Australian TV Plays: The Affair (18 August 1965)

Some British cold war espionage. Eric Tayler's first directing job at the ABC after ten years with the BBC. So he does a British play. 1 hour 20 mins.

Premise

A young Cambridge scientist, Donald Howard, introvertive and unpopular, is accused of fraud and dismissed from his fellowship. The twenty fellows attempt to dismiss their feelings of unease by calling him guilty. His wife campaigns for him, splitting the college into two factions, one which sticks by the original verdict the other which seeks to re-try him.

Cast

Richard Meikle as Donald Howard
Brian James as Sir Lewis Eliot, QC
Anne Haddy as Laura Howard
Alexander Archdale as College Bursar
Raymond Westwell as Gibert Dawson-Hill, QC
Roger Climpson as the snobbish,vacillating young History Lecturer
John Brunskill as the master of College
Ron Haddrick as Skefflington, a dedicated scientist and Roman Catholic
Richard Parry as a Professor of Physics
Atholl Fleming as a Senior Tutor
Frank Taylor as a lecturer in Physics
Charles Tasman
Wendy Playfair as Lady Margaret Eliot
Lou Vernon as a designated octogenarian
Tom Farley as the college porter.

Original novel

It was based on a 1960 novel by CP Snow. The story was based on the Dreyfus Case. A review is here.

The novel was the eighth in Snow's Strangers and Brothers sequence - a series of eleven novels he wrote from 1940 to 1970.

It was the third in a trilogy of stories set at Cambridge.

Other adaptations

Ronald Miller adapted it into a 1962 play. This ran for 116 performances on Broadway.

It was adapted for the BBC on TV in 1963.

The BBC adapted all the novels for TV in 1984 and radio in 2003.

Ronald Miller did the script.

Production

The production was filmed at the ABC's studios in Gore Hill, Sydney.

Eric Tayler directed. It was his first for the ABC since joining them after working at the BBC for ten years. They tried to make it as authentic as possible using copies of gowns worn at Cambridge. Designer Geoffrey Wedlock examined the architecture of Cambridge University.

Most of the play was shot indorrs except for two brief outdoor scenes, one of which was shot at Sydney University cloisters.

NAA has a copy of the script. Not on line. See here.

Reception

The Woman's Weekly called it "a milestone in local drama. It was good, world-class TV, not a production that can be tarnished by the tag "good for an Australian one." It was a wonderful play... The cast did well, and the producer did wonders.^"

The Sydney Morning Herald thought it was "outstandingly cast and intelligently produced" but thought the story had flaws.

The Age called it "well presented", praising the direction.