''The Right Thing'' is a 1963 comedy Australian television play, that was produced by the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

Australian TV drama was relatively rare at the time.

Plot

The adventures of a Sydney family. Clarrie and Vera Hamlin are holding an engagement party for their eldest daughter Elena when a handsome young Spanish man, J.G., comes into an encounter with them.

Cast

* Lola Brooks as Elena * Brigid Lenihan as Vera Hamlin *

Alister Smart Alister Smart (born 1934),GILES, NIGEL "Number 96: Australia's Most Notorious Address" also credited as Alastair Smart, is a retired TV television presenter, presenter, actor, television director and screenwriter from Australia. A staple of the ...

as JG *Grant Taylor as Clarrie Hamlin *David Yorston *

Noeline Brown Noeline Mabel Brown (born 3 October 1938), credited also as Noelene Brown, is an Australian actress and comedian. She has appeared in numerous films, television shows, theatrical productions and radio programs dating back to 1959. Life and c ...

as Shirley * Benita Collings as Jean

Production

The play was written by Raymond Bowers, an Australian living in London. It was mapped out at a lunch early in 1963 between Bowers and director Ray Menmuir in London and was commissioned by Associated Rediffusion. It was directed by Memnuir who had recently returned to Australia after several years in London. It was hoped the play would be the first in a number of co productions between England and Australia. Scenes were shot in a house on Sydney's North Shore, the

Cahill Expressway The Cahill Expressway is an urban freeway in Sydney and was the first freeway constructed in Australia, opening to traffic in 1958. It starts from the Eastern Distributor and Cross City Tunnel in Woolloomooloo, and runs through a series of ...

, the Sydney beach of Longreef, and the Harbour Bridge. It was telerecorded and later shown in London by

Associated-Rediffusion Associated-Rediffusion, later Rediffusion London, was the British ITV franchise holder for London and parts of the surrounding counties, on weekdays between 22 September 1955 and 29 July 1968. It was the first ITA franchisee to go on air, ...

. It was the first of a series of exchange programs between the ABC and the British television company. Alister Smart had also recently returned to England.

Reception

American producer and screenwriter Rod Serling saw the play and disliked the script but praised the acting. The TV critic from the '' Sydney Morning Herald'' said "there was polish in the filming and the script" of ''The Right Thing'' but "the fun is wearing a little thin... The insistence on heavily accented Australiana may be more acceptable to overseas audiences than home viewers but the comedy was very well handled." The Sunday edition of the ''Sydney Morning Herald'' called it "one of the biggest turkeys the ABC has given us this season... a dreary and slow moving 90 minutes... almost redeemed by the first class acting of its stars." '' The Bulletin'' wrote that in the play "Australians are pre-1939 characters who drive 1963 cars and live in contemporary homes. The males are Flintstones; publicans and beach boys in conflict with a kind of supple European valor which baffles them, though the girls understand it well enough.... All of the players acted splendidly to the script, and with an English television showing lined up, Raymond Menmuir and his crew were able to step beyond the usual confines and do a fine indoors-outdoors production."

References

External links

''The Right Thing''
at

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