A Little South of Heaven - Misplaced Pages

1961 Australian TV series or program

A Little South of Heaven
Based on	radio play by D'Arcy Niland Ruth Park
Written by	George F. Kerr
Directed by	Alan Burke
Starring	Owen Weingott
Country of origin	Australia
Original language	English
Production
Producer	Les Weldon
Running time	60 mins
Production company	ABC
Original release
Release	19 April 1961 (1961-04-19) (Sydney)
Release	13 September 1961 (1961-09-13) (Melbourne, taped)

A Little South of Heaven is Australian live television play which aired in 1961 on ABC. It was based on a radio play by D'Arcy Niland and Ruth Park.

Plot

Set in Sydney. An Italian widow who has moved to Australia plans a marriage for her son Primo to an Italian, Serena, despite his affections for an Australian, Ruby. However he sends Serena the photo of Primo's more handsome cousin Franki.

Cast

Lyndall Barbour as Mama Chiapetta
Owen Weingott as Primo
Henry Gilbert as Father Felix
Delore Whiteman as Ruby
Ben Gabriel as Eddy
Anthony Wickert as Franki
Victoria Anoux as Serena
Alma Butterfield as Mrs Stringer

Radio play

It was based on a radio play that had been performed in Australia and on the BBC in 1960. The BBC production starred Ina De La Haye and Robert Rietty.

Reception

The Sydney Morning Herald TV critic called it "rather stale fare" as the plot and characters were too predictable, adding that thematically the play "a warm-blooded extension of an Immigration Department pamphlet; bur its mainspring was a device as old as comedy and diplomacy... A neat, visually fluent, but also stodgily predictable, 60 minutes of viewing."

Val Marshall of the same paper thought it was almost as good as The Big Day, "a play that has remained pretty much par for the course for Australian TV drama ever since". She felt "in spite of some miscasting and an occasional spot where action bogged down in words... came off remarkably well."

References

"LIVE DRAMA AND MUSIC ON ABC TELEVISION". The Canberra Times. 11 December 1962. p. 27. Retrieved 4 June 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
"Migrant's Home is South of Heaven". The Age. 7 September 1961. p. 12.
"TV Guide". The Age. 7 September 1961. p. 31.
"TV Guide". The Age. 7 September 1961. p. 16.
Radio play details at AustLit
"Drama Set in Sydney". Sydney Morning Herald. 17 April 1961. p. 11.
The Age 12 Feb 1959
"Sydney play on television". Sydney Morning Herald. 20 April 1961. p. 7.
Marshall, Valda (23 April 1961). "TV Merry Go Round". Sydney Morning Herald. p. 84.

External links

v t e TV productions of Alan Burke
Dramas	A Fourth for Bridge (1957) A Rose Without a Thorn (1958) His Excellency (1958) The Skin of Our Teeth (1959) Misery Me (1959) Wuthering Heights (1959) The Slaughter of St Teresa's Day (1960) Farewell, Farewell, Eugene (1960) Venus Observed (1960) The Emperor Jones (1960) A Little South of Heaven (1961) The Merchant of Venice (1961) A Night Out (1961) The Taming of the Shrew (1962) My Three Angels (1962) The Young Victoria (1963) A Dead Secret (1963) The Tempest (1963) The Harp in the South (1964) Rusty Bugles (1965) Macbeth (1965) Dark Corridor (1965) The Prowler (1966) Antarctic Four (1966) The Survivor (1972) Redheap (1972) The Cousin from Fiji (1972) A Curate in Bohemia (1972) Dust or Polish? (1972) Halfway to Nowhere (1972) Essington (1974) Hamlet (1974) Ride on Stranger (1979) Coralie Lansdowne Says No (1980) A Toast to Melba (1980) Big Toys (1980) Departmental (1980) The Department (1980) Rusty Bugles (1981) A Hard God (1981) Going Home (1981) Jonah (1982) The Dean Case (1983) The Amorous Dentist (1983) A Halo for Athuan (1984) Kindred Spirits (1984) The Schippan Mystery (1984) Who Killed Hannah Jane? (1984) Rooted (1985) After Marcuse (1988) The Alien Years (1988)
Operas	Prima Donna (1959) Rita (1959) Cavalleria rusticana (1959) The Marriage of Figaro (1960) The Medium (1960) The Abduction from the Seraglio (1961) La Boheme (1961) Don Pasquale (1962)
Ballet	The Tell-Tale Heart (1961)
Musicals	Pardon Miss Westcott (1959) (writer only) Lola Montez (1962) The Sentimental Bloke (1976)

v t e Works by Ruth Park
Novels	The Harp in the South (1948) Poor Man's Orange (1949) The Witch's Thorn (1951) The Muddle-Headed Wombat series (1962-82) Swords and Crowns and Rings (1977) Playing Beatie Bow (1980)
Radio	The Bagman Stories (1943-48) I'll Meet You in Botany Bay (1945) Early in the Morning (1946) Far from the Land (1947) Stumpy (1947) The Harp in the South (1951) Gulliver's Cousin (1954) One Man's Kingdom (1957) A Little South of Heaven (1959)
TV	A Little South of Heaven (1961) No Decision (1962) The Harp in the South (1964) The Harp in the South (1986) Poor Man's Orange (1987)
Film	Playing Beatie Bow (1986)
Theatre	The Harp in the South (1949)

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