A Little South of Heaven

A Little South of Heaven
Directed by Alan Burke[1]
Produced by Les Weldon
Written by George F. Kerr
Based on radio play by D'Arcy Niland
Ruth Park
Starring Owen Weingott
Production
company
ABC
Release date
 19 April 1961
Running time
 60 mins
Country Australia
Language English

A Little South of Heaven is Australian live television play which aired in 1961 on ABC. It was based on a radio play by D'Arcy Niland and Ruth Park,[2][3]

Plot

Set in Sydney. An Italian widow who has moved to Australia plans a marriage for her son Primo to an Italian, Serena, despite his affections for an Australian. However he sends Serena the photo of Primo's more handsome cousin Franki.

Cast

  • Lyndall Barbour as Mama Chiapetta
  • Owen Weingott as Primo
  • Henry Gilbert as Father Felix
  • Delore Whiteman as Ruby
  • Ben Gabriel as Eddy
  • Anthony Wickert as Franki
  • Victoria Anoux as Serena
  • Alma Butterfield as Mrs Stringer

Radio Play

It was based on a radio play that had been performed in Australia and on the BBC in 1960.[4] The BBC production starred Ina de la Haye and Robert Rietty.

Reception

The Sydney Morning Herald TV critic called it "rather stale fare" as the plot and characters were too predictable, adding that thematically the play "a warm-blooded extension of an Immigration Department pamphlet; bur its mainspring was a device as old as comedy and diplomacy... A neat, visually fluent, but also stodgily predictable, 60 minutes of viewing."[5]

Val Marshall of the same paper thought it was almost as good as The Big Day, "a play that has remained pretty much par for the course for Australian TV drama ever since". She felt "i spite of some miscasting and an occasional spot where action bogged down in words... [it] came off remarkably well."[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "LIVE DRAMA AND MUSIC ON ABC TELEVISION". The Canberra Times. 11 December 1962. p. 27. Retrieved 4 June 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ↑ "TV Guide". The Age. 7 September 1961. p. 16.
  3. ↑ Radio play details at AustLit
  4. ↑ The Age 12 Feb 1959
  5. ↑ "Sydney play on television". Sydney Morning Herald. 20 April 1961. p. 7.
  6. ↑ Marshall, Valda (23 April 1961). "TVMerry Go Round". Sydney Morning Herald. p. 84.


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