the last of the australians

As I write to you I have watched 11 episodes of The Last of the Australians, and am on to my 12th. In between watching the show I am reading of Alan Seymour's 1967 novel of his play The One Day of the Year on which The Last of the Australians is ostensibly, ostensibly mind you, based. To be honest I'm not 100% sure how this worked i.e. was Terry Stapleton - who played the character of Hughie in the original play when it opened in 1958 - actually inspired by these characters to adapt them into a sitcom (albeit with different names - Hughie became Gary and Alf* became Ted)? Or was this some kind of sleight of hand whereby he and Crawfords could say that the Last of the Australians was no way an imitation of Till Death Us Do Part (1968+) because it was based on something from 1958?

It's an interesting show to watch but not always enjoyable. Or even often enjoyable. It does have all the classic Crawfords people in it, not just Keith Eden and Maurie Fields and Terry Norris but also Noni Hazlehurst, Jacki Weaver and Vanessa Leigh. Of the main cast, of course Alwyn Kurts, who no-one had ever imagined could possibly be a comic actor, and Rosie Sturgess who was famous for her time with Graham Kennedy in particular so she had form as a comedian. Richard Hibberd was Gary in the first season, Stephen Thomas in the second (Hibberd quit the biz to join the Hare Krishnas). 

Anyway, I'm plouging on because this is my job now. I'll let you know if anything nice happens. 

*Clearly they couldn't have kept the name Alf for the father character because of Alf Garnett. I suppose 'Hughie' became 'Gary' just in the general update to the 1970s. 

other places

Whether it's on foot or in cars, one of the great elements of every Crawfords show - and almost always obligatory - is (at least one) chase sequence. One more element that testifies to the quality of these programs: it never seems rote or bolted-on. 

But even in a time before, you know, online banking and surveillance and similar shit, the question still really remains - where are they running to and why? I guess there's an innate impulse amongst human beings, when in trouble, to get out of the immediate situation and worry about the details later. Nevertheless, it's silly. If they're ever pressed for their plans they're always about to shoot through, to Sydney or Adelaide or Surfers.* Presumably until the heat dies down, and I guess if I think about it I assume that police resources (or lack thereof) do mean that a lot of things, then and now, get put on the back burner or even dropped down behind the stove, so you have to assume that if you do get away on the day you only have to stay away a short time and they'll move on to something else. The perps in D4 and Homicide of course don't know that the detectives remember every crim they've ever met, whether it's the next day or the next decade. 

The small but effective sequence above is from an episode from 4 August 1975, 'Just for Kicks', which is the first time we really get some backstory/ storyline with one of the 'new' uniform cops to (essentially) replace Ted Hamilton: John Hannan as Paul Gray. Gray is in a relationship with a girl called Jan (JAN!!! So old school) played by Noni Hazlehurst in her third (of four) Division 4 episodes. 

By the way I wish I had kept better track of the paintings on the wall since D4 went colour, because the one on the left here is in every second house. Maybe they bought special new paintings for colour TV, but not many. 

*In this case, the teenage hoodlums initially plan to go to Surfers but it's later suggested by the mothers of one of them that he is going to Adelaide, by which Vickers deduces he is either going to Sydney or Brisbane.