The Hobby Horse (film)

The Hobby Horse is a 1962 Australian television play which aired on ABC. Broadcast live,[2] it was a drama set on a grazing property in northern New South Wales about a rodeo rider.

The Hobby Horse
Directed byWilliam Sterling
Written byRobert Wales
Based onplay by Robert Wales
Production
company
Australian Broadcasting Commission
Release date
16 May 1962[1]
Running time
60 mins
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish

Australian TV drama was relatively rare at the time.[3] It was one of a series of six Australian plays produced by the ABC in 1962.[4] The others were:

Plot

Billy Brocknell gets a job breaking horses on a large property. His former wife, Margaret, is now married to the older property owner. The two meet for the first time since their marriage was annulled by their parents.

Cast
  • Wynn Roberts - Billy
  • Lynn Flanagan - Margaret
  • Ken Goodlet
  • Douglas Kelly
  • Neil Curnow
  • Bill Bannett
  • Rose Du Clos
  • Carole Potter
  • Ron Pinnell
  • David Mitchell
  • Beris Sullivan

Production

It was written by Robert Wales, a Scotsman who had worked for a number of years in Australia.[5] Wales recently won the Coffs Harbour play competition.[6] Wales said he got the idea from two professional horsebreakers he met at a pub in Walcha.[1]

Reception

The TV critic for The Bulletin called it:

Drama with out cause. The horsebreaker came to the station and found his former wife in residence. He had the alternative of leaving immediately, like any sensible man, or grabbing her back. Instead, he was given the task of appearing to want her and yet not want her, to be going to leave and yet not leaving. An hour of soul-searching by people who did not know their own minds for more than one minute at a time. It could have been cabled, with apologies to Sidney Kingsley, "They Knew Not What They Wanted”.[7]

References
  1. ""Bush" Scots Tale". The Age. 10 May 1962. p. 13.
  2. "TV Guide". The Age. 10 May 1962.
  3. Vagg, Stephen (18 February 2019). "60 Australian TV Plays of the 1950s & '60s". Filmink.
  4. "Young Star's Work". Sydney Morning Herald. 12 March 1962. p. 13.
  5. "Robert Wales". Austlit.
  6. "Drama Go Ahead with Six Australians with Ideas". The Age. 1 March 1962. p. 12.
  7. Roberts, Frank (9 June 1962). "REVIEWS TELEVISION DRAMA WITHOUT A CAUSE". The Bulletin. p. 55.


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