by Stephen Vagg
During the early days of Australian television drama, the ABC generally steered clear of anything that might be seen to comment on the contemporary Australian political scene.
For instance, the Commission decided not to film Royston Morley’s play The Whip because it was thought that the script might be seen to some as referring to contemporary Australian issues. It rejected Alan Seymour’s Lean Liberty because that was seen as too sympathetic to communism. The ABC was no doubt mindful of the fracas in 1950 when the BBC television play Party Manners upset the Labor Party, prompting the chairman of the BBC to cancel a repeat, leading to much controversy. Safer just to avoid politics altogether.
There were some political stories that got through the net (these were all British scripts). Tomorrow’s Story (1957) looked at food rationing in England; Murder Story (1958) was anti-capital punishment; Citizen of Westminster (1958) was about a British MP caught up in a divorce action; and His Excellency (1958) was about a British ex-docker appointed Governor General of a colony.
As the 1960s went on, things loosened up even more and you even had some Australian plays that commented on politics (Night of the Ding Dong, The Teeth of the Wind) before The Mavis Bramston Show came along in 1964 on the Seven Network and it was on for young and old. That year also saw the ABC broadcast a gutsy British political drama, A Local Boy.
This was written by Alun Owen, a Welsh-born Liverpool-raised scribe best known for A Hard Day’s Night (1964), but at the time, one of the kings of British television drama with plays such as No Trams for Lime Street and You Can’t Win ‘Em All (filmed by the ABC in 1962).
A Local Boy was originally filmed by the BBC in 1963, and the ABC, as ever keen to tug its forelock at the superiority of foreign culture, decided what we needed was to make our own version of the script. We think possibly the Commission was keen to provide a good role for John Meillon, who was returning to Australia after a stint in the UK that included parts in Guns at Batasi and 633 Squadron. Also, Owen was in the news a bit for writing Hard Day’s Night (he did that gig right after A Local Boy).
The play cast Meillon as a Welsh barrister, who is being considered to stand for parliament, but the grumpy local member (Tom Farley) is having a hard time letting go. This is a tale as old as time, but it was excellently realised by Owen, who was a very good writer.
The play fell into a subgenre that could be called “the horny politician” – tales of an MP (or in this case, aspiring MP), whose ambitions were undermined by his red-hot sex life. The previously mentioned Citizen of Westminster was one example of this sub-genre; the Peter Finch movie No Love for Johnnie (1961) was another. These were part of the angry young man wave of dramas – tales of the young railing at the old and shagging at the same time (Look Back in Anger, Saturday Night Sunday Morning, Room at the Top).
While about politics, A Local Boy also concerned sex, with a key figure being Meillon’s wife (played by June Thody), who likes to help his career and also enjoys a roll around in bed. Indeed, the ABC version was remarkably frank about that, thanks to director Henri Safran. The opening scene panned over various female undergarments spread out over a bedroom, and crossed to Thody lying in bed under a sheet, clearly naked. Later in the scene, she enticed Meillon back to bed by standing in front of him wearing just a sheet and we saw her naked back – then she dropped the sheet and the camera panned around and we got a glimpse of Thody’s nipple before closing in on Meillon.
“The scene is not designed for sensationalism,” Safran said at the time, perhaps not entirely truthfully. “It is a very delicate scene and was handled tastefully.”
We’re sorry to be salacious about this, truly – well, not that sorry, we’re aware that this is a series on forgotten Australian television plays and needs sexing up. And we’re sure the nipple glimpse was accidental, but the fact is that it’s in there and that glimpse could arguably be the first female nudity in Australian television drama. We don’t know how you’d prove that.
Henri Safran was fond of more adult material – he directed The Rape of the Belt, which featured the sound of women moaning with sexual pleasure in a shrubbery; A Season in Hell, about a queer relationship; The Swagman, about a married woman (also played by Thody) keen to bonk the foreman; Point of Departure has teens having sex, and Liza Goddard flicking off her bra strap; and Done Away With, with Irene Sims running around in her lingerie. We don’t want to revert to national stereotyping, but maybe the fact that Safran was French had something to do with it.
A Local Boy is extremely well written, directed and acted. Meillon was such a terrific performer, and he’s matched by Thody and Farley; Safran was an excellent director. We just think the ABC should have been making Australian stories – but it wouldn’t have backed such a tale in 1964. By the early ‘70s, we had Number 96.
