A Man for All Seasons (1964 film)

A Man for All Seasons is a 1964 Australian television play. It is an adaptation of the play by Robert Bolt.[2]

A Man for All Seasons
Based onplay A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt
Written byNoel Robinson
Directed byWilliam Sterling
Music byRobert Hughes
Country of originAustralia
Original language(s)English
Production
Production company(s)ABC
DistributorABC
Release
Original networkABC
Original release16 October 1963 (Melbourne, live)[1]
15 January 1964 (Sydney, taping)

It was directed by William Sterling who thought the play was "the finest in construction and conception on the large heroic scale to come out of England since the War. Bolt has captured the seething historical background of the period as well as conceiving magnificent character studies of famous people of the time." [3]

Cast
  • Wynn Roberts as Sir Thomas More
  • John Gray as The Common Man
  • Kevin McBeath as Thomas Cromwell
  • Neil Curnow as Robert Rich
  • Hugh Stewart as the Duke of Norfolk
  • Terri Aldred as Alice More
  • Fay Kelton as Margaret More
  • Douglas Kelly as Cardinal Wolsey
  • Terry Norris as King Henry VIII
  • Bruce Morton as William Roper
  • John Morgan as Chapuys
  • Campbell Copelin as Cramner
  • Barbara Brandon as a woman
  • Laurence Beck as Chapuys' attendant

Production

The show was shot in Melbourne.[4] Sterling elected not to use "fades" in his production.[1]

Reception

The TV critic from the Sydney Morning Herald thought that "the stage devices" of the original play "were all too evident for the good of its TV adaptation", notably the reliance of one set for all the action, and the use of the device of the Common Man, adding "the black and white directness of television demands less pageant-like solemnity. But it was able to assist valuably when the dialogue came alive with character and force."[4]

The Bulletin said William Sterling is perhaps the most distinctive and stylistic producer in Australian television. In each of his shows he rarely misses an opportunity for adventurous experiment with lighting or camera-angles." He called the production of A Man for All Seasons "supbrb" adding that it "succeeded where some of his [Sterling's] previous productions have failed, because all his gimmicks worked, and worked magnificently, so that the effect was exciting where it may have been (and has been) merely tricksy and pretentious."[5]

References
  1. The Age. 10 October 1963. p. 12 https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=RepjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=EJUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5603%2C1626138. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. Vagg, Stephen (18 February 2019). "60 Australian TV Plays of the 1950s & '60s". Filmink.
  3. "Historical Drama". The Canberra Times. 38 (10, 745). Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 15 January 1964. p. 25. Retrieved 15 February 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. "Robert Bolt Play on TV". Sydney Morning Herald. 16 January 1964. p. 7.
  5. Daniels, William (25 January 1964). "TELEVISION Sterling Value". The Bulletin. p. 35.


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