frank has been keeping an eye on Arthur for Manning.)

The information comes out and Arthur is fired from his job. Manning tells Arthur he will be approached from the other side. Word gets out and journalists start approaching. Gladys and Hughie ask the couple to leave. Laura is worried she will lose herjob.

They are approached by a man, Cantrup, who offers him a job as a researcher on a project in Ireland. Arthur accepts but Laura worries this is the offer Manning warned them about. She suggests he check with Manning but Arthur refuses.

They are visited by Laura's sister Liz, who has tracked them down after the article (Laura become estranged from her family following the trial). Liz asks Laura to come back with her, but not Arthur.

Laura tells Frank about the job offer in Ireland and Frank makes calls checking it. Arthur wants to accept the job, as he wants the facilities to work in a lab again. Laura tells him if he doesn't check with Manning, this would be treason ans she will leave him.

Manning has found out about Frank's queries into Arthur's new job. Frank defends Arthur, and Manning thinks Frank is in love with Laura.

Frank discovers that Cantrup might have lied about being forced into offering Arthur a job. Arthur still wants to take the job. Arthur admits why he told secrets to Fletcher - because he had made a discovery that his superiors did not believe in, and he wanted to talk it through.

Manning reveals that Arthur's discovery worked, that Fletcher was a top agent, and he was the one behind the leaking of the information to the press. 

Arthur decides not to visit Cantrup. Manning is convinced Arthur is not a traitor and will help him get a job in a lab again.

Cast

* Don Crosby as the scientist, Dr Arthur Ross

* Bruce Beeby as Manning, an MI5 official 

* Winifred Green

* Betty Lucas 

* Reg Lye as Hughie

* Ric Hutton

*Mayne Lynton

 Original Play

The play debuted on in Glasgow in June 1955 with John Clements. The Glasgow Herald said it had "genuine... suspense."

This play debuted on the London stage on 7 July 1955, still starring John Clements.  

The Guardian called it a "plodding piece".  

The Age, via a London correspondent, called it "the only serious English play of quality to be produced in the West End this season... an exciting play but also a psychologically absorbing one". Was this review why the play was produced for TV in Australia?

The Guardian, in another review, called it "far from being a good play."

The play was highly regarded enough to be published in a collection of Best Plays of the Year. The link is here. This collection includes another play later adapted for Australian TV, The Long Sunset.

Other adaptations

It was adapted for ABC radio in July 1956.

It was later filmed by the BBC in 1958 - after it had been filmed in Australia first, which was unusual. 

The play was performed on stage in Melbourne in July 1958.

I've read the play and really liked it. I was suspenseful, fast, interesting. I never knew how it was going to end. Solid emotional drama with Frank the undercover agent being in love with Laura the wife. Arthur was a genuinely good role - a torn up scientist, not good in the ways of the world, driven to do research. Laura was a "wife" part but with meat on its bones. I felt maybe it would've been nice to meet Fletcher, the traitor. But an entertaining play.

Production

It was shot in Sydney. Ray Menmuir directed.

The show was rehearsed for 44 hours and the camera script was blocked into 144 shots. The Women's Weekly did an article on it in which ABC's head of drama Neil Hutchinson told the press:

TV actors have to forget all the traditions of the stage. Theatre audiences accept without question the convention that allows an actor to say 'I love you,' projecting his voice so that it is heard in the back row of the gods. Televiewers in their own living rooms won't accept this convention at all. They don't want to hear his emotions shouted at them; they want to see and hear at normal pitch. They also have to learn to cut down on gestures, to get their meaning across in the space encompassed by the eye of the camera.

Desmonde Downing, one of the leading theatre designers at the time, did the sets.

It was the TV debut of Don Crosby.

The NAA has a copy of the script not on line here. May be a radio script.

ABC Weekly 1 June 1957 p 33

The Age 4 July 1957 p 13

SMH 29 May 1957 p 4

SMH 5 June 1957 p 11

The Age 5 July 1957 p 3

The Age 5 July 1957 p 18

 

Australian Woman's Weekly 12 June 1957 p 12

 

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