Roundabout (1957 film)

Roundabout is a television movie, or rather a live television play, which aired on Australian television in 1957. Broadcast 4 January 1957 on ABC station ABV-2, it is notable as the first example of television drama produced in Melbourne Australia.[3][4]

Roundabout
Directed byBill Eldridge
Country of originAustralia
Original language(s)English
Production
Running time30 mins[1]
Production company(s)ABC
Release
Original networkABC
Original release4 January 1957 (Melbourne, live)[2]

It was made at a time when Australian drama production was rare.[5]

"Official" television broadcasting in the city had only begun two months earlier. There seems to have been a Melbourne production and a Sydney Production, as happened with The Twelve Pound Look.

Plot
Ad from 4 Jan 1957

The original TV listing in The Age newspaper described the plot as "a woman's reactions to her husband's suspected affair with another woman".[6]

Melbourne Cast
  • British actor Patrick Horgan
  • Mary Ward as the wife
  • Beverley Dunn as the other woman

Production

A Melbourne production was aired live on 4 January 1957 over 30 minutes. Production was by Bill Eldridge.[7] Filming took place at ABC's studios at Rippon Lea. Star Patrick Horgan was appearing on stage at the time and had to get in a taxi to the theatre after filming.[8]

It is not known if a kinescope recording was made of the broadcast. (note: kinescope recording, also known as telerecording, was an early method of recording live television, used in the days before video-tape became widespread). Some of ABV-2 other dramatic one-offs of 1957 were kinescoped so they could be shown in Sydney, but it is not known if any of these kinescopes still exist.

Sydney production
Roundabout
Directed byRaymond Menmuir
Country of originAustralia
Original language(s)English
Production
Production company(s)ABC
Release
Original networkABC
Original release19 February 1957[9]

A Sydney production was directed by Raymond Menmuir and aired February 19, 1957.[10][11]

Cast

See also

References
  1. "TV Guide". The Age. 3 January 1957. p. 20.
  2. "Advertising". The Argus (Melbourne). Victoria, Australia. 4 January 1957. p. 18. Retrieved 11 May 2020 – via Trove.
  3. "From School Plays to Success on TV". The Age. 19 September 1958. p. 20.
  4. "Gaslight on TV with Melbourne Cast". The Age. 2 January 1958. p. 8.
  5. Vagg, Stephen (18 February 2019). "60 Australian TV Plays of the 1950s & '60s". Filmink.
  6. "ABC Channel 2". The Age. 3 January 1957. p. 11.
  7. "TV Guide". The Age. 3 January 1957. p. 8.
  8. "Drama, Interviews "Live" on ABV-2". The Age. 3 January 1957. p. 15.
  9. "TV Guide". Sydey Morning Herald. 4 January 1957. p. 14.
  10. "TV—Channel 2 ABn". ABC Weekly. 19 February 1957. p. 39.
  11. "TV, Radio Programs". Sydney Morning Herald. 19 February 1957. p. 13.


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