Australian TV Plays: Cold War

Showing posts with label Cold War. Show all posts

Pacific Paradise by Dymphna Cusack (1955)

Stage and radio play by Cusack.

Austlit here

Finalist in PAB competitoin. eric Portman considered it for TV. See here.

First produced at the Waterside Workers Theatre, Sydney, 26 November 1955 (reviewed here) and on ABC radio, January 1956.(Along with two other new Austrlian plays The Hermit Crab and The Bombora) Letters of praise to that here and here

ABC play was to be on Dec 1955 but postponed due to NSW election see here.

Play was popular in China and Cusack was invited to tour there see here. Went for six months in 1957 see here.

In addition, by 1962 the play had been produced in New Zealand, the UK, Japan. Latin America, the USSR, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Germany, China, Albania, North Korea, Rumania, Bulgaria, Cuba, Iceland.

Premise

The play tells of the island of Moluka in the South Pacific, where the enlightened inhabitants live an almost Utopian existence under the rule of a white man, Simon Hoad, to whose family the island was given by Queen Victoria a century ago. Hoad is married to a native woman and has a daughter Laloma.

Their existence is threatened when they are informed that a new super-bomb is to be exploded on a neighbouring island and that they must be evacuated.

Scientists and officers visit Moluka to put their case and bring pressure. Hoad refuses to leave and seeks to enlist the sympathies of people all over the world in his fight to be allowed to survive in his island paradise.

ABC CAST see here and here
Simon Hoad - John Tate
Clive Everett - John Meillon
Laloma - Wynn Nelson
Professor Nicholas - Edward Howell
Colonel Winterton - Joe McCormick
Niti - Margaret Christensen
Hon. Osbert Day - Moray Powell
Citole - Lola Brooks
Talua - Betty Lucas
K-ahru - John Bluthal
Batah - Keith Buckley
American Announcer - Richard Meikle
Narrator, Australian Announcer - Ric Huttor Producer: Eric John

Review is here.

Play accused of being Commie propaganda by a moron on the ABC Weekly see here.

Propaganda Plays? DURING 1956 the A.B C. has broad- cast several plays, including Pacific Paradise and The Day After Tomorrow, which contain subtle Communist propa- ganda. The proof of this statement is to be found in Tribune, a Communist publication which recommends its read- ers to listen to these plays. What is of even greater significance, Pacific Paradise has been given a re- peat performance by the A.B.C. and 1 understand The Day After Tomorrow is to be repeated during August, owing to popular demand. This ‘‘popular demand” is created by Communist leaders instructing members and fellow-travellers to deluge the A.B.C with letters and ’phone calls expressing admiration concerning the plays referred to, and the A.B.C. has apparently fallen for this old manoeuvre.

P. C. KENT. Cremorne, N.S.W.

The A.B.C. Director of Drama and Features, Mr. Neil Hutchison, replies:—

The description of these two plays as Communist propaganda is baffling. Paci- fic Paradise concerns the protest of an island community at being removed from their homeland, with the alternative of being wiped out by a bomb exploded 100 miles away—a wholly imaginative story of an imaginary island. Many serious-minded and responsible people fear that the atom bomb may not only result in horrifying genetical changes in those whom it indirectly affects, but also that it may eventually obliterate what we know as Western Civilisation. These people belong to all parties and cannot be described as Communists. Pacific Paradise is a good play, the characters are real and the development has integrity. The play was recently entered for a competition run by the Playwrights’ Advisory Board, was read by many qualified judges (some of whom are known to hold very strongly anti- Communist views), and reached the finals. No comment on these grounds was made by any of the readers. The Day After Tomorrow also con- cerned the hydrogen bomb, and tried to envisage the terrible result of its use, and how humanity, well nigh obliterated by its dreadful impact, might climb back slowly and painfully to dignity and self respect. I find it very hard to see the influence of Communist propaganda at work in these two Australian plays. It is perhaps germane to the issue to remark that holders of extreme political opinions habitually see their opponents as ex- tremists. I am not suggesting that Mr. Kent belongs to this category bur simply that he has cried wolf after having sighted a puppy dog.

Hunter (1967-69)

Aussie spy series. 65 x 60 mins.

Premise

Special agent John Hunter (Tony Ward), deals with the evil CUCW (Council for the Unification of the Communist World) who had its Australian headquarters at Delta Exports. Mr Smith (Ronald Morse) headed the Australian operation of the Council, and his chief agent was Kragg (Gerard Kennedy).

Hunter worked for COSMIC (Commonwealth Office for Security and Military Intelligence Coordination), in a special unit under the cover of research specialists, Independent Surveys Ltd. Hunter had a side-kick, Eve Halliday (Fernande Glyn), and worked for Charles Blake (Nigel Lovell), who headed up the organisation.

Sample ep is here.

Ian Jones told Susan Lever:

Hunter was one of those rare instants, sort of ‘put a spoonful of stuff in the cup, add boiling water and you’ve got a show’. It was quite extraordinary. So Charles Spry, a friend of Hector’s, the head of ASIO, came to lunch at Crawford’s. We had an amazing range of people who lunched at Crawford’s because we have a board meeting every lunchtime. In effect, the family would have lunch together it was, in effect, a board meeting, an informal board meeting.
Then, at the end of the day, we’d get the creative team together and have drinks at the close of the day which made for a very, very efficient operation. Everybody knew what was happening all the time. One of our luncheon guests was Sir Charles Spry and I thought about it and over the weekend, it was a Friday and it all just came together, a show about an Australian agent in a fictitious organisation.
I even got the name, COSMIC, commonwealth office with security and military intelligence coordination. I got the idea of Hunter being a Hunter agent. He is called John Hunter, another agent may be Charles Hunter or whatever. It was a class of agent and few ideas floating around.
Hector had been thinking about the same thing over the weekend, came in on the Monday and that was it. Hunter was born and it was sold with a very good budget, quite a high budget, because the idea was we were going to travel Hunter and one of the early ideas was to take it up to Surfers Paradise, glamour venue.
The big thing was I had conceived Hunter as a sort of almost tongue-in-cheek serial in half hour episodes with a cliff hanger every half hour and it was hopefully exciting and involving but it had this serial quality about it. It was about the same level of reality, if I think about it, as Raiders of the Lost Ark – a little more serious.
I think we put the first two episodes together to make the first two storylines that I had done, the first two scripts to make the first hour and we then gradually veered away from Hunter being a bit tongue-in-cheek and cliff hangerish which worked well but I still would have liked to have seen the fun half hours given a go.
Q    Was Brigadier Spry then – I mean it seemed to me you had access to all these government sites.
A    We had the most fabulous cooperation. After my time with ASIO, if I had been younger, I would have been into ASIO as a shot because in those days they were doing a fabulous job. One of the things they did was show us a film they had made but never shown, a documentary on the Skripov Affair where they busted this top Russian agent who arrived in Australia after the resumption of diplomatic relations which had been broken off by the Petrov business.
Now that was an extraordinary exercise. Skripov who was a second deputy vice assistant cultural attaché at the Russian Embassy, sort of posting, the first agent he recruited was a female ASIO agent and the one thing they wouldn’t tell us was how the hell they managed that.
We had this woman having dinner with Skripov in a Chinese restaurant. She had a microphone in her bra, though being filmed from a van about 100 metres away, shooting through the front window of the restaurant with Skripov saying things like “I like to eat here because they play music and people cannot hear what we are saying” and stuff like that.
Skripov, leaving the restaurant with the agent and she walked off one way, Skripov walked off the other way then turned the corner, stopped, came and looked back and all this stuff and fabulous stuff. Anyway, an ASIO operative was assigned to the program and we worked very closely with him. ASIO provided some of the props we used.
They showed us all these great gimmicks like dead letter drops. You go into a phone booth and light a cigarette. You’d use your matches, light a cigarette and then the matchbox has got the material in for the dead letter drop in microfilm or who knows what and it’s also got a magnet in it. You tap the matchbox under the coin box on the phone, have another matchbox if you’re really covering it which you produce with the other hand, walk out of the phone, putting your matchbox in your pocket, puffing your cigarette. You’ve gone, somebody sees you’re gone, watching from a couple hundred metres away perhaps, they come down the street, take the matchbox, they’ve got the microfilm or whatever you wanted to give them. All that stuff. It was great.
Some of the stories, the first story of Hunter, the Tolhurst File was based very solidly on fact, not in the nature of the material but on the mechanics of a fellow who was working on a top secret project and intercepted by some Russian agents and drugged and photographed in a compromising situation and put back in his house and these photographs were produced and he thinks he’s going mad.
How on earth could these – because in those days you couldn’t doctor photographs the way we can today, they had comparatively crude techniques like the photo of Nate we looked at. Yes. The material was just astonishing. Some of it, of course, we couldn’t use but they were very open with us and enjoyed the show.
The only thing is they asked for approval of casting which was interesting. They approved Tony Ward, Fernande Glyn, Gerard, of course. He was a baddy. He could be a rabid commo it probably wouldn’t have mattered but one actor we put up for Mr Blake was proved to be a no-no and I’ve never known why.
Q    And Gerard Kennedy was more successful than Hunter himself as an audience...
A    Very. See I’d wanted Jerry to play Hunter. I shouldn’t call him Jerry. He hates being called Jerry, Gerard. The idea was Gerard to play Hunter and Norman Yemm to play Craig, the villain. What a double, what a double. But Hector said, “No we’ve got to have a matinee idol good looks for a hero” and, of course, the success of Jerry, Gerard, sorry Jerry, that showed just how wrong that principle was. I think Tony did a good job but he...Tony he worked very hard at it. He cared about it but it wasn’t really him whereas Jerry just slipped into that role and...
Q    Villains maybe get the audiences in, right?
A    That’s right. But then he brought the same quality to banner when he became a hero. That was one sad thing. When we were looking for a new show for Gerard, Channel 9 wanted to continue with Hunter but we just thought we could come up with something better for Gerard and we talked about a private I show which I was very lukewarm about and Ryan, which didn’t really work, was the result of all of that.
I came up with an idea of Gerard leaving intelligence work. Just think of it, ‘I’ve changed sides, I feel a bit lost’, leaves it and doesn’t know what he’s going to do and sees a middle aged guy being beaten up by a couple of hoods. So he steps in and disposes the hoods and says to the fellow, “Look, are you alright?” And the fellow said, “Oh, yes. Where do you live?” He said, “Well I’m going to back to my office” and takes this guy back to his office and he’s a private detective, we imagined played by Keith Eden with a middle aged secretary and runs this private detective business and Gerard thinks does this happen often?
He says, “I get into a little bit of trouble and, you see, I’ve got this case going” and Gerard helps him with the case involving the hoods and becomes a fixture. So you’ve got the middle aged private detective and the middle aged secretary and Gerard getting in there and cutting the mustard.

ABC Pull story on Malaysia in 1963

This 1963 article refers to the ABC pulling a "television film" on Malaysia so as not to offend Indonesia. Garfield Barwick denied political pressure was placed on him.

This seems to have been a doco... but it does tie in with A Piece of Ribbon.

The Age 27 April 1963

The Guardian 29 April 1963

The Purple Jacaranda (28 June 1964)

The Purple Jacaranda was an Australian television mini-series which aired on ABC in 1964 based on a novel by Nancy Graham.

In the early 1960s, ABC aired a series of historical mini-series: Stormy Petrel (1960), The Outcasts (1961), The Patriots (1962), and The Hungry Ones (1963). The Purple Jacaranda, however, featured a then-contemporary setting.

Ken Inglis called it a "disaster". So did most associated with it. It was the last drama directed by Colin Dean.

Plot

Anna James is confronted by Colonel Thomson of security who asks her to go to Sydney and stay with her friend Darcy, now married to David Crawford. David and Darcy live in Jacaranda House. Anna has misgivings but eventually agrees.

Anne winds up with Max Stevenson. Darcy Crawford was arrested.

Cast

* Margo Lee as Anne James
* James Condon is artist Max Stevenson

* Diana Perryman as Darcy Crawford

* Walter Sullivan as David Crawford

*   Ronald Morse as Colonel Thomson
*    John Unicombe as Bannister
*    Nick Tate as Bill
*    Camilla Christensen as Kelly
*Eileen Britton as Mrs Worth

*Doreen Warburton as Nurse Smith

*Peter Williams as doctor

*Ken Fraser as Inspector

*Tex Clark as Mr X

Original novel

It was based on a 1958 novel by Nancy Graham who was British (Scottish I think) but lived in Australia from 1952 to 1960. She lived in Perth.

The novel was adapted into a radio serial in 1958 (on 3AR - ABC radio). It was repeated in 1959 and 1962.

A version of the novel played on BBC radio in 1959. Was it the same ABC one?

Production

The production was announced in Feb 1964. The novel was not particularly well known.

Colin Dean said historical “serials take years of research and steeping in the period. Writers can’t produce one at a moment’s notice. I quite like this year’s change to a modern serial, but I would be sad if we stopped doing historical serials. They are very rewarding.”

In Feb 1964 Richard Lane was signed to write seven eps at 60 pounds an ep. However there's a letter from Lane in 1963 which Lane appears to be working on it. Maybe the Hutchison letter formalised it. I think they were unhappy with Lane's work - in April 1964 there's a memo (below) saying "I think we've got all we can out of Dick."

In March 1964 it was reported it would be a seven part serial and that filming would start in April. In May it was reported outdoor film sequences had been shot and that filming at Gore Hill would take place in June.

The main house was a set at the ABC Studios in Gore Hill, with exteriors shot at the municipal library in Mosman. There was location filming at the Commonwealth Centre and on the northern Sydney beaches.

Colin Dean talked about the production in a 2004 interview with Graham Shirley. He called the production “infamous”, an attempt "to make a marriage between film and electronics" two arms of the ABC who would snipe at each other. “I thought it was stupid”

Dean was an “old film bloke” and found the division “tedious”. One of the appeals of the serial was to combine filmed sequences with electronic ones shot in studio eg go to beach on location and to hut in studio. Dean said this resulted in "massive continuity problems: and there was resentment from electronic and film techs about being involved.

Dean says at the end of the serial David Tapp was given a strange present poking fun at him for being part of enterprise, tongue in cheek.

According to Dean, "the script writer ran out of steam" and the show ended early. "That was another handicap" - they wrote less episodes than they intended. Dean said Richard Lane wrote it about three weeks in advance of shooting which is not a lot of lead time. He thinks it was meant to be ten episodes but there was only six although his memory was vague. (It was seven but always announced as seven. According to the contract listed below Lane was meant to do seven.)

Also one of the members of the cast turned out to be epileptic. Dean says he was unaware of this until "she had an attack when I was on air... she was just about to enter the scene" when the attack happened and Dean was "rescued by floor manager/"

Dean said the show was "not the kind of thing I remember in detail because I had no reason to."

“It was an adventure. It was my last serial.”

Broadcast

It debuted in Sydney on 28 June 1964 on Sunday nights. Eps were 30 mins.

Reception

Unlike the historical serials, which got largely positive response by viewers and critics, The Purple Jacaranda was a critical failure.

Reviewing the pilot episode the Tribune said “It has its moments but the stiff and stagey acting and production will need to improve if it is to hold the viewer’s attention.”

The Age called it "this clumsy production".

The Woman’s Weekly said it “ didn’t come to life in its first episode. The good part of it was producer Colin Dean’s opening sequence of the body on the beach, the skilful blending of indoor and outdoor shots, and John Unicombe’s acting as Bannister; the bad parts of it were some bad flaws in the story, the general air of unreality, and the overacting of the ladies.”

The Canberra Times called it “the unintentionally funniest thing the A.B.C. has ever done.”

The Tribune later said “A completely wrong slant has been given o what is supposed to be a thriller. Every element of surprise is telegraphed and foreshadowed. . The actors move like automatons and with about as much feeling. The dialogue which is certainly not -“ery good is made even – worse by this treatment.”

The Canberra Times said “, Richard Lane’s script would have been funny, had not Colin Dean’s direction been vulgar.”

The Bulletin said “Perhaps the most harshly treated is Margo Lee. In the first episode she was a young woman intelligent enough to be asked to shadow dangerous criminals. Since then she has represented simpering stupidity. Miss Lee still wears a look of pained surprise at this perfidy on the part of the scriptwriter.” The Weekly later called it “hideous”.

The Sunday Sydney Morning Herald said “what a sorry business it turned out to be.”

TV Times criticsed its pace.

Richard Lane called it “disappointing”.

Episode guide

*Episode One – (28 June Syd, 12 July Melb) Anne James has just left her job on a fashion magazine in Perth because of a trip to England. On the night before her departure she is persuaded by an official from Canberra to go to Sydney instead - on a matter of national importance. And as a result finds herself involved in the greatest adventure of her life.y

*Episode 2 (5 July Syd, 19 July Melb) - Anne James has been asked by Colonel Thomson to be a spy in the house of her friend Darcy Crawford to aid him in a matter of national security dealing with currency. The first attempt is made on Ann's life. This involved scenes shot at Palm Beach. GS Ronald Morse (Colonel Thomson), Aileen Britton (Mrs Worth), Walter Suillivan (David Crawford), John Unicomb (John Bannister) , Diana Perryman (Darcy Crawford), Camilla Christensen (Kelly Neal), Bill Armstrong (Nicholas Tate), Doreen Warburton (Nurse Smith), Peter Williams (Dr Bishop).

*Ep 3 (12 July Syd, 26 July Melb) Anne James nearly drowned while swimming with John Bannister but is returned safelty to Jacaranda House. Still suffering from shock, but disturbed that the two strangers, and not John Bannister, had saved her, she returns to the beach to find her rescuers, surfer Bill Armstrong and his girlfriend Kelly. They are suspicious of the circumstances surrounding the "accident'. GS Doreen Warburton (Nurse Smith), Peter Williams (Dr Bishop), Diana Perryman (Darcy Crawford), Peter Unicomb (John Bannister), Walter Sullivan (David Crawford), Nicholas Tate (Bill Armstrong), Camilla Christensen (Kelly Neal).

* Ep 4 (19 July Syd, 2 Aug Melb) - Later Anne receives an urgent message from Bill asking her to meet him as he has something important to tell her.. GS: Aileen Britton, Walter Sullivan, John Unicomb, Diana Perryman, Camilla Christensen, nchillas Tate, Doreen Warburton, Peter Williams.

*Ep 5 (26 July Syd, 9 Aug Melb) Anne was rescued from downing from her

*Ep 6 (2 Aug Syd, 16 Aug Melb) Before David Crawford dies, he tells Anna about a special report he has written and his in the library. Without giving the police or Max this information, Anne goes to find it himself.

The cafe where Anne James and Bill Armstrong met is found to be a headquarters for a gang dealing in illegal currency. The evening following the discovery, Max Stevenson and Anne go to the theatre, believing an important event will occur there.

*Ep 7 (9 Aug Syd, 23 Aug Melb) - Anne has been kidnapped by John Bannister. He is determined to get from her the report written by Crawford before his death which contains vital information about the ringleaders in a swindle. Darcy Crawford is arrested for currency swindling and murder. Anne winds up with Max. Mrs Worth is passed out. GS: Ken Fraser (Inspector Hillock).

Canberra Times 10 Nov 1964

Tribune 29 July 1964

Canberra Times 6 July 1964

The Bulletin 1 Aug 1964

SMH (check date)

Tribune

The Guardian 7 Feb 1958

TV Times Vic

From Interview with Colin Dean and Graham Shirley:

Now, of course, I’m sure you’d have, you’d have good memories of the purple Jacaranda which was quite well known and it stay, you know, it was infamous.

Why was it infamous?

Well, that was my first and very conscious attempt to make a marriage of film and electronic systems. It was from my own private completely private nothing has to do with the dragon without attempt to amalgamate those two arms of the ABC who continued to snipe at each other. Being an old film bloke and having a company accomplished to some extent and digested the the television system. I just found it very tedious that this division should continue to stay Here’s an attempt to put the two together, it didn’t work very well.

In what way did you did you try to reconcile these differences?

By having alternate see in one in one scene just going backwards and forwards to tell us any under the studio so that there was a forced kind of interaction of the two media. In other words, I have a fast boat pegs and people up in a beach into a hat that has to be in the studio, we’ll come back to the beach or somebody getting onto the boat and going somewhere else back into the house and so on with it, but it wasn’t the problems of just massive continuity problems are getting those people on the boat to do exactly the same as they were when they were on the set. But there was a I think probably it was in electronic text and the film crew that they’ve been involved has put together.

Can you talk a bit more about this resentment and division?

I did. Well, not really, it occurred. I was aware of it right at the start. I think I mentioned that. There was a resistance to my joining ABC television, because and large. All the existing radio stuff wanted to accommodate television within their existing framework. And the idea of having outside people was anathema. And they had all these training schools and they all became television people. And in nearly every case, they’re absolutely first rate. I mean, people like mango McCallum knew as much about television production, and nothing give direction that are productive as anybody else. By the time the ABC had started. And not only him, but the girls who become script assistants been to school, but completely adequate, that they’ve gone through the same process. It is the BBC head. Well, now when you say the girls, which which women cryptosystem, the scripture says for the from the technical point of view, the engineering staff of television row post office.

They were still post office people when television started, I think how when they became members of ABC staff that and film people Well, that was legitimate that because they belong to broadcasting film people was another planet.

I can remember in the ABC staff canteen, and in a gore Hill in the late 60s, early 70s. There would be television, technical people sitting in the canteen in great dust coats with PMG emblazoned across the dress code.

Yeah.

So that they weren’t too far removed from their PNG counterparts?

No. Well, I think thatprobably, well, they were they’ve sort of being employed by the PMG. Right?

So it just I think just you know, it’s, it’s an age old problem. And I belong into both worlds and to a degree sort of stupid.

Did throughout your span of career at the ABC, we were aware of this breaking down of this being reconciled?

And anyway, oh, I think isn’t the end, when I retired was taking the ground and that film had a job to do. And in any case, film and electronic cameras have become so close together that it didn’t matter. Me, I’m sure it’s evaporated. So the term you used with the purple Jacaranda being being a bit notorious sameen.

How notorious was this?

Well, I’m David. Paul, David tap, he was the technical producer production being given the some positive, strange present of the end of this series. I can’t even remember what it was. But they were poking fun at him for having beenpart of this enterprise.

It really wasn’t serious, but it was it was nonetheless a blemish, I think on the on the smooth working on the outfit.

And when I think probably there were salary differences to come to think of it which could have caused a good deal of upset. So really, this was an experiment by you to try and reconcile it.

And instead, what happened? Nothing.

I mean, things didn’t get any better. Well, it sounds as if it exacerbated the differences. And the I’m not saying the script dragged around out of steam halfway through it. It was in ended earlier, supposed to be 10. The story didn’t sustain and we could feel it happening. So that that was another handicap that had had I think I had one of the members of the cast turned out to be an epileptic, which, which I was unaware, which caused also a certain amount of a problem.

What happened in that respect?

But well, she had an attack when we were on air. So that it was a fraud at production mode.

But tell me about that incident. I mean, how did you just did what was she on camera when she hadn’t?

She was just about to enter. Well, once again, you rescued by a floor manager who has already grabbed somebody and vitual talking about it. Meanwhile, you’re wondering,

Well, what was the purple Jacaranda as a series? What was what was it about Rosa who done it?

Cops and Robbers of pretty ordinary kind, and based somewhere in the hawkesbury River Basin. Because we had speedboats and robbers and cops and things like that. I can’t even Oh is written by declaim that adaptation from a book.

So it’s not the kind of thing that I remember in detail, because I have no reason to. But just pick, just pick just picking up one further detail.

You said that that the writer ran out of steam halfway through how far in advance and production was he writing?

Not very far, I think within three weeks, or something like that.

I knew that we’re going to finish this series early at least three weeks in advance, I think.

So it was six episodes, what was it originally intended to be? It was 10. As the others have been. My memory is clouded almost by intent on this jacket. But it had quite good press. I remember at the time. it probably had lousy press too. It was an adventure and it was the last my last serial.

Why was it your last serial?

I was appointed senior producer. Because I think there’s a requirement and attempt that and that this was it that I should be kind of statewide.