Peter Maxwell Peter Maxwell i(A106849 works by)
Born: Established: 23 Jan 1921 Vienna,
c
Austria,
c
Western Europe, Europe,
; Died: Ceased: 2013 Queensland,
Gender: Male
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Works By

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1 y separately published work icon Another Time, Another Place Peter Maxwell , Cronulla : Peter Maxwell , 2013 7072162 2013 selected work short story
1 form y separately published work icon The Damage Done : Part Two Tony Morphett , ( dir. Peter Maxwell ) Sydney : JNP Films , 1988 6072924 1988 single work film/TV

'A boy turns to his father for help when he is tormented by a fellow student. The hospital chef decides to propose to the girl of his dreams, but wakes up the next morning to find he has popped the question to someone entirely different. A terrified boy takes desperate measures to stop a bully. There are a few surprises for Jo on her eighteenth birthday.'

Source: Australian Television Information Archive. (Sighted: 20/6/2013)

1 form y separately published work icon Licensed to Kill : Part Four Judith Colquhoun , ( dir. Peter Maxwell ) Sydney : JNP Films , 1987 6072805 1987 single work film/TV

'Wandin Valley is invaded by gun-toting hunters as the annual duck-season gets under way. Cathy is determined to find out who shot her horse. Jo refuses to talk to Michael despite his profuse apologies. Cathy decides to resign. Matron Sloan is intrigued to know why her two doctors are being so formal with each other. A shooting accident tears a family apart. Penny tries a little match-making between her two favourite doctors, although Terence and Alex don't seem to need much encouragement. Cathy tears up her resignation.'

Source: Australian Television Information Archive. (Sighted: 20/6/2013)

1 form y separately published work icon Platypus Cove Charles E. Stamp , ( dir. Peter Maxwell ) Australia : Independent Productions Seven Network , 1986 6012713 1986 single work film/TV crime thriller children's

Taken aboard as deckhand after he saves a grateful family's child from drowning, a fifteen-year-old orphan soon becomes prime suspect when the boat is sabotaged.

1 form y separately published work icon Lest We Forget : Part Two Ray Harding , ( dir. Peter Maxwell ) Sydney : JNP Films , 1985 6072710 1985 single work film/TV

'Matron Sloan takes a special interest in a stranger who applies for a job at the hospital. Fatso is missing and Simon and Vicky are terrified when they hear that a wombat has been shot. Simon gets some unexpected training for the sleepless nights he can expect with the baby. Matron Sloan tries to help a Vietnam veteran who is suffering a breakdown.'

Source: Australian Television Information Archive. (Sighted: 20/6/2013)

1 form y separately published work icon Mystery at Castle House Michael Hohensee , Stuart Glover , Geoff Beak , ( dir. Peter Maxwell ) Australia : Independent Productions , 1984 Z1874710 1984 single work film/TV fantasy mystery

When Spider takes his friends Kate and Ben across the harbour to visit the spooky Castle House, abandoned for many years, their adventure turns into a mystery when two boys disappear right in front of their eyes.

1 form y separately published work icon Fluteman Charles E. Stamp , ( dir. Peter Maxwell ) Australia : Independent Productions , 1982 Z1867389 1982 single work film/TV fantasy children's

A modernised version of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, set in an Australian country town.

According to Screen Australia, 'The greedy councillors of a small country town have reneged on a deal they made with the Fluteman. They are dismayed when all the children vanish overnight, except one ... a young deaf boy'. (Sighted: 15/6/2012)

2 6 form y separately published work icon A Country Practice Graeme Ellis , Anne Brooksbank , Hugh Stuckey , David William Boutland , Moya Wood , Leon Saunders , Luis Bayonas , James Davern , Roger Dunn , David Sale , Peter A. Kinloch , Keith Thompson , Chris Thomson , Tony Morphett , Denise Morgan , Christine McCourt , Gwenda Marsh , David Allen , Christine Schofield , Ro Hume , Galia Hardy , Marcus Cooney , Beverley Phillips , Don J. Townshend , Margaret Mitchell , Michael Aitkens , Patricia Johnson , Sheila Sibley , Margaret Kelly , Judith Colquhoun , Agi Schreck , Mary Wright , John Graham , Ted Roberts , Michael Brindley , Forrest Redlich , Anthony Wheeler , Michael Freundt , Russell E. Webb , Bill Searle , Cliff Green , Foveaux Kirby , Helen Steel , Howard Griffiths , Suzanne Hawley , Terry Larsen , Serge Lazareff , Helen Boyd , Carol Williams , David Worthington , Ray Harding , Bevan Lee , Stephen Measday , Patrea Smallacombe , Shane Brennan , Betty Quin , Graeme Koetsveld , Tim Pye , Jenny Sharp , Bob Herbert , Tom Galbraith , Alister Webb , David Phillips , Andrew Kennedy , Craig Wilkins , Grant Fraser , Sally Webb , Caroline Stanton , Chris Roache , Geoff Newton , David Marsh , Colin Free , Thomas Mitchell , Brett Mitchell , Steve J. Spears , Louise Crane , Ian David , Robyn Sinclair , Micky Bennett , Linden Wilkinson , Terry Fogarty , Michael Cove , Patrick Flanagan , Peter Neale , Peter Lavelle , Julieanne Stewart , Sally Irwin , John Hanlon , David Henry , Jenni Kubler , Jo Barcelon , John Misto , Katherine Thomson , Neville Brown , Margaret Morgan , Susan Bower , Sean Nash , John Lonie , Paul Spinks , Christifor McTrustry , Andrew Kelly , Charlie Strachan , Susan Bower , James Balian , Peter Dann , Michael Harvey , Jerome Ehlers , Jo Horsburgh , Jeff Truman , Rod Rees , Peter Gawler , Linda Aronson , Catherine Millar , Lynn Bayonas , James Davern , ( dir. Igor Auzins et. al. )agent Sydney Australia : JNP Films Seven Network , 1981-1993 Z1699739 1981-1994 series - publisher film/TV

Set in a small, fictional, New South Wales country town called Wandin Valley, A Country Practice focused on the staffs of the town's medical practice and local hospital and on the families of the doctors, nurses, and patients. Many of the episodes also featured guest characters (frequently patients served by the practice) through whom various social and medical problems were explored. Although often considered a soap opera, the series was not built around an open-ended narrative; instead, the two one-hour episodes screened per week formed a self-contained narrative block, though many of the storylines were developed as sub-plots for several episodes before becoming the focus of a particular week's storyline. While the focus was on topical issues such as youth unemployment, suicide, drug addiction, HIV/AIDS, and terminal illness, the program did sometimes explore culturally sensitive issues, including, for example, the Aboriginal community and their place in modern Australian society.

Among the show's principal characters were Dr Terence Elliott, local policeman Sergeant Frank Gilroy, Esme Watson, Shirley Dean Gilroy, Bob Hatfield, Vernon 'Cookie' Locke, and Matron Margaret 'Maggie' Sloan. In addition to its regularly rotating cast of characters, A Country Practice also had a cast of semi-regulars who would make appearances as the storylines permitted. Interestingly, while the series initially targeted the adult and older youth demographic, it became increasingly popular with children over the years.

1 1 form y separately published work icon Bellamy Michael Brindley , Ron McLean , Luis Bayonas , Rick Maier , Ted Roberts , ( dir. Colin Eggleston et. al. )agent Sydney : Reg Grundy Enterprises Network Ten , 1981 Z1827232 1981 series - publisher film/TV detective crime

A crime drama devised for Grundy's by Ron McLean (Don Storey suggests, on Classic Australian Television, that it evolved from an earlier concept called The Killer Stalks), Bellamy was not successful when it aired on Australian television.

According to Albert Moran in his Guide to Australian TV Series, the problem was that Bellamy was, by the time it aired, an archaic concept:

Police series production had effectively come to an end in 1975 and women had become a more important part of Australian television, both on screen and in the audience. Yet the Network went against the tide by commissioning this police series starring ex-Homicide star John Stanton in the title role. As conceived and executed by Grundy's, Bellamy and underling Mitch had little or nothing in the way of a personal life and were pitted against monstrous villains, almost invariably murderers who lacked social backgrounds and psychological complexity. As a result many of the episodes had strong similarities, with a two-dimensional Batman and Robin duo pursuing such villains in the threadbare chase narratives.

The program was cancelled even before the first set of episodes had been completed.

1 form y separately published work icon Falcon Island Joan Ambrose , Greg Shultz , ( dir. Peter Maxwell et. al. )agent Perth : Excalibur Nominees , 1981 Z1670521 1981 series - publisher film/TV children's adventure

Falcon Island follows the adventures of three children: Paul, Jocko, and Kathy. Their activities bring them up against smugglers and sandminers as they attempt to preserve the wreck of a Dutch galleon, the Golden Falcon. Their escapades also invariably involve their family and friends on the small island community. The episodes were continuous and frequently ended with the children being caught up in some dangerous or suspenseful situation.

1 form y separately published work icon Run, Rebecca, Run! Charles E. Stamp , ( dir. Peter Maxwell ) Australia : Independent Productions , 1981 6015787 1981 single work film/TV crime children's

A young girl, marooned on a seemingly deserted island, comes face to face with a South American refugee, who is desperate to remain hidden.

1 form y separately published work icon The Coast Town Kids Peter Maxwell (director), ( dir. Peter Maxwell ) Melbourne : Andromeda Productions , 1980 Z1831293 1980 series - publisher film/TV children's adventure

This children's adventure series follows, as the title indicates, the activities of a group of children living in a coastal town. The program is obscure enough at this date that Moran does not mention it in his Guide to Australian TV Series.

Source: Memorable TV (http://www.memorabletv.com/australia/tvac2.htm). Sighted: 9/12/2011

1 form y separately published work icon Bailey's Bird John McCallum , Ross Napier , Ted Roberts , ( dir. Peter Maxwell et. al. )agent Australia : Woomera Productions Seven Network , 1979 Z1820867 1979 series - publisher film/TV adventure

Bailey's Bird followed the adventures of a pilot and his teenage son, running a one-plane airline in Southeast Asia. According to Moran, in his Guide to Australian TV Series, the series partook of some of the elements of John McCallum's earlier productions for Fauna Productions, 'except that the locale was the waterways, jungles and villages of South-East Asia rather than an Australian national park complete with kangaroos and other native fauna. Nevertheless the series again had a young boy, father and others much in the "kidult" formula of Skippy, with a series of familiar narrative situations.'

An international co-production, the program didn't match the success of Skippy: according to Moran, 'By the late 1970s, adventure narratives even of the kidult variety were no longer being made in 30-minute units, so that Bailey's Bird could only be screened in children's viewing time.'

1 form y separately published work icon Touch and Go Peter Yeldham , ( dir. Peter Maxwell ) Australia : David Hannay Productions , 1979 6012403 1979 single work film/TV crime humour

'A group of attractive young women take to crime to financially support a school for underprivileged children. A series of mix-ups causes the women to lose the loot, their dignity, but not their freedom.'

Source: Screen Australia. (Sighted: 3/5/2013)

1 form y separately published work icon Mama's Gone A-hunting Bruce Wishart , Robert Bruning , ( dir. Peter Maxwell ) Australia : Gemini Productions , 1977 6015945 1977 single work film/TV crime thriller

A pair of prison escapees plan to abduct a rich couple's baby and hold it for ransom, but have not calculated on the presence of an obsessive babysitter.

John Pinkney's review of the film, published in the Age in 1977, was dismissive. He wrote:

'This handsome telefilm had almost everything on its side – from Russell Boyd's poetic photography and Peter Maxwell's direction to the assured acting of such principals as Gerard Kennedy and Carmen Duncan.

'Even the unhappy writer, Bruce Wishart, achieved verisimilitude most of the time. But the story, written in an off moment by Bruning himself, got Wishart in the end'.

Source: John Pinkney, 'Mr Bruning's Films Need Pruning'. Age 27 May 1977, p.3.

1 form y separately published work icon Plunge into Darkness Bruce Wishart , ( dir. Peter Maxwell ) Australia : Gemini Productions , 1977 6012834 1977 single work film/TV thriller crime

When husband and wife Gary and Pat Keating stumble across a murdered couple and a traumatised adolescent in a remote farmhouse, Pat remains behind with the boy while Gary, a former long-distance runner, sets out to the nearest town to find help–but on the way there, he crosses the path of two violent escaped prisoners.

1 form y separately published work icon The Lost Islands Michael Laurence , Ian Coughlan , ( dir. Bill Hughes et. al. )agent Sydney Los Angeles : Pacific Film Productions Paramount Pictures Network Ten , 1976 Z1844157 1976 series - publisher film/TV fantasy

When the sailing ship United World is almost sunk by a hurricane, the forty teenagers who are sailing in her scramble for the lifeboats, but five are overlooked in the general panic. Along with the ship, they are driven into the lagoon of a mysterious island, Tambu. Here, they find a lost civilisation: the descendants of settlers originally headed for New Holland, who still live an eighteenth-century lifestyle. But they are under the domination of the mysterious Q, a seemingly immortal being who allegedly prolongs his life with the aid of a blue weed obtained from a nearby island, Malo. The five children, with the assistance of the Quinns, a local family, seek to avoid the malevolence of Q, who fears they are a threat to his domination of the island.

The Lost Islands was another production from New Zealand-born Roger Mirams, who was also responsible for such Australian television programs as The Terrific Adventures of the Terrible Ten, The Magic Boomerang, The Adventures of the Seaspray, and Spyforce.

1 form y separately published work icon King's Men Robert Caswell , Ron McLean , ( dir. Paul Eddey et. al. )agent Sydney : Reg Grundy Enterprises , 1976 Z1826690 1976 series - publisher film/TV

King's Men was originally conceived as a fairly straight television police drama centred on a crusty, middle-aged, old-school police officer based in Sydney's Kings Cross area (and modelled in part on actual Kings Cross policeman 'Bumper' Farrell). But the studio, inspired by the success of American television program The Mod Squad, modified the concept, instead basing the program around a group of young police officers working undercover (albeit under the guidance of a crusty, middle-aged, old-school police officer), where each episode contained a standalone scenario involving the adoption of different undercover identities.

According to Don Storey, in his Classic Australian Television,

King's Men was not as good as Homicide or Bluey or any of the other police series from the Crawfords stable, but it wasn't bad either. The late change of direction to incorporate the undercover squad was a significant factor in the show's demise. If more time had been allowed for development, King's Men could have been a successful, polished product.

Instead, the program was pulled from the air in both Sydney and Melbourne after only a handful of episodes had been shown, and plans for a second series were cancelled.

Albert Moran, in his Guide to Australian TV Series, is less optimistic about the program, describing it as 'a very routine police series despite a veneer of dash and style.'

1 form y separately published work icon The Outsiders Peter Yeldham , Ted Roberts , Ian Stuart Black , Eric Paice , Colin Free , John Power , ( dir. James Gatward et. al. )agent Australia Germany : Portman Productions Australian Broadcasting Commission Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen , 1976 Z1825224 1976 series - publisher film/TV

Much like its predecessors The Rovers and Barrier Reef, The Outsiders was predicated on the conceit that the central characters (Pete Jarrett and his grandfather Charlie Cole) were nomadic protagonists: travelling across Australia, they spent each episode in a new location with a new guest cast.

Moran, in his Guide to Australian TV Series, says of the concept that 'They are in effect fictional tourists, a perfect foil for a series that starred a German and a British actor in the lead roles, carried overseas as well as local crew, and British and German investment.'

A co-production with a German production company, The Outsiders had two non-Australian actors in the lead roles: German actor Sascha Hehn as Pete and Scottish actor Andrew Keir as Charlie. Don Storey, in his Classic Australian Television, notes that Hehn's dialogue was over-dubbed by Andrew Harwood, because Hehn's English was deemed to be too heavily accented. Storey concludes that

In most episodes, The Outsiders has a storyline that is effective in its simplicity. There is plenty of action and stunt work, but it's the interplay between the characters and the understated atmosphere of the series which gives it depth. Technically, the series is excellent, with superb camera work, skilful writing, good direction and competent acting. The only minor criticism is the dubbed voices of the German actors.

1 form y separately published work icon The Unisexers Robert Caswell , David Sale , Johnny Whyte , Anne Hall , Derek Strahan , ( dir. Peter Maxwell ) Sydney : Cash Harmon Television , 1975 Z1812878 1975 series - publisher film/TV

Devised by American screewriter Anne Hall, The Unisexers was a short-lived series that followed the travails of a group of young people collectively running a jeans-making business in a large inner-city house, from the same production company that produced Number 96.

Unlike Number 96, however, The Unisexers ran for only three weeks, five nights a week. According to Moran, in his Guide to Australian TV Series,

'Ironically, given that the timeslot had been such an important factor in the success of Number 96, The Unisexers timeslot [prior to the main evening news] in Sydney and Melbourne proved to be a major part of its downfall. Producers and writers felt particularly circumscribed in terms of what they could show and talk about at that time because of the large number of children viewing then'.

The first episode of The Unisexers is available to watch on YouTube (in black and white).

  • Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3SYqFbfO4c
  • Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fI6_tNGKa_A&feature=related
  • Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AGsCMlyb-c&feature=related
  • Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmIpzjK9504&feature=related

(Sighted: 7/10/2011)

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