Peter Benardos Peter Benardos i(A142655 works by)
Gender: Male
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1 1 form y separately published work icon The Restless Years Reg Watson , Ian Coughlan , Hugh Stuckey , Coral Drouyn , David Phillips , Ross Napier , Maureen Ann Moran , ( dir. Peter Benardos et. al. )agent Sydney : Reg Grundy Enterprises , 1977 Z1826811 1977 series - publisher film/TV

Another soap opera from Grundy's, The Restless Years followed a group of teenagers from the end of school to early adulthood: the 'restless years' of the title.

According to Moran, in his Guide to Australian TV Series,

On paper, The Restless Years should not have worked because the central idea of a group of teenagers and adults variously involved with a kids' refuge was not a particularly strong one. Nevertheless, the series did click with audiences and the program built up a loyal band of viewers who tuned in each evening to watch this tale of lost, confused teenagers and adults. Chief among the latter was the essentially castrating mother played by June Salter.

Mimicking the title of Lesley Stern's article (below), Moran sums up The Restless Years as 'this most Freudian of serials'.

1 11 form y separately published work icon Number 96 Lynn Foster , Robert Caswell , David Sale , Ken Shadie , Eleanor Witcombe , Johnny Whyte , ( dir. Peter Benardos et. al. )agent Sydney : Cash Harmon Television , 1972 Z1812749 1972 series - publisher film/TV

A highly successful soap opera, Number 96's permissive and adult tone emerged, in Moran's terms, from 'the atmosphere of censorship liberalisation that had occurred in Australia in the early 1970s, and the intention to screen the serial in a late evening timeslot'. As such, the programme interspersed the domestic and romantic storylines that usually drive soap operas with plots exploring rape, drug abuse, and homosexuality. For example, the long-running character Don Finlayson (played by Joe Hasham) was an openly gay character whose relationships attracted neither censure nor any unusual degree of attention from his neighbours, showing him as unusually (for the time) integrated into a mainstream community.

According to Moran, 'Number 96 moved the Australian television soap opera completely away from its radio predecessor by organising a series of simultaneous storylines with various characters moving in and out of these, the storylines lasting only two to six weeks on air.' Long-running storylines included the 'Knicker Snipper' (a msyterious figure stealing the residents' underwear) and the Pantyhose Murderer (a serial killer).

As the show's ratings began dropping in 1975, various attempts were made to revitalise interest in the series, including killing (or otherwise writing out) long-running characters, increasing the amount of location shooting, and publicising the increased amount of nudity in the show (including both female and--briefly--male full-frontal nudity). Despite this, ratings continued to drop to the point where the show was cancelled in July 1977.

1 form y separately published work icon The Private World of Miss Prim Dick Barry , Bob Huber , ( dir. Peter Benardos ) Australia : NLT Productions , 1966 Z1821484 1966 series - publisher film/TV

According to Moran, in his Guide to Australian TV Series, The Private World of Miss Prim arose from the successful NLT production Here's Dawn, which, he argues,

lay somewhere between extended sketches and a full narrative. After two seasons, NLT decided to star Dawn Lake in a fully narrativised comedy. The unfortunate vehicle concerned a kind of Walter Mitty situation revolving around a shy, mousy secretary who dreams of romance with a handsome, famous writer.

Set in a children's court, the program was low budget and designed for a daytime audience: as such, it was located inside the courts and adjoining rooms, and emphasised, as Moran notes, 'dialogue and discussion' not 'physical movement and action'.

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