Australian TV Plays: Sound of Thunder (23 Oct 1957)

1957 Australian television play by Australian writer Iain MacCormick. It was described as "the longest and most ambitious play ABN [the ABC] has put over so far" although The Importance of Being Ernest, which followed on December 18, exceeded it by 12 minutes.

I think this was the first ABC TV play from an Australian writer which had been performed in the UK first.

This writer was Iain MacCormick, an Australian living in the UK. It was the first of several scripts of his the ABC would produce.

Premise

In Italy in 1944, a small advance group of Allied soldiers , led by Major Campe, arrives at an Italian farm owned by the Valbella family.

The soldiers plan to meet up with some partisan troops, with the aim of blowing up a supply dump.

Pietro, a 17 year old partisan, falls in love with Lucia, the 16 year old daughter of the Valbellas.

Vincent refuses to agree with Major Campe's plan.

Cast

Edward Brayshaw as Pietro
Judith Godden as Lucia
Robert Peach as the English Major Campe
Philip Staintin as Papa
Lewis Tegart as the Old Man
Alan Hopgood as Cpl Kutsky
Sydney Conabere as Seppi
Neville Thurgood as Cpl Little
John Morgan as Vincente

Original Play

The Sound of Thunder was the first of a cycle of four war plays under the title of The Promised Years. The series was written for BBC television by Scottish-Australian writer Iain MacCormick (1917–1965). The title of the play in England was The Liberators. I don't know why it was changed for Australia.

The plays deal with the effect of war on small groups of ordinary people of different nationalities, "small people in the big messup," according to MacCormick. They were based on personal war time experiences of the author. He discusses the cycle in an article here, reprinted below.

Some of the characters in Sound of Thunder, appeared in the next three, The Good Partners (set during the Berlin Airlift), Small Victory (set in the Korean War, filmed for Australian TV) and Return to the River (set in the original Italian town in 1954). (Little, the sergeant, was in Small Victory.)

MacCormick was born in Australia and was studying medicine when World War Two broke out. He joined the army and was captured in Europe. After the war he moved to Britain. By the 1950s he became one of the leading writers on British television.

A superb web biography of MacCormick is here. It says, among other things, "in the 1950s, Iain MacCormick was recognised as the first writer to make a name specifically from original television writing in Britain."

According to AustLit, "MacCormick's significance as a script-writer was recognised in Australia very early: when ABC features and drama director Neil Hutchison headed to the UK in 1958 in search of information on improving Australian drama, for example, he deliberately sought out MacCormick."

This article referred to is here.

The biography of MacCormick doesn't mention Sound of Thunder. It mentions the first play in the Promised Years cycle was "The Liberators". This was set in Italy in 1945. The British officer Major Kent must order the destruction of the town of Canavento to impede the German retreat and the drama is built around his dilemma as to whether he can afford to allow the evacuation of civilians first.

So it's basically the same story, different name. Some things seem to have changed from the synopsis - Kemp rather than Campe? 1945 rather than 1944 ? I haven't read the original scripts.

Other adaptations

The show was broadcast on the BBC in 1954. The BBC filmed it again in 1960.

The play was adapted for Australian radio in 1954 under the title "Sound of Thunder".

TV Production

Sound of Thunder was directed by William Sterling in Melbourne. He was then based in Sydney but went down to Melbourne to produce the play in September and October. (Sterling would later settle in the city.)

The production involved seven weeks of preparation, three weeks of rehearsals and two days of camera rehearsals before it was telecast, and filmed for Sydney TV.

Judith Godden was in holiday in Melbourne when cast. Robert Peach was a compere of C.M.F. entertainment units in Melbourne.

Sterling spent several weeks looking at amateur theatre in Melbourne to find his actors. He was inspired by Italian neo realism. "It’s right on television,” he said. "You're watching ordinary people, close up, in highly emotional situations.”

Among the amateurs he cast were Lewis Tegart, who had been acting in Little Theatre for 20 years but never professionally, and Alan Hopgood, who was a school teacher who had been performing in a university revue. Hopgood went on to become a leading actor and writer of Australian TV, theatre and film (Alvin Purple).

The play was filmed out of the Coppin Hall studios in Melbourne.

Nevil Thurgood reprised his performance as Little in The Small Victory. Judith Godden was also in that but played a different character.

The NAA has photos. Not online. See here and here and here.