The Quiet Season

The Quiet Season is a 1965 Australian television short. It aired on the Australian Broadcasting Commission and was produced in the studios of their Brisbane station (ABQ).[3]

The Quiet Season
Written byJohn Cameron
Directed byJohn Croyston
Country of originAustralia
Original language(s)English
Production
Running time30 mins
Production company(s)ABC
DistributorABN-2
Release
Original networkABC
Original release29 June 1965 (Melbourne)[1]
29 June 1965 (Sydney)[2]

Plot

During the off-season in an Australian fishing town, a guest house has only one boarded, Harry Nichols. He meets a spinster, Madge, likes her,but flees marriage, returns the next year more determined and finds her unhappily married to someone else.

Cast
  • Nonie Stewart as the local shopkeeper Madge
  • John Nash as school teacher Harry Nichols
  • Reg Cameron as Bill Martin
  • Betty Ross*
  • Elaine Cusick
  • Donald McTaggart
  • Vic Hughes

Production

It was produced by John Croyston and written by Melbourne writer John Cameron. The outdoor scenes were filmed at Woody Point.[4]

Reception

Air dates varied including 28 June in Canberra and 29 June in Melbourne. Another Brisbane shot play was shown the same week, Ring Out Wild Bells.[1]

The Sydney Morning Herald noted it was the fourth television play to be produced by ABC's Brisbane station, and called it "a horror", comparing it highly unfavourably with the "slick, high professional and sometimes world-class productions" being produced in Sydney at the time.[5]

The Age thought Nash and Stewart "played their parts competently" but felt "it was distracting how abruptly one scene changed into the next. This faulty technique gave a measure of jerkiness to an otherwise smooth performance."[6]

The Bulletin said "Intelligently produced by John Croyston, it [the show] had everything but a good time-slot. It was buried after the late news. The duty announcer urged viewers to stay up for it, and I hope some did. They would have found that “The Quiet Season” was one of those small plays requiring sensitive management, and this Croyston achieved in a masterly way. He also used outside film of trees, rocks and waves to suggest the locale, passages of time, even action which had occurred. The story... is not wildly dramatic material, nor a new plot, but it has poignant, bitter sweet possibilities, and, for once, these were fully realised by the camera and the actors. Often, darting close-ups were used to catch a fleeting expression, a small, quick gesture. Croyston, better known for his radio productions, will be worth watching as a television man."[7]

Status

The National Archives of Australia hold a film copy of this TV short under the title Quiet Season (without the "the"), with 7 May 1965 given as the date, and a running time of 28:46, and notes it has been digitised.[8]

gollark: A levels are advanced levels.
gollark: Anyway, I got quite high grades, like baidicoot, although they were assigned by teachers and the magic algorithm and not real exams.
gollark: They are exams taken at 16 for... I don't know how it maps onto other countries' systems, but before sixth form.
gollark: General something something exams.
gollark: And I was vaguely considering doing a gap year in 2 years after A levels.

See also

References
  1. "Two Australian Plays from Brisbane TV". The Age. 24 June 1965. p. 11.
  2. "TV Guide". Sydney Morning Herald. 28 June 1965. p. 17.
  3. "WHAT TO STAY HOME FOR..." The Canberra Times. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 28 June 1965. p. 1 (TELEVISION and radio GUIDE). Retrieved 12 February 2020 – via Trove.
  4. "Melbourne play on ABC-3". The Canberra Times. 28 June 1965. p. 1 Section: TELEVISION and radio GUIDE. Retrieved 23 October 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. Marshall, Valda (4 July 1965). "Brisbane needs more lessons". The Sun-Herald. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
  6. Monitor (3 July 1965). "About the viewing habit". The Age. p. 23.
  7. "Tailor-made for Technicians". The Bulletin. Vol. 87. 7 August 1965. p. 52.
  8. "Quiet Season". National Archives of Australia. Retrieved 23 October 2015.


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