Campaign for One

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"Campaign for One"
Wednesday Theatre episode
Episode no.Season 1
Episode 45
Directed byBrian Faull
Teleplay byAnthony Church
Marielaine Double[1]
Original air dates24 November 1965 (Melbourne, Sydney)[2][3]
5 January 1966 (Brisbane)[4]
Running time60 mins[5]
Episode chronology
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Wednesday Theatre#Episodes

Campaign for One is a 1965 Australian television film. A remake of an episode of the BBC series Wednesday Play, it aired in a 60-minute time-slot on ABC on 24 November 1965 as part of Wednesday Theatre.[6][7]

It was not unheard of during the 1960s for British anthology episodes to be remade for Australian television.

Plot[]

Set in 1967, an English astronaut, Phil Osborne, is in orbit for the Allied Commission of German, English and American specialists. After completing a spacewalk, he announces that he has no intentions to return to Earth, due to his wife leaving him, and would prefer to die in space.[8]

Partial cast listing[]

  • Stanley Walsh as Phil Osborne
  • Lynne Flanagan as Osborne's wife
  • Michael Duffield
  • Carl Bleazby
  • Mark Albiston
  • Edward Howell

Production[]

It was shot in Melbourne.[9] Faull said "there was real suspense and a true-to-life drama about it. One couldn't help but feel that the situation could arrive sometime. We were producing Campaign for One at the same time a space projects were going on at Cape Kennedy and with all the news reports about there was a feeling that the play was the real thing."[4]

A large seesaw rig was used to simulate walking around outside an orbiting capsule.[10]

Reception[]

Reception was mixed. Canberra Times called it "an undistinguished play" and said it had a "preposterous pommy script".[11] By comparison Australian Women's Weekly (see section Death Wish in Space) called it "one of the best local TV productions for ages" and said the spacewalk sequence was "most skillfully produced".[12]

The Sydney Morning Herald called it "brilliant" with "sustained tension, highly competent performances by a well-knit cast and whipped-up direction which left no one lime to wonder what lo do with his hands... a most exciting and professional job by any standards."[13]

The Sunday Sydney Morning Herald called it "a nice, taut, well produced bit of space drama... a gripping and highly credible thriller."[14]

See also[]

  • Ending It – 1939 BBC TV short remade for ABC TV in 1957.
  • Box for One – 1949 BBC TV drama remade for ABC TV in 1958
  • List of live television plays broadcast on Australian Broadcasting Corporation (1950s)

References[]

  1. ^ "Eternal Orbit". Sydney Morning Herald. 22 November 1965. p. 14.
  2. ^ "Studio Space Walk". The Age. 18 November 1965. p. 14.
  3. ^ "TV Guide". Sydney Morning Herald. 22 November 1965. p. 15.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b "ABC Play Launches Its Own Astronaut". TV Times. 29 December 1965. p. 8.
  5. ^ "Television". The Age. 24 November 1965. p. 14.
  6. ^ "A famous author lived near Canberra". The Canberra Times. 22 November 1965. p. 17. Retrieved 25 July 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. ^ "MONDAY". The Canberra Times. 40 (11, 319). 22 November 1965. p. 18. Retrieved 20 March 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. ^ "Eternal orbit". Sydney Morning Herald. 22 November 1965. p. 13.
  9. ^ "TV Guide". The Age. 18 November 1965. p. 36.
  10. ^ "Studio space walk". The Age TV lift out. 18 November 1965. p. 1.
  11. ^ "ABC play misses". Canberra Times (Act : 1926 - 1995). 26 November 1965. p. 21.
  12. ^ "Shintaro—". Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982). 8 December 1965. p. 15.
  13. ^ Cotton, Leicester (26 November 1965). "Sustained tension in television play". Sydney Morning Herald. p. 11.
  14. ^ Marshall, Valda (28 November 1965). "Escapee who gets the girls". Sydney Morning Herald.

External links[]


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