The Grey Nurse Said Nothing

Cast

• Paul Comi as Patrick Aherne
• Gary Crutcher as Lynch mob leader
• Patricia Cutts as Mavis Greenop
• Michael David as Herbert Wills
• Don Dubbins as Bluey
• Hugh Griffith as Rev. Light
• Tony Haig as Boy
• Angela Lansbury as Hazel Wills
• Ann Todd as Laura Mills

Cast

• Guy Doleman as murdered man
• Lyndall Barbour as the accused's sister
• Frank Waters as man on trial
• Pamela Page as the accused's wife
• John Fegan
• Reg Lye
• Nigel Lovell as narrator
• Gordon Glenwright
• Nancye Stewart

Production

In February 1960, ATN 7 announced they were making a new show, General Motors Hour, sponsored by General Motors, in conjunction with GTV 9, Melbourne, QTQ9 Brisbane, and NWS 9 Adelaide, starting in May. It was to be presented by Harry Dearth and consist of two drama specials and one documentary. Their first production was to be a production of The Grey Nurse Said Nothing.^[3] ATN purchased the rights to the play in February 1960 - they had the right to broadcast it for 60 days from the premiere.^[2]It was the first time a script from Playhouse 90 had been adapted for Australian television and involved the largest cast ever assembled for an ATN 7 teledrama, with 20 speaking parts and 40 extras.^[4]

Director David Cahill and set designer Geoff Wedlock flew to Cairns to take photographs and sketches of the courthouse where the trial took place in the story. The courthouse was reproduced at ATN 7's studios in Epping. The scenes outside the courtroom were filmed before small mobile sets such as a barroom, a bedroom, a schoolroom and a beach picnic. The lighting in the courtroom was dimmed when these scenes were reached in the play and the small sets were spotlighted. The cast had a month of rehearsals, including three weeks of "dry runs" in a city rehearsal studio, before it was finally recorded on videotape on 23 April, 1960.^[5] The dress rehearsal was played back to the cast and crew to give them a chance to correct any possible mistakes.^[4]

The cost of the play was over £4,000, £3,500 of which was provided by the advertiser. The cost of buying the rights to screen a film at this time was estimated at £500.^[2]

Legal action

Patrick Brady, who was tried and acquitted in the actual Shark Arm case, sought an injunction restraining ATC Channel 7 from televising a court scene from the play.^[6] The scene had been shown in advertisements, in which a witness being examined by a barrister was describing how a shark that had been caught and placed in an aquarium had disgorged a human arm. Mr Brady argued that the scene was not a fair and accurate and recent report of his trial. He also argued that the fact the accused in the play was found not guilty by the jury would further defame him.

ATN 7 Sydney argued that it would cost them £403 if the telecast did not take place and would lose £3,500 if the play was not telecast on any of the other stations upon which it was proposed to be telecast on 28 May 1960, including stations in Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.^[2]

Release

The show aired on ATN at 9 pm on Saturday night.

The critic for the Sydney Morning Herald thought "the conventional materials of courtroom melodrama are worked over neatly, but without special distinction in talk or characterisation" in the play which featured "a cast that was not only huge in numbers but rich in talent." He added that director Cahull's "management of these big numbers, and the inventiveness by which he managed 'flashbacks' from courtroom to various Queensland scenes within a single studio, were an exciting break through the usual space and time limitations confining any live television play. The play itself... was generally very secure, though lacking the final polish needed to minimise the superficiality of much of it."^[7]