Australian TV Plays: David Cahill

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You Can't See Round Corners (12 July 1967)

Mini series. 26 eps x 30 mins.

Premise

Frankie McCoy, a bookie from Paddington, Sydney, is drafted into the Australian Army during the Vietnam War.

He ends up deserting and going on the run. His girlfriend Margie breaks up with him so he seeks solace in the arms of a more sexually experienced woman, Myra. He incurs gambling debts and robs a store, accidentally killing Myra. As the military police close in he is killed by a car.

Cast

Ken Shorter as Frankie McCoy
Lyndall Barbour as Mrs. McCoy
Rowena Wallace as Margie Harris
Judith Fisher as Peg Clancy
Carmen Duncan as Myra Neilson
Slim DeGrey as Mick Patterson

Original novel

The novel was published in 1947. It ws well-received critically, winning second prize in The Sydney Morning Herald's novel contest, losing to Ruth Park's The Harp in the South. There's some articles from the time here and here.

Production

Richard Lane did an oral history with Graham Shirley. He said J Oswin of ATN-7 wanted to do a serial based on a well known book. Lane suggested You Can't See Round Corners. It was decided to update the action from World War Two to Vietnam to make it more relevant. This meant relocating the story from Paddington, which had become gentrified, to Newtown, then still working class.

Lane says he knew Cleary who approved the changes. Lane researched the Newtown area. He says the first 12 episodes were based on the novel then the story departed.

Lane says they looked hard to find the lead, auditioning many men. Then they found Ken Shorter. Lane said they liked how Shorter seemed working class and Australian, not too polished.

This was Rowena Wallace's first professional dramatic TV series. She was recommended by Barry Creyton who was originally going to play the role of Frankie McCoy, the role that went to Ken Shorter^.

The series garnered controversy on release because of a scene where Frankie, an army deserter, runs his hand up Margie's skirt. Wallace says she had no idea Shorter was going to do this, which is why her reaction was so authentic. Many stations around Australia cut the scene.

The majority of episodes were written by Richard Lane. Eventually he left the show to work on other projects and Michael Boddy took over.

It was shot in Sydney.

Peter Weir worked on the show as a production assistant.

Reception

The series rated well. The following year ATN-7 decided to make another mini-series, The Battlers.

Lane won an Awgie for his script at the first Awgies - see here.

Harry Robinson did hit pieces on Michael Boddy's scripts - see one here.

Feature Film

Oswin decided to authorise a film version. The story was reshot in colour using a new camera. The film did quite well at the box office. Lane says Channel Seven executives were surprised how well it was done. It was shot in colour.

Canberra Tiems 22 March 1969

Canberra Times 15 June 1967

Fairfax papers State

House on the Corner (23 June 1957-58)

An early Australian television program which aired from 1957 to 1958. A 10-minute segment on Sydney station ATN-7, it was a drama about a family, and was produced by the Christian Television Association.

Cast included Harry Howlett (who also wrote it), his wife also played a role, as well as Rosemary Barker and Annette Andre.

The series aired live, with the cast consisting mainly of amateurs drawn from church drama clubs.

It was probably the first attempt at a dramatic TV series produced for Australian television, though not the first dramatic TV series produced in that country (overseas-financed children's series The Adventures of Long John Silver was the first in that regard, and pre-dated the introduction of television to Australia) Australian TV drama was relatively rare at the time.

Background

A condition of a commercial television station's licence was that it had to make available free pro-rate air time to the Christian religious dominations; ATN-7 had an allocated quarter hour on Sunday afternoon. The manager of ATN-7 in Sydney, Len Mauger, allowed Harry Howlett, a former actor and then executive for an association of Protestant churches, to use that quarter hour for a drama series. It was called The House on the Corner and was given the nickname The Brothel on the Bend.

It was directed by David Cahill. According to Ailsa McPherson, who worked on the show as a script assistant, "it had a script with a social message and some highly dramatic scenes, with settings created by scavenging among the stock flats and properties available at ATN.^"She said the actors would come into Seven's studio on Sunday afternoon and there was a camera rehearsal before transmission.

Annette Andre recalled:

The first thing I did on television was this religious program [The House on the Corner (1957) a drama produced by the Christian Television Association which aired on ATN-7] – a quarter hour show. I think it was 4 eps in total, and I was in the four.

I played a young Hungarian girl, and I didn’t know any Hungarians. I went around the shops and eventually found one girl serving behind a counter who was Hungarian. I got into conversation with her and explained that I had to acquire a Hungarian accent. She was very helpful and spent some time talking with me. The director was quite happy with the accent – but I really don’t think he knew what a Hungarian accent sounded like either.

It was announced in May 1957. I'm not sure it started until July though.

It was meant to be replaced by a show The Star of David in January 1958 but I'm not sure the latter was ever released.

Episodes

23 June 1957, 14 July 1957, 21 July 1957, 28 July 1957, 11 Aug 1957, 18 Aug 1957, 25 Aug 1957, 8 Sept 1957, 15 Sept 1957, 22 Sept 1957, 6 Oct 1957, 13 Oct 1957, 20 Oct 1957, 10 Nov 1957, 17 Nov 1957, 1 Dec 1957, 8 Dec 1957, 15 Dec 1957, 29 Dec 1957, 5 Jan 1958, 12 Jan 1958,

Ailsa McPherson

Autumn Affair (20 Oct 1958-20 Oct 1959)

The first daytime serial on Australian TV.

Started in Melbourne on GTV-9 on 2 Feb 1959 see here.

Production

Brian Wright told Susan Lever:

We were trying to flog, at the time we were trying to flog, a big variety show to David Jones. And retailers had not sponsored anything on television at that time. They didn’t think television would ever be any use to them. But we were trying to sell this show to David Jones. As Production Manager, I was there with Len Major, the Station Manager. I’d hauled along Richard Lane, the writer, and one of the founders of the Writer’s Guild. Dick I’d known from radio days. And Dick was to write the new variety show for David Jones.

   Well, the meeting flopped. They refused to accept the show. The three of us were standing outside in the rain on Elizabeth Street outside David Jones. I don’t know who came up with it first. We were throwing around what we needed to do. I remember somebody started to say, “You know in radio, the daytime soapy was so big in radio. The stations used to run one after the other. And those of us who worked in it, made our living from them. So why shouldn’t we do a soap on television?” We started to throw it around. “It wouldn’t cost that much money!”

   So I remember turning to Dick and said, “What about you, Dick? Would you like to write one?” And Dick would certainly like to write one. So we shot off Dick to write one, and I was put to the job of sort of planning the production. I think I had a few hundred pounds for the above the line cost as my budget per episode, and we came up with Autumn Affair, with Muriel Steinbeck playing the lead.

   And we did three episodes a week. I remember writing a letter, a memo, to the Board of Directors, asking for the money. Saying: “I can’t guarantee that this will be good. It will probably be very bad. The script writer knows nothing about television. The director knows a little bit about television. I know very little about television. But if we don’t start doing it, we’ll never learn, so this will be worthwhile as a learning project, but I cannot promise you any return on it.” And they gave me the money, not very much, a few hundred pounds. We kicked off and we ran for a year with three episodes a week. And actually, they made a little bit of profit! Dick told me some years later--well, quite a few years later after - I had managed to write a contract giving him residuals for his scripts. I was a writer myself, and I thought this should be done. Dick said that eventually after a few years they came to him and said, “Could we buy you out of your residuals?” They bought him out. And he managed to carpet his flat with the money he was bought out for. But that was Autumn Affair that started it all off. ..

It was a radio script with pictures. And, you know, we were all learning. I think we started with one set, and I think as we went on, we managed to get two sets. No film exteriors, or anything like that. .. We had very little money. Our management, the business side of our management, couldn’t really get the concept of drama. All they could see was this costs a great deal of money. And it’s much cheaper to do variety shows of various kinds. They didn’t think the audience would take it.

Ratings

Melbourne ratings appear to have been strong. An average rating of 13! It played in the aafternoons there.

It ended in Syd on 20 Oct 1959. It was replaced by The Story of Peter Grey.

Went in Melbourne until 27 Jan 1960.