''The Lancaster Miller Affair'' is a 1985 Australian mini series about the relationship between Bill Lancaster and

Jessie Miller Jessie Maude "Chubbie" Miller (1902 – 1972, London, England) was a pioneering Australian aviator. England to Australia In 1927 while visiting London from her native Australia, Miller met, helped finance, and flew with R.A.F. officer Bill Lanca ...

.Ed. Scott Murray, ''Australia on the Small Screen 1970-1995'', Oxford University Press, 1996 p208

Cast

* Kerry Mack ... Jessica 'Chubbie' Miller *

Nicholas Eadie Nicholas Eadie (born 1958) is an Australian television, film and theatre actor. Biography Born in Sydney, New South Wales to actor and Australian Broadcasting Commission radio announcer Mervyn Eadie, he attended Waverley College from 1968 to 19 ...

... Bill Lancaster * Aaron Cull ... Haden Clarke

Production

The mini series became notorious for a clash with Australia's

Actors Equity The Actors' Equity Association (AEA), commonly referred to as Actors' Equity or simply Equity, is an American trade union, labor union representing those who work in live theater, live theatrical performance. Performers appearing in live stage ...

. The lead male roles of Lancaster and his friend Hayden Clarke were offered to Sam Neill and John Hargreaves, who turned them down. The producers then tested a large number of actors but claimed none of them were suitable and cast non-Australians Peter Firth, Don Batte and

Joseph Bottoms Joseph Bottoms is an American actor who won the 1975 Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year for his role in '' The Dove''. He is also well known for his roles in the television mini-series ''Holocaust'' and Disney's '' The Black Hole''. Ca ...

. Equity objected claiming the tests of the Australian actors rejected had not been properly carried out. Shooting was put back but eventually Australians Kerry Mack, Nicholas Eadie and Wayne Cull were cast.Nick Roddick, "Writs and recriminations fly over casting dispute", ''Cinema Papers'', July 1985 p2 The shoot went for twelve weeks. $545,000 of the budget came from Film Victoria.

References

External links

''The Lancaster Miller Affair''
at IMDb 1980s Australian television miniseries 1985 Australian television series debuts Aviation television series Films directed by Henri Safran English-language television shows 1985 Australian television series endings {{Australia-tv-prog-stub