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Campaign for One

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45th episode of the 1st season of Wednesday Theatre
"Campaign for One"
Wednesday Theatre episode
Episode no.Season 1
Episode 45
Directed byBrian Faull
Teleplay byAnthony Church
Marielaine Double
Original air date24 November 1965 (1965-11-24)
Running time60 mins
Episode chronology
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"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 in Melbourne, Sydney, and on 5 January 1966 in Brisbane. as part of Wednesday Theatre.

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

It was a rare Australian drama on a science fiction theme.

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.

Partial cast listing

Production

It was shot in Melbourne. 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 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."

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

Reception

Reception was mixed. '"Canberra Times called it "an undistinguished play" and said it had a "preposterous pommy script". 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".

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 time to wonder what to do with his hands... a most exciting and professional job by any standards."

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

See also

References

  1. "Eternal Orbit". Sydney Morning Herald. 22 November 1965. p. 14.
  2. "Television". The Age. 24 November 1965. p. 14.
  3. "Studio Space Walk". The Age. 18 November 1965. p. 14.
  4. "TV Guide". Sydney Morning Herald. 22 November 1965. p. 15.
  5. ^ "ABC Play Launches Its Own Astronaut". TV Times. 29 December 1965. p. 8.
  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. Vol. 40, no. 11, 319. 22 November 1965. p. 18. Retrieved 20 March 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. Vagg, Stephen (2021). "Forgotten Australian TV plays: The Astronauts". Filmink. Retrieved 8 August 2024.
  9. "Eternal orbit". Sydney Morning Herald. 22 November 1965. p. 13.
  10. "TV Guide". The Age. 18 November 1965. p. 36.
  11. "Studio space walk". The Age TV lift out. 18 November 1965. p. 1.
  12. "ABC play misses". Canberra Times (Act : 1926 - 1995). 26 November 1965. p. 21.
  13. "Shintaro—". Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982). 8 December 1965. p. 15.
  14. Cotton, Leicester (26 November 1965). "Sustained tension in television play". Sydney Morning Herald. p. 11.
  15. Marshall, Valda (28 November 1965). "Escapee who gets the girls". Sydney Morning Herald.

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