''True Believers'' is a 1988 Australian miniseries which looks at the history of the
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...
from the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
up to the
Australian Labor Party split of 1955
The Australian Labor Party split of 1955 was a split within the Australian Labor Party along ethnocultural lines and about the position towards communism.
Key players in the split were the federal opposition leader H. V. "Doc" Evatt and B. A. S ...
.
[Ed. Scott Murray, ''Australia on the Small Screen 1970-1995'', Oxford Uni Press, 1996 p243]
It was co-written by
Bob Ellis
Robert James Ellis (10 May 1942 – 3 April 2016) was an Australian writer, journalist, filmmaker, and political commentator. He was a student at the University of Sydney at the same time as other notable Australians including Clive James, Germa ...
who focused on three characters "Chifley, the unlettered man of great dignity; Menzies, who used to stand for something but eventually stood only for Menzies; and Evatt, the grand idealist... It's almost like Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1. It's a chunk of national history during Australia's great era of change after the war."
Cast
*
Ed Devereaux
Edward Sidney Devereaux (27 August 192517 December 2003), better known professionally as Ed Devereaux, was an Australian actor, director, and scriptwriter who lived in the United Kingdom for many years. He was best known for playing the part of ...
as
Ben Chifley
Joseph Benedict Chifley (; 22 September 1885 – 13 June 1951) was an Australian politician who served as the 16th prime minister of Australia from 1945 to 1949. He held office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1945, follow ...
*John Bonney as
Robert Menzies
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory ...
*
Simon Chilvers
Simon Chilvers is an Australian actor. He won for the 1986 AFI Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Mini Series for his role in ''The Dunera Boys''. He was nominated for the same award in 1988 for '' True Believers'' and for the ...
as
H.V. Evatt
*
Nick Tate
Nicholas John Tate (born 18 June 1942) is an Australian actor popularly known for his roles as pilot Alan Carter in the 1970s science fiction television series '' Space: 1999'', and James Hamilton in the 1980s Australian soap opera '' Sons an ...
as
Les Haylen
Leslie Clement "Les" Haylen (23 September 1898 – 12 September 1977), also known by the pen-name Sutton Woodfield, was an Australian politician, playwright, novelist and journalist.
Early life
Haylen was born on 23 September 1898 at Gundaroo, ...
*
Ray Meagher
Raymond Francis Meagher (born 4 July 1944) is an Australian actor, who has appeared in Australian film and television since the mid-1970s. He is notable as the longest continuing performer in an Australian television role, portraying Alf Stewa ...
as
Tom Burke
*
Harold Hopkins as
Edgar Ross
*Graham Rouse as
Arthur Fadden
Sir Arthur William Fadden, (13 April 189421 April 1973) was an Australian politician who served as the 13th prime minister of Australia from 29 August to 7 October 1941. He was the leader of the Country Party from 1940 to 1958 and also served ...
*
Gary Files
Gary Files is an Australians, Australian-Canadians, Canadian actor, theatre director and radio writer who has worked in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. Resident in Australia since 1976, Files is noted for the accentual versatility of ...
as
Fred Daly Fred Daly may refer to:
* Fred Daly (American football), American football player at Yale, head football coach at Williams College (1913–1914)
* Fred Daly (politician)
Frederick Michael Daly (13 June 1912 – 2 August 1995) was an Aust ...
*
John Derum
John Bernard Derum (born 9 January 1946) is an Australian stage, film and television actor. He has also directed and produced for theatre companies throughout Australia and for television.
Career
Theatre
Derum walked in on Wal Cherry's ...
as
B.A. Santamaria
Bartholomew Augustine Santamaria, usually known as B. A. Santamaria (14 August 1915 – 25 February 1998), was an Australian Roman Catholic anti-Communist political activist and journalist. He was a guiding influence in the founding of the Demo ...
*
Tracy Mann
Tracy Mann (born 1957) is an Australians, Australian actress and voice artist. After appearing in a number of television series, she won an Australian Film Institute award in 1980 for movie ''Hard Knocks (1980 film), Hard Knocks'' . She has ...
as Tess Ross
*
Ron Blanchard
Ronald Blanchard (born 1945) is an Australian stage, television and film actor. He is best known as a character actor, and for his starring roles in five popular children's television series '' Breakfast-a-Go-Go'', '' The Lost Islands'', '' Ale ...
as
Arthur Calwell
Arthur Augustus Calwell (28 August 1896 – 8 July 1973) was an Australian politician who served as the leader of the Labor Party from 1960 to 1967. He led the party to three federal elections.
Calwell grew up in Melbourne and attended St J ...
*
Bryan Marshall as
Richard Casey
*
Bob Baines
Robert Alan Baines (born 15 November 1952) is an Australian actor. He has starred in many television shows including '' Water Rats'' and ''Home and Away'' as school principal Martin Bartlett.
Filmography
* 2015 – ''The Dalfram Dispute 1938 ...
as
Stan Keon
Standish Michael Keon (2 July 1915 – 22 January 1987) was an Australian politician who represented the Australian Labor Party in the Federal Parliament from 1949 to 1955, having served previously in the State Parliament of Victoria.
Early ...
*Rob Steele as
Clyde Cameron
Clyde Robert Cameron, (11 February 191314 March 2008), was an Australian politician. He was a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and served in the House of Representatives from 1949 to 1980, representing the Division of Hindmarsh. He wa ...
*
Danny Adcock
Danny Adcock (born 29 June 1948) is an Australian actor, known for his work in television and theatre.
His television acting roles include 7 different roles in Crawford Production series ''Matlock Police'' as the killer of Michael Pate's chara ...
as Lloyd Ross
*
Diane Craig
Diane Mary Craig (born 1949), sometimes credited as Di Craig, is a Northern Irish-born Australian actress best known for her performances in film and television.
She was born in County Down, and since 1971 has been married to award-winning Aust ...
as Elsie
*Valerie Bader as Mary Alice Evatt
*Jeff Ashby as
Garfield Barwick
Sir Garfield Edward John Barwick, (22 June 190313 July 1997) was an Australian judge who was the seventh and longest serving Chief Justice of Australia, in office from 1964 to 1981. He had earlier been a Liberal Party politician, serving as a ...
*
John Ewart
Jon Ewart (06th May 1996) is a British television and film actor. Ewart attended the prestigious National Youth Theatre, Identity School of Acting and has appeared in many successful Television shows.
Biography Career
Ewart, who was born in M ...
as
Eddie Ward
Edward John Ward (7 March 189931 July 1963) was an Australian politician who represented the Australian Labor Party (ALP) in federal parliament for over 30 years. He was the member for East Sydney for all but six-and-a-half weeks from 1931 u ...
*Joan Bruce as
Pattie Menzies
Dame Pattie Maie Menzies Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire, GBE (2 March 189930 August 1995) was the wife of Australia's longest-serving Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies.
Biography
Menzies was born as Pattie Maie Leckie at ...
*Malcolm Robertson as Idris Williams
*
Max Phipps as
Sir Frank Packer
Sir Douglas Frank Hewson Packer (3 December 19061 May 1974), was an Australian media proprietor who controlled Australian Consolidated Press and the Nine Network. He was a patriarch of the Packer family.
Early life
Frank Packer was born in K ...
*
Norman Kaye
Norman James Kaye (17 January 1927 – 28 May 2007) was an Australian actor and musician. He was best known for his roles in the films of director Paul Cox.
Early life and education
Kaye was born in Melbourne and won a scholarship to study at ...
as Archbishop
Daniel Mannix
Daniel Patrick Mannix (4 March 1864 – 6 November 1963) was an Irish-born Catholic bishop. Mannix was the Archbishop of Melbourne for 46 years and one of the most influential public figures in 20th-century Australia.
Early years and Mayno ...
*Stuart McCreery as Allan Dalziel
Production
The idea for the mini series and the title came from Bob Ellis, who pitched it to Matt Carroll at Channel Ten. Carroll commissioned Ellis and Stephen Ramsey to write it, originally as a feature film. In October 1984 Ten announced they did not want to make it.
The producers of ''The Petrov Affair'' reportedly tried to buy part of the script, but were turned down. Carroll took the project to
Sandra Levy
Sandra Elizabeth Levy (born 3 December 1965 in Kingston, Jamaica) is a former field hockey player, who represented Canada at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea and the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. The Toronto, Ontario nativ ...
at the ABC and she agreed to make it provided it was done on videotape. If it was shot on film the estimated cost would be $5.6 million but on video it could be done for $3.4 million. It would be shown on the ABC for the Bicentenary.
The project needed to be rewritten and Ellis and Ramsay refused. John Lonie rewrote the scripts.
Filming took place in October 1987.
Fred Daly watched the show and said "the bloke playing Chifley hasn't got the voice right but then nobody could get Chif's voice right."
Reception
Jim McCelland said "while I am prepared to concede that I may be an atypically political animal I have to report that I experienced not a moment of boredom in watching the eight hour mini-series... It pulls off that rare double-historical accuracy and rivetting entertainment."
Fred Daly called it "an excellent production."
References
External links
*
{{Bob Ellis
Films set in the Australian Capital Territory
1980s Australian television miniseries
1988 Australian television series debuts
1988 Australian television series endings
1988 television films
1988 films
Cultural depictions of Australian men
Cultural depictions of politicians
Films directed by Peter Fisk