"Suspect" is a 1961 Australian television play. It was originally made for HSV-7 then presented as part of the ''

General Motors Hour ''The General Motors Hour'' was an Australian radio and television drama series. Radio The radio series was a regular one hour drama broadcast over the Macquarie Radio Network at 8 pm on Thursays. It is believed to have commenced in the late 1940 ...

'' It was produced by Peter Cotes, who had made '' Long Distance''. Cotes adapted the play ''Suspect'' by

Edward Percy Edward Percy Smith (5 January 1891 – 25 May 1968) was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom and a playwright under the name Edward Percy. Biography Born in Wandsworth, London, he was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for ...

and

Reginald Denham Reginald Denham (10 January 1894 – 4 February 1983) was an English writer, theatre and film director, actor and film producer. Biography Reginald H. F. Denham was born in London, England, in 1894. He spent a good part of his career dire ...

which was based on the

Sandyford murder case The Sandyford murder case (also known as the Sandyford Place Mystery) was a well-known proceeding of the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the United Kingdom. It is one of four notorious murder cases that took place in an infamous area of Gl ...

Plot

The son of Mrs Smith (née Maggie Wishart) is about to marry a doctor's daughter. A press baron, Sir Hugo, arrives who thirty years ago covered a trial where Maggie cut up her mother and father with an axe. Maggie claims she's innocent... but is she telling the truth?

Cast

*Joan Miller as Mrs Smith *Kenneth Burgess as Rev. Alfred Combermere *Moira Carleton as Goodie McIntire *

Michael Duffield Michael Duffield (1915 – June 1986) was an English-born character actor who worked in Australia for many decades. He was nominated for the 1979 AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his role in ''The Last of the Knucklemen'', a r ...

- as Dr. Rendle *

Patsy King Patsy King (born 16 September 1930) is an Australian retired actress known for work in both theatre and television. She has been a children's television presenter, theatre director, playwright and worked in commercials, and in radio and voice ...

as Janet *Clement McCallin as Sir Hugo *

Fred Parslow Frederick Henry Parslow (14 August 1932 – 26 January 2017) was an Australian actor, who appeared in film, television and theatre. Acting career Parslow was notable in several film and TV roles, with parts in internationally successful TV so ...

as Robert *

Bettina Welch Bettina Catherine Welch (1922 – 5 March 1993) was a New Zealand-born Australia-based actress, primarily in radio and theatre and of the latter in television roles. She was best known for her role in television soap opera ''Number 96'' as Maggie ...

as Lady Const

Production

The play had been adapted for US TV in 1948 and 1952 and for British TV in 1939, 1946 and 1958. The show starred Cotes' wife, Joan Miller, who had performed in the play on British TV for the BBC in 1958. It was one of four productions Cotes made in Australia, the others being ''Long Distance'', ''Candida'', and ''Shadow of the Vine''. He said he would have made more but for the credit freeze, which was blamed for a failure to find sponsors. While ''Long Distance'' was shown while Cotes was in Australia, they other three were not broadcast until months later.

Reception

The ''Bulletin'' called it "lunacy... most of the cast borrowed their dramatics from a time when over acting for the silents set the universal style... a fusty, trivial play. Condemnation must extend to those who accepted it as suitable for television, billed it as a thriller, designed a set that dominated most of the action, and made this worse by camera work that frequently gave the setting nine-tenths of the picture.". ''The Age'' said it "commanded attention."

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, episode 1960s Australian television plays 1961 television plays 1962 Australian television episodes The General Motors Hour