A Little South of Heaven

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,[4][5] Australian TV drama was relatively rare at the time.[6]

A Little South of Heaven
Directed byAlan Burke[1]
Produced byLes Weldon
Written byGeorge F. Kerr
Based onradio play by D'Arcy Niland
Ruth Park
StarringOwen Weingott
Production
company
ABC
Release date
19 April 1961 (Sydney)
13 September 1961 (Melbourne, taped)[2][3]
Running time
60 mins
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish

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, Ruby. However he sends Serena the photo of Primo's more handsome cousin Franki.[7]

Cast

Radio Play

It was based on a radio play that had been performed in Australia and on the BBC in 1960.[8] 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."[9]

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."[10]

See also
  • List of television plays broadcast on Australian Broadcasting Corporation (1960s)

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. "Migrant's Home is South of Heaven". The Age. 7 September 1961. p. 12.
  3. "TV Guide". The Age. 7 September 1961. p. 31.
  4. "TV Guide". The Age. 7 September 1961. p. 16.
  5. Radio play details at AustLit
  6. Vagg, Stephen (18 February 2019). "60 Australian TV Plays of the 1950s & '60s". Filmink.
  7. "Drama Set in Sydney". Sydney Morning Herald. 17 April 1961. p. 11.
  8. The Age 12 Feb 1959
  9. "Sydney play on television". Sydney Morning Herald. 20 April 1961. p. 7.
  10. Marshall, Valda (23 April 1961). "TVMerry Go Round". Sydney Morning Herald. p. 84.


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