''Whiplash'' was a British/Australian

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

series in the Australian Western genre produced by the

Seven Network The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, and is one of ...

, ATV, and

ITC Entertainment The Incorporated Television Company (ITC), or ITC Entertainment as it was referred to in the United States, was a British company involved in production and distribution of television programmes. History Incorporated Television Programme Compan ...

, starring

Peter Graves Peter Graves (born Peter Duesler Aurness; March 18, 1926 – March 14, 2010) was an American actor. He was best known for his role as Jim Phelps in the CBS television series '' Mission: Impossible'' from 1967 to 1973 (original) and from 1988 to ...

. Filmed in 1959-60, the series was first broadcast in September 1960 in the United Kingdom and in Australia in February 1961.

Overview

Set during the

Australian gold rushes During the Australian gold rushes, starting in 1851, significant numbers of workers moved from elsewhere in Australia and overseas to where gold had been discovered. Gold had been found several times before, but the colonial government of Ne ...

of the 1850s, the series was inspired by the life of

Freeman Cobb Freeman Cobb (10 October 1830 – 24 May 1878) was an American, born in Brewster, Massachusetts, who established the Cobb & Co stagecoach company in 1853 with partners John Murray Peck, James Scanlon and John B. Lamber. The company was based in M ...

, founder of the iconic Australian stagecoach line,

Cobb and Co Cobb & Co was the name used by many successful sometimes quite independent Australian coaching businesses. The first was established in 1853 by American Freeman Cobb and his partners. The name Cobb & Co grew to great prominence in the late 19th ...

. However the characters and events in the series bore no resemblance to the real Freeman Cobb or his company. Freeman Cobb did not carry a pistol or use a

stockwhip A stockwhip is a type of whip made of a long, tapered length of flexible, plaited leather or nylon with a stiff handle and thong able to pivot along the handle easily. Stock whips are used when mustering cattle.'' Origin and uses The Austral ...

to settle disputes. The series was created by Michael Noonan and Michael Plant, and produced by Maurice Geraghty and Ben Fox at the Artransas Studios (owned by ATV),

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Australia.

Post-production Post-production is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording individual program segments. The ...

was completed in the United Kingdom.

Cast and characters

as Christopher Cobb *

Anthony Wickert Anthony or Antony is a masculine given name, derived from the ''Antonii'', a ''gens'' ( Roman family name) to which Mark Antony (''Marcus Antonius'') belonged. According to Plutarch, the Antonii gens were Heracleidae, being descendants of Anton, ...

as Dan Ledward Leading player Peter Graves was best known at the time for the TV Western Fury. Australian actors who guest starred included

Leonard Teale Leonard George Thiele AO (26 September 192214 May 1994), professionally Leonard Teale, was a well-known Australian actor of radio, television and film and radio announcer, presenter and narrator known for his resonant baritone voice. He is be ...

Terry McDermott Terence McDermott (born 8 December 1951) is an English former football midfielder who was a member of the Liverpool team of the 1970s and early 1980s, in which he won three European Cups and five First Division titles. He was capped 25 times ...

Chips Rafferty John William Pilbean Goffage MBE (26 March 190927 May 1971), known professionally as Chips Rafferty, was an Australian actor. Called "the living symbol of the typical Australian", Rafferty's career stretched from the late 1930s until his death ...

, Peter Aanesen and Indigenous actors

Robert Tudawali Robert Tudawali (1929 – 26 July 1967), also known as Bobby Wilson and Bob Wilson, was an Australian actor and Indigenous activist. He is known for his leading role in the 1955 Australian film ''Jedda'', which made him the first Indigenous Aus ...

and

Henry Murdoch Henry Murdoch (17 September 1920 - 24 April 1987), born as George Henry Murdock, was an Australian aboriginal actor and stockman who appeared in Australian films of the 1940s and 1950s. He was working as stockman in Rockhampton when discovered by ...

. Other actors with memorable appearances and not included in episode list (below) included comedian George Wallace Jnr and

Chuck Faulkner Charles Stephen Faulkner (21 October 19224 December 2000), professionally Chuck Faulkner was a Northern Irish-born Australian actor and US radio talk show host. He was best known for his role as Detective Senior Sergeant Keith Vickers in the Aust ...

. In his autobiography, Associate Producer and Director of many episodes

John Meredyth Lucas John Meredyth Lucas (May 1, 1919 – October 19, 2002) was an American Television writer, writer, Television director, director and Television producer, producer, primarily for television. Career Son of screenwriter Bess Meredyth and writer/dir ...

commented on the difficulty faced in casting the series. He wrote that actors with radio experience were generally used, because of concerns with the broad Australian accents of some performers. On his return to the US in October 1960, Graves also commented on the difficulty in finding actors. "Those we got were very good, but there just wasn't enough of them," he said.

Episode list

Airdate is for ATV London.

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

regions varied date and order. Production number here refers to the order in the Network DVD booklet.

Background and production

Development

Michael Noonan had created and written a British TV series shot in Australia called ''The Flying Doctor''. ''Whiplash'' was a similar international production. The show was mostly financed by Lew Grade's ITC productions, but was aimed at the international market, leading to many Americans being in key creative roles. Post production was done in the UK. Co-producing partners included Australia's Artransa Park Studios and Britain's ATV.

Filming

Filming started in October 1959 at Artransa Park Studios in French's Forest, Sydney, with location work at

Scone, New South Wales Scone is a town in the Upper Hunter Shire in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. At the 2006 census, Scone had a population of 5,624 people. It is on the New England Highway north of Muswellbrook about 270 kilometres north of Sydney ...

and other locations. Graves told the ''Sydney Morning Herald'' that

Nearly all the American Westerns are shot within 30 miles of Hollywood and a lot of that scenery is becoming mighty familiar to TV viewers. Now this scenery here is refreshing — something entirely new to folks overseas. We're trying to keep right away from that word 'Western' by labelling the series a romantic adventure.

In his memoirs, Lucas commented on the difficulties faced because of the sometimes inexperienced Australian crew. Production was also initially difficult because of the competing expectations of production partners from three different countries. The production team was restructured from episode six onwards, after which Ben Fox was appointed producer with Leslie Harris as executive producer. Filming recommenced on 4 March 1960. The budget of the series was a reported £650,000. In May 1960 it was reported the unit of 22 actors and crew had left Sydney for Alice Springs to film sequences over ten days including scenes at Ayers Rock, the Macdonnell Ranges and the Ormiston Gorge. By this stage ten episodes had been shot and the series sold to ATN Channel 7. Fox announced that both American and British television groups were "likely to be very interested in buying the series."

Music

Theme Music: Words and Music by Edwin Astley, Sung by

Frank Ifield Francis Edward Ifield OAM (born 30 November 1937) is a British-Australian country music singer and guitarist who often incorporated yodelling into his music. After living in Australia, Ifield returned to the United Kingdom in November 1959 wher ...

Incidental music

Edwin Astley,

Albert Elms Albert Elms (28 February 1920 – 14 October 2009) was an English composer and arranger who worked mainly for television and film. Albert Elms was born in Newington, Kent, England, and died in Southampton. His love of music drove him to ...

Release

Broadcast

In 1961, it became one of the original twelve programs aired by the new CTV network in Canada (and the only one produced in Australia).

Home media

Network released a Region 2 five-

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

set on 7 December 2009. On 18 September 2012,

Timeless Media Group Shout! Factory is an American home video and music company founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases include previously released feature films, classic and contemporary television series, animation, live music, and comedy ...

released ''Whiplash - The Complete Series'' on DVD in Region 1. The 4-disc set features all 34 episodes of the series.

References

Notes

* "''The Australian Film and Television Companion''" — compiled by Tony Harrison — Simon & Schuster Australia, 1994 * *

External links

*
''Whiplash''
at ''Classic Australian Television''
''Whiplash''
at the

National Film and Sound Archive The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting and providing access to a national co ...

''Whiplash'' reviewed on VideoVista.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Whiplash (TV Series) 1961 Australian television series debuts 1961 Australian television series endings Australian drama television series ITV television dramas Seven Network original programming Television series by ITC Entertainment Television shows set in colonial Australia Australian Western (genre) films Black-and-white Australian television shows 1960s Western (genre) television series