Fury in Petticoats

Fury in Petticoats is a 1962 television play broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It was directed by Christopher Muir. Australian TV drama was relatively rare at the time.[2]

Fury in Petticoats
Produced byChristopher Muir
Written byElaine Morgan
Production
company
Australian Broadcasting Commission
Release date
24 October 1962 (Sydney)
13 June 1962 (Melbourne)[1]
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish

It was based on a play which had been filmed by British TV the year before.[3]

Although fictional, the plot is based on a historical incident in 1836, when naturalist Charles Darwin brought to England four natives from the island of Tierra del Fuego, near South America.

Plot

A native girl, Fuegia (played by Kay Kelton) goes to live in an English country vicarage.

Cast
  • Lola Brooks as Anne
  • Michael Duffield as Rev. William Dill
  • Norman Kaye as Charles Darwin
  • Mark Kelly as Edward
  • Fay Kelton as Fuegia Basket
  • Elizabeth Wing as Mrs. Dill

Reception

The Sydney Morning Herald wrote that:

[It] was an oddly contrived story produced in that stilted solemn atmosphere to which "period" plays often conform. The fact that Charles Darwin once brought a few sad and sorry natives from Terra del Fuego to England could possibly be the basis for a seriously realistic glimpse of early colour problems, or else, perhaps, be artificially brightened into a spirited comedy.: . English television playwright Elaine Morgan attempted to provide humour and also facile generalisations in a play which neither illuminates nor 'sparkles. The native girl, played by Fay Kelton, unconvincingly combined the antics of a savage monkey with an unlikely capacity for sophisticated, fluent reasoning, and the reactions of the prim nineteenth century vicarage were equally unconvincing and lacking in continuity. The actors did not do much to enliven their pasteboard parts, with the exception of Lola Brooks, who managed to bring a sensitive and natural manner to her part as the vicar's daughter.[4]

The Bulletin said it was "a big improvement" on Muir's earlier Boy Around the Corner.[5]

The Age called it "good television."[6]

References
  1. "Drama is "test" of Darwin Ideal". The Age. 7 June 1962. p. 13.
  2. Vagg, Stephen (18 February 2019). "60 Australian TV Plays of the 1950s & '60s". Filmink.
  3. Fury in Petticoats 1961 TV version at IMDb
  4. "Drama Reviews". Sydney Morning Herald. 25 October 1962. p. 8.
  5. The bulletin, John Haynes and J.F. Archibald, 1880, retrieved 23 March 2019
  6. "Teletopics". The Age. 21 June 1962. p. 14.


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