The Big Killing (21 April 1965)

 Adaptation of a British play, relocated to Australia.

Premise

Peter Ashbury is a young man who lives on Palm Beach, Sydney, with an expensive wife Mary and house he cannot afford. Their neighbours and close friends are Liz and Charles Barcher. He makes a £25,000 bet to murder Liz, the wife of the wealthy Charles. 

When the wife dies, blame attaches to Peter and then to his wife Mary. 

Cast

• Roger Climpson as Peter Ashbury
• June Thody as Mary Ashbury
• Nigel Lovell as Charles Barcher
• Benita Harvey as Liz Barcher
• Ron Haddrick as an honest neighbour Gavin Cole
• Stewart Ginn as Inspector Fowler
• Betty Dyson as Norah
• Tommy Dysart as Sgt Basset

 Original play

It was based on a West End stage play by Philip Mackie who specialised in thrillers. For four years he was head of drama at Grenada. His play The Right Person was filmed by the ABC in 1957.

Leslie Phillips appeared in the original production which had a decent run in London. He wrote in his memoirs that Mountbatten came to watch it.

Ian McKellan appeared in a 1962 production and called it "Another miserably- written "comedy thriller", which made the cast laugh more than the audience and which thrilled no-one."

Other versions

It was filmed by ITV in 1967... after this, which is odd. 

It was adapted by BBC radio in May 1965. 

Production

The ABC bought the rights and it was adapted to be set in Australia. Noel Robinson did the adaptation.

The play marked a return to acting by Roger Climpson after an eight-year absence, during which time he had established himself as a newsreader. He had left Channel Nine 18 months previously and been making documentaries since.

It was produced in ABC's Sydney studios. Producer was James Upshaw, whose previous works had included variety series The Lorrae Desmond Show. 

Paul O'Loughlin wrote "the character of this play hardly justifies" it costing more than an average production.

Reception

The Canberra Times called the script "two steps backward" and said that "unfortunately the producer James Upshaw who is capable of better, much better things, seemed to have taken his cue from the script rather than the high-powered talent he wastefully cast".

The Sydney Morning Herald said it "made good television viewing."

Another critic for the same paper said it was "like a burst of fireworks... brilliantly acted... must surely rate as THE play so far this year" adding writer Mackie "threw in more angles and red herrings than a Perry Mason episode" and "managed to keep the plot going at a rattling pace until its last moments."

SMH TV Guide 19 April 1965

Canberra Times 20 April 1965 p 13

The Age TV Guide 15 April 1965 p 2

SMH 2 May 1965 p 96

SMH TV Guide 12 April 1965 p 1

SMH 18 April 1965 p 61

Canberra Times 23 April 1965 p 15

SMH 22 April 1965 p 11

SMH 25 april 1965 p 74

 

 

TV Times 21 April 1965 p 6

Forgotten Australian TV Plays: The Big Killing
by Stephen Vagg
April 27, 2021
Stephen Vagg’s series on early Australian TV plays focuses on a 1965 effort from the ABC, The Big Killing, starring cuddly Sydney newsreader Roger Climpson as a homicidal maniac.

“Oh no dear chap. I want you to murder my wife.”

That line of dialogue does not appear in The Big Killing. But it’s exactly the sort of line that would appear in that sort of play.

Some context…

One of the biggest influences on early Australian TV was Dial M for Murder. Frederick Knott’s masterpiece of murder, blackmail and quips began its life as a 1952 TV play before being adapted for stage and then into the famous Hitchcock film. It was so successful – and cheap to produce – that a rush of imitators soon followed (and Dial M for Murder certainly followed in the footsteps of other writers). For a time in the ‘50s and ‘60s, it seemed like you could not turn on a TV or stumble into a regional theatre without watching some tale consisting of a well-dressed upper class male psychopath wittily plot the murder of his wife/mother/mistress/co-worker/neighbour while pouring drinks in a swish living room set, only to be thwarted by blackmail/incompetence/another murder/betrayal.

This sub-genre proved very popular among the makers of early Australian TV plays. In hindsight, it’s not hard to understand why – there’s always a market for a decent thriller, and the tales were economical to produce (a few actors, one or two sets), not politically controversial, and had usually been road-tested via a radio or stage production. There were Dial M for Murder-esque Australian TV plays based on British plays by British writers (Write Me a Murder, Rope), British plays from Australian writers living in Britain (It’s the Geography That Counts, In Writing, Funnel Web), and Australian plays by British writers living in Australia (Heart Attack, Blue Murder). There was also The Big Killing, a copy of which I saw recently, and the topic for today’s piece.

The Big Killing was based on a 1961 stage play by English writer Philip Mackie (1918-85), who is probably best remembered for creating the TV series Danger Man and for writing the play on which the film The Whole Truth (1958) was based; he did heaps of other stuff as well.

The Big Killing tells the story of a former race car driver, Peter Ashbury, who lives beyond his means in a fancy house with his wife Mary. He makes a bet with his drunken neighbour Charles to murder the latter’s wife Liz, even though Peter is having an affair with her. Peter goes ahead and kills Liz and tries to blame the crime on Charles, but complications ensue.

The ABC bought the rights to the play for Australian television. Noel Robinson wrote the script adaptation, which relocated the action to Australia – something which occasionally happened in Australian TV plays based on overseas story material (Bodgie, An Enemy of the People, Bertrand). The Big Killing wasn’t particularly Australianised, though – while the setting is ostensibly Sydney’s Palm Beach, the action really takes place in the Dial M for Murder never-never land of stylish cads, swish living rooms and adulterous wives (other plays along this line set in Australia – Heart Attack, Funnel Web and Blue Murder – also had the same feel).

The production was made in Sydney and directed by James Upshaw, who worked mostly on variety shows, notably Lorrae Desmond’s, but also made a bit of drama. He does a very good job here, incidentally; the pace is smooth, the handling sure.

And it’s a fun watch. This is partly due to Mackie’s story, which is full of decent twists and turns, but mostly because of the splendid cast. There’s Ron Haddrick as a troublesome neighbour, June Thody and Benita Hardy as unfortunate wives, Nigel Lovell as a boozehead, Stewart Ginn (one of those actors who always looked in their fifties, even when he was in his twenties) as a dogged inspector and Tommy “go-go-mobile” Dysart as Ginn’s offsider. Most of all there’s Roger Climpson, who plays the murderous, adulterous Peter.

Climpson is best remembered for presenting shows like The is Your Life and reading Sydney news for almost thirty years, but he began his career as an actor, mostly in radio and theatre, plus a role in the 1957 Australian TV version of Rope. The Big Killing marked his return to acting after an eight year break doing newsreading/presenting – he left Channel Nine following a money dispute – and he’s wonderful, his smooth voice and suave good looks being deployed to excellent James Mason/George Sanders effect. Climpson did some more acting – he was in some Homicide episodes as well as the TV plays Twelfth Night and The Affair – before returning to newsreading in 1967, this time at Channel Seven. For the next four decades he focused on presenter/news/announcer work, but I bet part of him really missed acting because in The Big Killing he’s clearly having the time of his life.

I’m not going to lie – to enjoy this TV play you have to be the sort of person who likes plays where characters say things like “I seem to have under-estimated you, Inspector”. But if you do, you’ll have a great time.

NAA 64-65