''Reunion Day'' is a 1962 British TV movie based on a script by Australian writer

Peter Yeldham Peter Alan Yeldham (25 April 1927 – 20 September 2022) was an Australian screenwriter for motion pictures and television, playwright and novelist. Biography Peter Yeldham was born in Gladstone, near Smithtown, New South Wales, in 1927. Le ...

. Many of the cast were Australians living in London at the time. It was done by the BBC. However the play was banned from being shown in Australia.

Cast

Ray Barrett Raymond Charles Barrett (2 May 19278 September 2009) was an Australian actor. During the 1960s, he was a leading actor on British television, where he was best known for his appearances in ''The Troubleshooters'' (1965–1971). From the 1970s, ...

Reg Lye Reginald Thomas Lye (14 October 1912 – 23 March 1988), was an Australian actor who worked extensively in Australia and England. He was one of the busiest Australian actors of the 1950s, appearing in the majority of locally shot features at th ...

Ron Haddrick Ronald Norman Haddrick (9 April 1929 – 11 February 2020) was an Australian actor, cricketer, narrator and presenter. In 2012, he received the Actors Equity Lifetime Achievement Award for his long and distinguished career in media, spanning s ...

Nyree Dawn Porter Nyree Dawn Porter OBE (born Ngaire Dawn Porter; 22 January 1936 – 10 April 2001) was a New Zealand–British actress. Early life and career Porter was born in Napier, New Zealand in 1936. Her first professional work was touring with the Ne ...

*Ken Wayne *

Frank Leighton Frank Leighton (1908–1962) was an Australian actor best known for two leading roles in films for Ken G. Hall, ''Thoroughbred'' (1936) and '' Tall Timbers'' (1937). Biography Leighton was born in Sydney and studied at St John's School, Darlinghur ...

Production

Yeldham wrote it in the summer of 1961, in London. It took him a month but he had the idea for three years.

Reception

The play was successful, particularly in Germany.

Australian Banning

The play was to have been shown on BTQ-7, TCN-9 in Sydney and HSV-7 in Melbourne. However the censor refused to pass it. Chief censor C.J. Campbell said the play "contained matter that was quite contrary to the Broadcasting Control Board's standards for television. The language used may be all right for a soldier's reunion but it is all wrong for a suburban sitting room." Ron Haddrick said "there were only three 'bloodys' in the whole play. I was shocked and upset when I heard the play had been banned here." Ray Barrett wrote a letter to the ''Sydney Morning Herald'' saying he was "appalled and amazed that this play has been banned... It is a true and honest comment on men's difficulty to settle down after the war. This is not a play attacking the RSL or, in fact, the tradition of the reunion, but a play of life." A spokesman for TCN-9 said:

''Reunion Day'' depicts Anzac Day as just another excuse for a debauch. There is no remembrance of Gallipoli, or sacrifice. The action takes place almost entirely in a pub. The language goes from bad to worse. The characters have nothing in common. The conversation runs out every two or three minutes, and somebody says: 'Let's have a drink'. There is even a dose of anti-Semitism thrown in. The whole thing was blasphemous, obscene and thoroughly nasty. If we had shown it we would have had the RSL marching on us and not without justice. We would have appealed against the censor's ruling if we had thought the play was worth it. We didn't.

In 1966 Yeldham said "there's a local shyness about the RSL and attitudes to the Vietnam campaign. Not that it attacks the institution of Anzac Day. It is a study of old comrades who find they have carried memories beyond reality. But it is relevant to Australian life, and if anyone does produce it here, I'll donate the fee to the Australian Writer's Guild." This did not happen. According to ''Filmink'' in the early days of Australian television "It took a genuine act of will to produce local stories for television and sometimes people were punished for doing so," giving responses to ''Reunion Day'' and ''

The Multi-Coloured Umbrella ''The Multi-Coloured Umbrella'' is an Australian play written by Barbara Vernon. Plot The play is set at a house in Bondi Beach belonging to the Donnellys, an upwardly mobile family who are bookmakers at Randwick Racecourse. The younger son, Jo ...

'' as examples.

References

Notes

External links

*{{imdb title, 6147370
''Reunion Day''
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AustLit AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource (also known as AustLit: Australian Literature Gateway; and AustLit: The Resource for Australian Literature), usually referred to simply as AustLit, is an internet-based, non-profit collaboration betwee ...

(subscription required) 1962 in British television 1962 television films 1962 films